Simple Salinity Question

[cybercron]

I just did a water change and my salinity went from 1.023 1.0235. At what point does salinity become toxic to fish and corals?

Van

 

[ReefRaff]

Depends on what your keeping, but for most, 1.026 would be tops. I currantly run mine a 1.025. 1.024-1.026 is recomended.

 

[cybercron]

Everything I have read says 1.023 is the ceiling for the salinity level. My rate of evaporation is pretty high and in a few days the salinity will rise a bit. I was afraid anything over 1.023 could be toxic.

Thanks for your reply. If you are running your tanks well over 1.023, then I have nothing to worry about.

Van

 

[d9hp]

Mine is at 1.025, and sometimes gets to 1.026. I have heard of people using swim-arm hydrometers, then geting a refractometer and the reftracto reads 1.033. YIKES

 

[ReefLady]

For a FO tank, I would keep it at ~ 1.023. For a reef tank, it should be 1.025 - 1.026. Most invertebrates require higher salinites to thrive long-term.


A couple good articles:

Salinity and Temperature ~ Craig Bingman and Rob Toonen

And this one: What are Natural Reef Salinities and Temperatures…Really…and Does It Matter? RONALD SHIMEK Ph.D.

HTH,

 

[cybercron]

Thank you for all your help and advice!

Van

 

[two11devan]

I heard that salinity towards the lower end...even 1.021 is good for the fish because they can tollerate the lower end of the scale and not the higher end. I was also told that having the salinity at the lower end would help keep some bacteria or disease at bay because they cannont survive at the lower end of the salinity scale. Any one heard of this???? Is this true????

 

[cybercron]

My LFS keeps their salinity at around 1.018 for their fish only tanks. They say that parasites cannot survive in water with salinity levels that low. The fish however are unaffected by the low salinity.

Van

 

[reefrunner69]

Keeping your salinity at less than natural levels for any prolonged period of time will be very stressful on your fishes kidneys and shorten it's life span. IMO, any hyposalinity treatment should be administered in a quarantine tank and for only the amount of time necessary to erradicate the parasite, to my knowledge, hyposalinity has no effect on bacterial or viral infections.