Water change and salinity question!

I did my first water change this past weekend. I noticed some hair algae growing and after 2 1/2 months figured it was time to clean out the equipment. Anyway my concern here is regarding my salt level it has gone down dramatically it was reading 1023 now its on 1020. What is the best way to bring this back up to normal without hurting any coral or fish?

 

Do water changes with a little higher salinity to SLOWLY bring it back up. If you do it too fast it could possibly hurt your coral/fish.

 

Take out some water and add some with a higher salinity? Sometimes when I add water due to evaporation ill add a little salt or none at all depending on if I want the salinity to drop. Im just suggesting this. I know there are more knowledgable people on here who can answer your question.

 

If none of the corals are showing any stress by sliming or remaining closed I would just let the water evaporate a couple days. The fish will be fine. Fish and corals tolerate a lowering of SG much better than raising the salinity.
It corals are stress, then just make some sw at a SG of 1.025 and add slowly over a couple of hours, very slowly.

 

I was told i should keep it at a minimum of 1024 and its down to barley 1020. I think this drop is what has caused some of the coral to not come out fully.

 

ok sounds good...my LFS has saltwater for a buck a gallone 1026. So i'll pick up about 10 gallons and star to add it little by little every other day to top it off until the level stabalizes again. thanks again

 

yeah, just top off with some of that salwater until you reach your normal level. be careful though, you dont want to do it too quickly and shock your corals/fish/inverts.

 

Curious what type of corals do you have? Any stony corals?

 

fox coral, sun polyp (the one that is not coming out much only late at night), short tentacle plate, two ricordea, candy cane, star polyp, lobo, and some zoos. most are small frags except for the plate, fox, sun,