Salinity of 1.015! Oh my!

[scolley]

Yup. The title says it all, except for the stupid way I made it happen...


THE MISTAKE
I ordered some cool tubing holder from Avast Marine (RC sponsor), and set about using it to better secure all the tubes hanging into my sump; pH probe, temp probe, calcium line, alkalinity line, ATO line, and AWC saltwater line. I did it one evening, and went to bed. Not worried. It was an easy change, everything VERY secure now.


THE DISCOVERY
The next night, shortly before bed, I heard my RO/DI rattle. That's normal in January, it does that when the water coming in is very cold. But in a few minutes, I heard it rattle again. Huh?

And in a few minutes, again. Huh? I'm not mixing salt. And the only other place that could be taking on RO/DI is my top off reservoir. But there's no way I could be topping off that often.

I look at the tank. Nope no leaks. Sump's fine. So if my ATO IS topping off too frequently, where's the water going. No way it's evaporating that fast.

And that's when I saw it... my Auto Water Change saltwater reservoir! It was overflowing!

When I put the saltwater line in my sump the night before, I made the mistake of submerging the opening of the tube. So where it used to be over my sump, not it was IN it. And siphoning water out! OMG!

That meant that as it slowly siphoned water out for 24 hours, the ATO was faithfully topping off with fresh!


THE CORRECTIVE ACTION
I knew there was nothing I could to at bed time. It's not like it was a quick fix. And my extra saltwater was ruined! For the last 24 hours it was getting ever increasingly low salinity tank water siphoned into it.

So I started making a new batch of RO/DI, went to bed, and mentally braced myself for the worst.

Next morning - no surprise... 1.015 salinity. Actually it appeared to be a bit less, but I was not wasting time on a 2nd test to be certain. Dangerously low required immediate action - and I had a fresh batch of RO/DI waiting.

But going from 1.015 to 1.025 is a BIG shift, and I was afraid to do it quickly. So I mixed up a batch of extra saline saltmix, and rigged a mechanism that slowly drained tank water (real slow) and dripped extra saline into the sump. I've got a total system volume of 36-40g, and I did this with approximately 30g of hypersaline saltmix for 36 hours.

Now the tank is 1.0235. I'll slowly raise it to 1.025 by topping off with salt water (normal mix) over the next couple of days.


THE DAMAGE
Amazingly the concentrated salt mix not only corrected my salinity (almost) but also brought my other critical levels in line too. pH, Ca, Alk are all fine. Mg is a bit low (1260), but that's easily fixed.

And the tank inhabitants seems to be MOSTLY doing well. Even my rock flower anenome - who was initially looking BAD - is looking close to normal now. Fish, shrimp, crabs... everyone seems fine. Amazingly. The one set of inhabitants are not faring as well. Can you guess? Zoas.

I'm sure there was a big, big swing in Alk, and they don't like that. So we'll see.


LESSONS LEARNED?
I'd love to toss this up to a newbie reefing mistake. That would be a nice excuse. But those of you that know me know that I am aquarium plumbing animal. This error was not reef specific. Bad things happening because of a siphon created by a tube that should never be submerged can happen in any complex aquarium plumbing situation.

Nope. I've got no excuse. This was just stupid. And careless.

And while I hate to say it... it is also a consequence of using complex systems. Goodness knows I love them. No KISS for me. They are fun to build, and can take a LOT of the drudgery out of owning aquariums. But every once in a while it backfires. Like now.

I'll let you know how the inhabitants fare over time. Sorry about the long post.

[RTMA]

Wow, glad to hear that the corals made it. Sometimes it pays to double check everything. I get paranoid when I do things, which is pretty frequently. On more then one occasion I have forgotten to plug in my ATO pump and found out the next day, never to the point where the return pump was sucking air, but pretty close. Made my new sump with that in mind, as it can hold about 2-3 days without topoff before it gets to the pump (especially with the LEDs now) Good luck!

Did you ever get that calcium layer out of the sump? I was thinking if it is isolated section, you could move your return to another section (use a filter sock in the drain / skimmer section) and drain the return section and put 2 gallons of Vinegar in that section. Then siphon it out and repeat until its gone, then rinse and towel dry. Just a thought.

[srusso]

That sucks Steve! I hope everything stays happy and your zoas come back. I used a simple float valve for my ATO and thank god it's never been problem for me. I always have the worst night sleeps every time I make a change in my tank... Even something as simple as slightly bumping/moving a powerhead can make major problems you don't see at first.

[srusso]

How are things today? Hope everything is doing well! If at sine point you feel the rock anemone is just not doing well, you can bring it with you to the club meeting this Sunday. I purchased the same kind from Bob a couple weeks ago and mine is doing very well. I am looking to get another b/c these anemones need a male and female in the tank to reproduce, I figure I would take a gamble with another and see if I can get some breeding happening in my tank. It's huge almost three inches!

[scolley]

My ATO worked perfectly. The problem was my automatic water change. In fact, that works fine too, I just screwed up in my placement if the water fill tube. Operator error, not equipment failure.

And my corals are fine. Ive got a few zoas that could look happier, but they're not melting or anything. I'm sure they'll be fine in a few weeks.

Normally my water is massively stable. And I'm really diligent about making sure my levels are the appropriate levels. So I think my corals, fish, and other inverts are generally very healthy. Which is - I suspect - why they weathered the abuse so well. It just underscores something I've noticed over the years of keeping aquaria... Healthy animals do amazingly well if an occasional stress is introduced rarely. It's the animals that live in less than ideal conditions that croak under stress.

You nem looks great! Good purchase!