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how salty should my water be? I have 2 tomatoe clowns, 1 fairy basselet, 1 chromis (gonna get more others died from an arrow crab which i returned to the store), 2 cleaner shrimp, alot of hermit crabs, a starfish, 1 maroon anemone, 1 sebae anemone, some green star polyp, 1 xeyna coral, some green button polyp and one sponge which came with a coral.

My current salinity is 1.14 ppm

Is this good or bad?

thanx

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pnh

I think the safe range is 1.023ish.

Personally, I keep mine high. 1.027. But I keep SPS.

IMO stability is more important than anything.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

1.023 is the minimum it should be since you are keeping inverts

ok thanx how exactly can i raise the salinity in my tank?


Just to note: I feel that my hydrometer is off. I just have that feeling.

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pnh

If you think your hydrometer is off you should have it double checked with someone else's hydrometer. Take a large enough sample to the lfs andd they will usually check it for you.

To raise your salinity, you should go slowly. Your fish and inverts are now used to the lower salinity, even though a higher one is better for them, a quick change isn't the best. Usually by replacing evaporation with saltwater you can bring up the salinity slowly, or with water changes using water with a little higher salinity.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

ok thanx all !

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pnh

WOW. All three of you seemed to ignore something VERY BIG. Salinity and Specific Gravity are two different things.

Specific gravity is the density of your water compared to the density of distilled water (which has a specific gravity of 1). You want about 1.023 for saltwater.

Salinity is how much salt is in an amount of water (parts per thousand, distilled water has 0 ppt). You want about 32 to 33 ppt.

Hydrometers generally measure specific gravity. Swing arm hydrometers are good at getting you a general idea, but aren't 100% accurate. Generally, they will read proportionally correct (in that they will read the same in the same S.G. water, however it may not be the true S.G.) Like Ferret said, it is more important to have STABLE water rather than PERFECT water (even though perfect and stable water is best )

Hydrometers generally measure specific gravity

Every hydrometer I have seen has measured BOTH

Like Ferret said, it is more important to have STABLE water rather than PERFECT water (even though perfect and stable water is best )

Depending on what you are keeping....try keeping stable water with inverts at say 1.016..I can guarantee that the inverts will not fair well at all.

You want about 1.023 for saltwater.

Once again...It depends on what you are keeping. 1.020 - 1.023 is perfectly fine for a fish only tank.....1.023 - 1.025 is ideal for a reef tank. Then of course like Liana stated, there are the hardcore reefers that are into SPS that keep their tanks at 1.027.

come on DRO, you know me more than that.

Yes, hydrometers have both, but the salinty is based off of the S.G. at a certain temperature. If your temp is higher or lower than what the hydrometer was calabrated at, the salinity will be off.

Yes, BOTH stability and accuracy are important, but your inverts will do better with the S.G. staying just at 1.021 than it jumping from 1.023 to 1.028 rapidly.

Yes, you do want lower for fish only and higher for inverts, but like I said

about 1.023

the point of my post was to point out the differences of those two measurements, and being suprised that DRO, Ferret, AND Matty all missed it. Generally I would expect you three to point things out as you are all very respectable reefers

[/thread hijack]

opppsss.... my bad i ment specific gravity. I thought that salinity and specific gravity were the same

thanks for pointing that out Rasco!

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pnh

That's why we have you around Jorge.

And I'm going to remove myself from the list of respectable reefers. While it's a great compliment(thank you), I haven't had my first salt tank up even a year yet.





Oh well if you insist, I'll be respectable.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

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pnh