I would add him in when adding all the other fish back in. That way the aggressiveness is spread out
Hyposalinity
- Thread starter spuri87
- Start date
all the fish are already in!
only this guy is in the sumpI am trying hypo in my DT, did I miss that important detail in the journal haha
Coral reefer
Past President
I would use an acclimation box to get it back in rather than leave in the sump
Hypo (Day 10):
All fish look a happy bunch after I moved the convict to the sump, will probably get in line for BAR's acclimation box soon as suggested above when I try to add this guy back to the tank in some time from now.. Cardinal still has a cloudy eye and a big spot (like a missing scale?) under its fin.. this is a different cardinal than the one I posted pictures of before.
I had more water in the sump than needed, hence skimmer wasnt correctly working. now I see its working hard to skim more as water evaporated in last few days.. Retrospectively speaking, maybe that contributed to the increase in Ammonia too.. No fish looks stressed thus far, but will keep looking for any symptoms.
Pics of the affected cardnial from today:
All fish look a happy bunch after I moved the convict to the sump, will probably get in line for BAR's acclimation box soon as suggested above when I try to add this guy back to the tank in some time from now.. Cardinal still has a cloudy eye and a big spot (like a missing scale?) under its fin.. this is a different cardinal than the one I posted pictures of before.
I had more water in the sump than needed, hence skimmer wasnt correctly working. now I see its working hard to skim more as water evaporated in last few days.. Retrospectively speaking, maybe that contributed to the increase in Ammonia too.. No fish looks stressed thus far, but will keep looking for any symptoms.
Pics of the affected cardnial from today:
Attachments
Coral reefer
Past President
Are you not using an auto top off?
Yes, the system does have ATO.. but when I was replacing salt water with RODI water, I added about 5-10 extra gallons of water in the sump, just to bring the salinity to where I wanted it to be - 1.009.. didnt realize that skimmer functioning is dependent on the water level in the sump which I read about later
You can also use skimmer raiders to raise them higher to get the desired skimmer height.
You really need to keep a close eye on skimmer or consider removing skimmer cup. It it causes ur salinity to rise above .09 even to .10 it will restart the clock hypo salinity method your trying to run. Biggest concern is if you go over the .09 even once and not realizing you did, this approach could fail all together. When you begin to raise salinity the parasites could return even worse than before.
This is what I read about it online not first hand experience here just to be clear.
If nothing else make sure skimmer is properly adjusted and tuned in so it's not altering your salinity levels.
Can skimmer cause the salinity to rise?
Yes I am aware that it has to be consistently at 1.009, though different forums say 1.008-1.010 is OK for ich and flukes (some actually claim 1.013 maybe ok too), but not taking the risk and checking it daily ensuring its at 1.009.. But can you please enlighten me how skimmer can potentially cause salinity change so that I keep that in mind
If it's over skiming meaning filling cup faster it's taking water out the tank it can cause minor fluctuations in salinity. Ato's do work but in larger systems it may not kick on right away or equally replace what skimmer pulls.Can skimmer cause the salinity to rise?
Yes I am aware that it has to be consistently at 1.009, though different forums say 1.008-1.010 is OK for ich and flukes (some actually claim 1.013 maybe ok too), but not taking the risk and checking it daily ensuring its at 1.009.. But can you please enlighten me how skimmer can potentially cause salinity change so that I keep that in mind
Just hinting at a find tune skimmer ur not dumping cup multiple times, on my 210 maybe every other week. Before I got it adjusted properly I was dumping it every single day. It may not have not been that drastic in your case I don't know. Only pointing it out keep a eye on skimmer if it's not adjusted properly, as it can cause salinity to shift about.
Understanding that with hyposaliinty keeping number steady is pretty important. Glad to hear your checking it daily in any case.
Coral reefer
Past President
I’m confused. Were you planning on leaving the level in your sump high indefinitely?
No, I just added some more water to reach the desired salinity but never took out the excess water later once the salinity was reached, until yesterday.. I didn’t see an increase in salinity due to evaporation of excess water in a week’s time, though theoretically it should have had some effect (maybe volume of water that evaporated wasnt much?).. anyways, the water level was restored yesterday, and from now on ATO should kick in as usual
PjFish
Supporting Member
So you basically added rodi water way up high over the baffles so water level raised up in the refugium / skimmer area plus the return chamber level raised as well ?
Water level was then well above the ato sensor making it obsolete not adding any rodi water causing the salinity to raise as water evaporated.. Unless you physically raised the ato sensor?
You can read/research to the max but with so many scenarios that domino in this hobby this is the best way we learn lol when **** happens!
Luckily didn’t lose power otherwise may have overflowed the sump from back syphon!
Fyi I just use egg crate and zip ties to raise the skimmer to dial in the height if needed..
How did you plumb the new UV?
Thanks for the update!
Water level was then well above the ato sensor making it obsolete not adding any rodi water causing the salinity to raise as water evaporated.. Unless you physically raised the ato sensor?
You can read/research to the max but with so many scenarios that domino in this hobby this is the best way we learn lol when **** happens!
Luckily didn’t lose power otherwise may have overflowed the sump from back syphon!
Fyi I just use egg crate and zip ties to raise the skimmer to dial in the height if needed..
How did you plumb the new UV?
Thanks for the update!
PjFish
Supporting Member
Very Odd!!
In a week of evaporation with no ato you should have seen an increase in salinity? What are you using to test salinity? Refractometer? Hydrometer? Probes?
Maybe recalibrate you should have seen a swing since you’re probably evaporating around a gallonish a day unless you got lids..
I added vertical salinity measurements in my sumps return section with blue tape strip so with a quick glance I can see what the salinity is based on water level since not using an ato atm..
Yep, that was a stupid move on my part, with just target salinity in my head.. didnt think through what all could go wrong, and didnt think about a power failure at all until now when you mentioned that.. OMG! I use Reef Octopus 200 skimmer and was plumbed at 8 inch water depth initially during the setup by the LFS and I confirmed that's the suggested water depth for this particular skimmer.. I hvnt touched it at all since then..
Here is how my sump looks like right now:
Socks Chamber --> UV pump (input) Chamber --> Skimmer Chamber --> Uv Output + Return Pump Chamber
I am using Refractometer (I calibrate it every time before use) and Hanna Checker.. You are right, I lost about 5-8 gallons during that time, but thats about 3-4% of the total volume.. I just did the math with chatgpt and it said the salinity would have raised from 1.009 to 1.00975, which Hanna showed as 1.009 maybe? ATO has kicked in a few days back and I just checked Salinity still shows as 1.009.. I will keep checking everyday to nsure its at the desired level.. I did borrow Tropic Marine Hydrometer from Michael, but apparently its not designed to work with lower salnity levels as what it is my use-case.
Hypo (Day 19):
Things look good, nothing major to report except the cyano problem appears to be resolved now.. I tried a few things - Rowaphos, increased and redirected flow in the tank and of course added UV.. maybe everything working together helped fix the cyano problem for me.. my phosphates are still high though
Since catching fish in the tank is so painful, I dont want to risk re-adding my convict back to the DT endangering my yellows.. Convict, who is currently in my sump, will be re-homed soon.. One eye on the cardinal is still cloudy, everybody else looks ok
Things look good, nothing major to report except the cyano problem appears to be resolved now.. I tried a few things - Rowaphos, increased and redirected flow in the tank and of course added UV.. maybe everything working together helped fix the cyano problem for me.. my phosphates are still high though
Since catching fish in the tank is so painful, I dont want to risk re-adding my convict back to the DT endangering my yellows.. Convict, who is currently in my sump, will be re-homed soon.. One eye on the cardinal is still cloudy, everybody else looks ok
Glad things are going well. You’re not out of the woods yet. Stay the course. You won’t truly know until a few months after your aquarium has found its feet again. Don’t slack. This is where people make mistakes. Don’t add anything for months. Let it settle in. Every time you add something. It changes the bio.
Thanks for the video. For me it was like watching an alternate reality. In my tank the Yellow Tang is the boss and sliced the Convict a few times early on. Thankfully the Convict healed just fine and the Yellow Tang hasn’t sliced the Convict for a while now . . .
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