[reefnoob1991]

Hey guys, checked my salinity and it was around 1.022...is that too low for adding any corals anemones etc.?

[glampka]

You want it to be around 1.025 for corals.

[reefnoob1991]

What would you recommend doing?

[Taras1]

When's your next water change? What's in your tank? Some species do not tolerate rapid changes in salinity. I've done it two ways.

1) Make a saturated solution of salt water ~1050 - 1060. SLOWLY, DRIP this solution near your return. Adding just enought to raise the SG by 0.001 per day.

2) If you do weekly water changes, mix your solution to about 0.002 stronger than your tank (for a 10 - 15% change). Then slowly add this to change your water. Do this weekly until you get it up to 1025. (PREFERRED METHOD!!!!)

[reefnoob1991]

I've only had the tank 11 days...and everything that's in my tank is in my signature on the bottom + 6 blue leg hermit crabs and 3 red leg

[Taras1]

Snails can be persnickity. I'd use method 2 w/weekly water changes and limit it to 2 gals. I take it you're still cycling.?.?

[reefnoob1991]

Dunno, I mean I have plenty of Live Stock in there...what should I do to empty out the water from the tank?

[Taras1]

Are you testing your water -- Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, pH, etc.? If the tank's only 11D old, you should be getting an ammonia spike, possibly the nitrite spike.

All you need is two five gal. buckets and some clear hose. Mix up about 1/2 bucket of salt water at SG 1025, siphon off 1/2 bucket of your tank and replace the water with the fresh saltwater. Let things equilibrate for about 8 hours. Test your salinity. You can repeat the procedure every 5-7 days until your salinity is 1025.

[reefnoob1991]

Well I used BioSpira so my cycle was within the first few days. Everything is fine in there right now expect a little bit of nitrates.

[Taras1]

Sounds great -- I'd still do the water change and bring up the salinity.

[reefnoob1991]

I went and added about 16 ounces of water...mixed in salt and added prime and slowly added it into the chamber with the pump so it was slowly being mixed with the tank

[Taras1]

pogodzib posted this reply in order to figure out how to adjust salinity.

1.027SG * 96% + 1.000SG * 4% = 1.026 SG


Making up a weak batch of saltwater and doing a water change is a better way of doing it since you should be doing a minimum 10% water change every 2-4 weeks anyway. A SG of 1.017 for a 10% water change will lower your SG by .001

1.027SG * 90% + 1.017SG * 10% = 1.026 SG

Then doing another 10% water change a few days later will lower the SG down to 1.025

[Taras1]

Are you using tap water or RO/DI as a source. I learned the hard way about using RO water. Tap water contains all sorts of stuff like phosphates, which leads to algae problems.

[reefnoob1991]

Which is why I have plenty of crabs/ snails