New to Aquarium Advice...Help......Please!!

[toddnlinds]

I have a 55 gallon salt water aquarium. My salinity has always been high - 1.028 - .029
- How detrimental is this to my fish and coral?
- Is it dangerous to do a massive water change using bottled water to correct this?

This is my first message using 'Aquarium Advice' - thank you very much!

[Hara]

I would change out the water slowly, I would recommend taking out 1 gallon of salt water and replace it with one gallon of fresh water daily until it is where you want it to be. It would be best if you added the fresh water in a slow manner as well, such as a litre at a time with a couple hours between each litre.

It would be quite dangerous to correct this all at one time.

[afilter]

Welcome!!

Hara is right on. With corals you probablu want to get it down to 1.024-25. How did it get out of balance.

I assume you have been doing this awhile, but one common error people new to sw make is to replace evaporated water with more sw. The salt never leaves the system and you should top off regularly with fw. I probaly top off 1-2 gallons daily.

Good luck,

[MT79]

[acronym:3c2e1fb40d="Specific gravity"]SG[/acronym:3c2e1fb40d] swings should be limited to 0.001 per day, .002 at the very most depending on what animals you keep. Be careful not to bring the [acronym:3c2e1fb40d="Specific gravity"]SG[/acronym:3c2e1fb40d] down too fast. 1.028-1.029 is definitely on the high side. As said the [acronym:3c2e1fb40d="Natural sea water"]NSW[/acronym:3c2e1fb40d] found around reefs ranges from approx. 1.024-1.026. Running higher than normal salinity/[acronym:3c2e1fb40d="Specific gravity"]SG[/acronym:3c2e1fb40d] levels will have negative effects on your animals. Good luck!

[flamingonhot]

My salinity gets that high only when I have major evaporation. It goes up to about 1.027 or higher and my fish aren't affected. But in my case they're usually only in that high of [acronym:c3124b9f84="Specific gravity"]sg[/acronym:c3124b9f84] for no more than 3 days if im gone or something. I check my salinity about twice a week. But if it's like that constantly than like they said they're will be some negative effects.

[lando]

Welcome to AquariumAdvice.com!!!
Follow the advice given to lower your [acronym:4c7d2d360b="Specific gravity"]SG[/acronym:4c7d2d360b]. Do you kow how it got so high? As mentioned, make sure you do your top-offs with [acronym:4c7d2d360b="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:4c7d2d360b], not [acronym:4c7d2d360b="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:4c7d2d360b]. When you do waer changes use [acronym:4c7d2d360b="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:4c7d2d360b] to replace the water you took out of the tank.