LFS Recommend Low Salinity?

Stopped at the LFS today - they tested my water and said my nitrites were high (when i came home and tested... sure enough!! - water change time)

They also said that my salinity (at 1.023) was a little high, and I should keep it more like 1.020???

I thought I was shooting for 1.025. First off, where should it be? Second, is .05 really going to make a big difference?

 

1.020 is fine for fish only, 1.023-1.025 for corals.

 

Yeah you want to keep a lower salinity with a FOWLR. It keeps parasites at bay. With corals you want to aim for 1.024-1.026. Good luck !

 

Well, it has been FOWLR, but I'd like to add a few soft corals. Maybe some xenias and a torch coral.

 

Lfs tend to run there salinity lower than 1.020 as well . Hypo salinity to keep ich and other parasites away. I have tested my lfs water on occasion to see what I was acclimating my animals to , from. And it has been all over the charts on different occasions. The lowest I had one time was 1.016. So if you are going to add corals raise up your salinity . Slow though. Good luck !

 

Ok cool. As always, thanks for everyone's help.

I'm in the middle of a 10 gallon water change now (about 25%) and will do another in about a week. LFS said nitrites were high, I just tested again and my little paper chart looks like .25 mg/L

+1 Smitty! Thanks bro - rock on in Cali!

 

if you have fish in that tank and it is cycled you should have 0 nitrites. Having nitrites in the system is a sure sure sign of incomplete cycle or theres some serious problems such as underskimming, overload or both. You may want to look into this. I would be more worried about these numbers right now than at salinity. BTW My salinity in my 2 reef tanks is at 1.026 and my stock seems to be pretty happy.

 

Ok cool. I appreciate it. The one thing that could be affecting this is my filter. About 5 weeks ago I switched to a canister filter from an old emperor (hang on). I left the emperor running for the first two weeks that the canister was in so that there would be some time for the canister to build up the biology it needs. Maybe that wasn't long enough?

Just thinking that if the bio-"stuff" in the canister isn't established enough - maybe that could be causing the nitrite spike?

 

how much LR do you have in the tank, how about flow?? I took my filter off completely (the only mechanical I use is skimmer) and saw no ill effects at all. I"m not saying this is the problem because it probably is. I'm just saying it's something to look at. The amount of rock you have, flow, etc. Do you have a skimmer??????? IMO if I had to choose between a canister filter and a quality skimmer (as I have) the skimmer wins in my book hands down.

 

30 ish lbs LR, 30 ish lbs LS.

the return from the canister is in one corner, pointed at a 45 degree angle at the front glass, in the other corner are two small powerheads, both pointed almost straight at the front glass.

I dont have a skimmer yet. Im going to put in a sump first, but with just a 40 gallon bow there isnt much room for a normal sized tank. I'm actually just starting on a DIY sump and overflow.