EMERGENCY!! Please HELP

[doobiej]

RO top off ran all night last night, luckily my skimmer overflow goes to drain and was draining as fast as r/o coming in...... so no flood but.....

it has diluted my 220 Gallon tank down 1.015 !!!

I have no salt and nothing is open today.

if anyone lives in Airdrie and has a pail of salt I can buy please speak up.

[ALang]

Hope everything's well with your livestock!
Hopefully the fill was done slowly, your tank is big enough that a VERY slow drop of salinity isn't going to mess things up too badly.
I wished that I was closer, as I have 3 pails of salt that you could have.
Good Luck!

[doobiej]

the top off started at 10:00pm last night and I noticed at 6:00am when my daughter woke me up for xmas.

my corals look bad, my hippo tang is not looking great either.

the r/o top off is also cold water so my temp dropped to 73.

i had one 50 gallon tub of mixed water made up so I already swapped that in but it only raised my salinity a little bit.

not a good present to wake up to.

my tank is 220 and my sump is another 75 gallons or so, im not sure how much salt it will take to get it back but any amount will help

[xtreme]

I'm not in Airdrie but if you can't find any salt closer to you I have a bucket of IO. I am in the SE not far from Golds.

[michika]

I can also put out a bucket for you to come grab if you can't find anything else.

When you find salt make sure you're raising the SG back up gradually.

[fishytime]

I work for Red Coral in the north and only live 10 minutes from the shop.......I could go and open the shop if you wanna buy a couple buckets.....PM me your phone # if you wanna go that route.....

[Myka]

When you find salt make sure you're raising the SG back up gradually.

Very important! You can lower salinity quickly and not cause the critters too much discomfort, but raising the salinity is tough on them, and you can easily kill them all. I would plan to raise salinity over the course of at least a week, making pauses in the raising if the critters are looking stressed. While the salinity is still low keep a particularly close eye on inverts (anemones, crustaceans, etc). Corals may not be too impressed either, but the fish won't care. When raising the salinity the inverts and the fish will be the ones most prone to damage due to the increase, and the corals should improve as salinity goes up. It will be a balancing game.

[ALang]

So that'll give you some breathing room, at least. I'd not panicked too much, now, unless you can get to a pail of salt. Do the raising a bit at a time. Why do we always run out in the middle of night or on Christmas DAY, when everything's closed??
Good on Fishytime to offer to open the store for you, though.

[Binare]

You guys are awesome, my buckets up for offer as well, but its only half or so of seachem. Im in tuxedo

[doobiej]

thanks everyone for your offers, PM sent to fishytime.

how slowly should I be raising the salinty?

what is the best way?

can I do several small changes with high salinity like 1.03?

[Myka]

Like I said, I would aim for about a week in your case or 0.001 per day if you find that easier to figure out. If salinity was low for longer you would have to take more time to raise it. Since the salinity hasn't been low for very long, you can raise it a bit faster.

Do you have an ATO? Personally, I would make the top up water super salty instead of fresh water. That would probably be the ideal way. Otherwise, I would just add 2 cups of salt to the sump at a time several times a day. That shouldn't change it very quickly on a tank your size. If all else fails you could remove 5 gallons of tank water, add about 10 cups of salt and pour it back into the sump, but that will make the salinity increase in jumps. Whichever way you choose to raise salinity, figure out how much that changes it on each "dose" (or each hour with the ATO) to make sure it isn't going up too fast, recheck at the end of the day. If you're using a hydrometer, make sure it is calibrated with a refractometer. If you don't have a refractometer maybe Doug (fishytime) can calibrate the hydrometer for you while you're picking up salt at the store.

Doing changes with high salinity water like SG 1.030 would waste a lot of water and a lot of salt (throwing out the water you remove), not to mention take you about 5 years to get the salinity up.

My guess is your Hippo Tang will have an Ich outbreak after this. Dang Hippos...

[doobiej]

a big thanks to fishytime, I am heading in to meet him at his store.

temperature is getting back to normal. at 75.5 now.

my corals are really looking bad though. man I hope they pull through.

my daughter ( 3 years old ) just told me I needed medicine for the corals cause they werent feeling so well.....

[Edmonton newbie]

wow doug thats a great offer there kinda warms a guy to know there are still people that care that much

[Ross]

Sorry I didnt read this earlier, I have a bunch you could use...
pm me if you need a hand

[Coleus]

a big thanks to fishytime, I am heading in to meet him at his store.

temperature is getting back to normal. at 75.5 now.

my corals are really looking bad though. man I hope they pull through.

my daughter ( 3 years old ) just told me I needed medicine for the corals cause they werent feeling so well.....

Hope everything pull through

[Myka]

Do you have a spare tank? You could move corals to that tank? Raise the salinity real fast. Corals would prob prefer that, but you would kill the fish and inverts raising salinity fast. Also keep an eye on ammonia as you will probably get some die-off from this. Those SeaChem Ammonia Alerts are great, they actually work quite well.

[doobiej]

i dont know if my corals will last a week if I raise it through ATO ( i do have a dosing pump for this).

thanks to fishytime, I have 2 pails of salt to work with.

i have 60 gallons of 1.04 mixed up, aerated, and heated now.

I just changed out 5 gallons and will see how much it raises.

my hippo was looking really bad, but seems to have recoverd a little now that the temp is back up and i have fed them.

corals look bad :-(

im gonna let the water circulate for half hour ( running about 2000gph through my sump) and then do another change and keep an eye on my livestock.

is targetting .005 per day too much? im scared that if I leave it to long im gonna lose all my corals

[DiverDude]

<raises a glass> Here's to Doug and Red Coral. For service above and beyond the call. Cheers !

And Merry Christmas to you.

[doobiej]

thanks for the advice myka,

I dont have another tank unfortunately. I did notice a gazillion tiny baby snail shells in my sump :-( i do have a refractometer thats brand new and calibrated like 2 weeks ago.

ok, so I decided to swap out 30 gallons of mixed up 1.04 and I move to 1.017 from 1.015. im gonna leave it for today

i realize it will take more water and salt to do it this way but my thinking is that water changes will help keep my levels in check during this process?

you think I would be safe doing a 30 gallon change each day until I get back to normal? figure it will take 4 more changes. or will a 30 gallon change at 1.04 not raise it .002 as the salinity increases?

i dont mind doing the changes, I have 2 r/0 machines running that can give me 30 gallons of R/0 in an hour.

[doobiej]

and yes a big toast to doug at Red Coral for helping me out. i was panicked this morning when I realized what happend and that I had no salt and dont know anyone else in airdrie that does this kinda stuff.

[Myka]

i realize it will take more water and salt to do it this way but my thinking is that water changes will help keep my levels in check during this process?

you think I would be safe doing a 30 gallon change each day until I get back to normal? figure it will take 4 more changes. or will a 30 gallon change at 1.04 not raise it .002 as the salinity increases?

is targetting .005 per day too much? im scared that if I leave it to long im gonna lose all my corals

There is no need to do the changes. Which parameters are you concerned about? Adding more salt will keep "the big three" in check. Ammonia should be your biggest concern, and doing 5 gallon water changes on a 220 gallon tank will do nothing to fix that problem should it arise.

I don't think you will get as much of an increase as you're expecting doing it the way you are.

You might have to decide which is more important...fish and inverts or corals? Raising the salinity as fast as you plan will probably lead to the demise of most if not all of your fish and inverts. Any friends that could babysit your fish and inverts?

[Bloodasp]

Agred with myka. just dissolve a half a cup or or a cup in a bit of water in your sump a day and measure how much that changes your salinity. And do the same thing adding more or less salt than what you added the day before depending on how much it increased.
What I did in mine when that happened when I forgot to put the switch of my ato back into my sump dumping about 3 gals into my tank was leave it and let evaporation take care or removing excess water.

[daniella3d]

+1 on that. dropping it to 1.015 won't affect the fish (not the same for corals) but raising it must be done very very slowy, no more than 0.003 per day as it could kill the fish.

I went from 1.09 to 1.024 in 5 days and all my fish were fine. 0.003 per day.

For the corals though, I would try to get things back to normal faster than a week.

[Myka]

Fyi, once you get to 1.020 the corals should be ok. Not to say they won't have been damaged/stressed by the lower salinity. What I mean is once you get to 1.020 there is no need to rush to get that last bit in. What was your specific gravity originally at? How are things looking today? Any ammonia?

[doobiej]

thanks for all the advice,

i have been raising .002 per day and am now at 1.023.

my fish/inverts are all fine and look great and are eating like nothing ever happened

my corals on the other hand have not faired so well. I have lost 5 so far.
(I apologize I dont know the proper names) my rather large open brain, my pulsing(clapping?) xenia, my kenya, and my pink cauliflower corals (2) had to be removed.

my candy cane colonies seeem to hanging on, my huge cup coral looks like he is starting to come out again, but my GSP and branching hammer coral havent come out and dont look good either but I am holding out to see if they recover.

I have checked all my other parameters, and everything is normal.

ugh.

[doobiej]

i have noticed my ph has been dropping though.

I normally sit around 8.15/8.2 during the day and it can dip to 8.05/8.1 at night.

I noticed this morning it was down to 8.02, I added a bit of buffer to bring it up a little bit.

could the PH swings be causing troubles for my corals?

[ALang]

I'd take it slow with all your additions/subtractions of your overall parameters.
8.0 is not bad at all for pH. Let things settle a bit before you start all the adjustments.
Your corals had a huge shock, they are going to go through the next little while at a slow limp. So keep your other parameters steady, keep an eye on the pH, but don't panic over it, either. Keep quality of water up, and wait.

[Myka]

i have noticed my ph has been dropping though.

I normally sit around 8.15/8.2 during the day and it can dip to 8.05/8.1 at night.

I noticed this morning it was down to 8.02, I added a bit of buffer to bring it up a little bit.

could the PH swings be causing troubles for my corals?

Don't adjust pH, especially not for that minute difference. Messing with pH will cause more stress than anything. The drop in pH could be an effect of the low salinity (pH can be slow to react), or it could be an increase in organic breakdown within the tank (loss of corals, loss of microfauna, etc). I think once you get to your target salinity you're best off leaving the tank alone for awhile with no more water changes. Do keep a close eye on ammonia. Otherwise, get back into your regular dosing/testing schedule.

I'm glad to hear the fish and inverts are doing well. The corals may take some time to "come out" again, the fact that their flesh hasn't fallen off yet is a good sign. Euphyllias (frogspawn, torch, hammer) can be really fussy and not come out for many days or even a week.

[doobiej]

thanks,

Im not gonna mess with anything else for now until my salinity is back to 1.025/26.

my ammonia has been reading steady at or near 0. I havent seen a spike at all. nitrates/trites all at or near zero, and P04 is negliable/0.

I normally keep my tank at 1.025.

my livestock seems to have weathered the storm nicely. wish I could say the same for my corals :-(

I just hope I dont lose anymore.

[doobiej]

for what its worth, i've been pulling 10 gallons out adding salt to it and putting it back in as per myka recommendation and it has taken half a pail of salt so far to get it up to 1.023.

[doobiej]

ok

salinity 1.025
temp 79.5
ph 8.17
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
Po4 0
calcium 380-400
magnesium 1000
dkh 11.5

where do I go now?

livestock:
i noticed my kole tang has some white(clear?) banding on his left fin, but no signs of ich or any problems. My hippo is looking good but noticed the spotting on the nose around the eyes was a little more pronounced than usual but looks good otherwise, no signs of ich. my clowns are .... well they are bulletproof. my yellow tang looks really good. my diamon goby and dottyback are looking great. overall everyone is eating and seem happy. just noticed the white/clear banding on my kole tangs fin today.

corals:
well my green cup coral ( i call it that, its a pagoda i think) has come out and looks better. my candy cane colonies are starting to "puff" out a little more. my branching hammer coral is gone I think. my GSP hasnt come out yet. my purple mushrooms look better but I lost some. my other hammer coral doesnt look good either, I can see some skeleton. and I have one other coral Im sorry i dont know the name but he looks good. ill try and post some pics.