Help!! Made newibe mistake!!

My tank has been up and running for about a month and a half. For some dumb reason I thought when I did water changes I was to replace my water with RO and not saltwater. I got it backwards and should have did my water changes with salt waterand topped off evaporation with RO. A mistake I will never make again, my problem is my salinty is at 1.018 taken with a refractometer. My question to everyone is what is the best way to fix this what out shocking the heck out of everything by adding large amounts of salt? Thank everyone for thier input. No fish loss yet but my coraline and green stars are dying.

 

The best way to take care of this is do it slowly.I would make up new water that is slightly above the SG you are trying to achieve and then do small daily water changes till you reach the sg you want. Also you can top off with salt water untill it gets where you want it.

 

So if I have a 29gallon tank how large of a water change should I do?

 

dilute some salts in a gallon bucket and raise it back up over the course of a couple days, 1.018 is'int all that low.
Youd be supprised at how many peoples SG varies , but it's not wise to make big changes up or down.

 

I wouldn't panic I have been to more than one local fish place that keep the salinity of thier tanks that low or even lower I would do a few partial water changes and gradually bring it up where you want it.

 

I've been told to mix the salt in a bucket (correct sg), like a 5 gallon pail, and add it slowly to your tank. It will take time, but eventually, you'll get your levels back up. I don't think your level is too bad, could be worse! :-[

 

as water evaporates it will leave the salt in your tank thus raising the salintiy which is why we top off with freshwater to balance. so if you slowly add saltwater as top off water then we can raise the salinty to where you want it to be. but must be done in small amounts and tested regularly.

good luck. no worries

i made the same kind of mistake when i first started addingto the tank. While drip acclimating i also added freshwater to topoff in return for the saltwater that i used to acclimate. didnt realize that doing this was lowering my salinty.

hey bro experience is the name we give to our mistakes. cheers.

 

what kind of livestock do you have in your tank? at that age you shouldnt have much

as said before I'd just do 5g changes with water that is at 1.025 or so and raise it back up, 5g will probably get your tank fairly close to normal

 

Good luck.. Hope everything works out...

 

Iraf,
I have a CUC that consits of one turbo snail, 3 astraea snail, two shrimp, a bi-color blenny, and a six line. Plus a couple small frags. Can I over change my water? I have been doing one gallon water changes the last couple days with added levels of SG. If I do a five gallon water change now will harm anything? I.E. fish, coral, LR, LS, etc...