Did a PWC, and now my corals are mad...

[rsigler]

Hey Gang,

I have a 28g reef tank with a frogspawn, hammer coral, sun coral, and a xenia frag.

Last night I made a bucked of salt walter, and let it sit overnight with a powerhead and heater.

This morning I did my weekly partial water change, and now my frogspawn and xenia are closed up (during the day).

Are they mad? Is something wrong?

I tested the water several hours after the change, and everything was normal.

SG 1.023
PH 8.2
Nitrates, Nitrates, Ammonia were 0
The dKH was 12

Any ideas? I'm nervous....

Rob

 

[redneckgearhead]

Yea sometimes it can upset them, but usually they pull through it just fine. How much did you change? Did you check the salinity of your new water, compared to your tank?

 

[soco]

Well I don't know how you are doing your water changes but if u disturbed the corals with too much turbulence or something they might just be upset like u are saying. Keep an eye on them if they are closed for more than a couple of hours something might be wrong.
But it is my experience that Coral can and will get upset for lots of little reasons

 

[tommyboynj]

It happens. I do my water changers every other weeks and make sure my new water is inline with the tank. My cabbage leather normally shrinks down for a day after and then comes back looking even better.

 

[steved13]

+1 I alway get a blast of bubbles when the pumps turn on again, and many corals pout for a little while.

 

[dmatt88]

They do get irritated. However why do u keep ur salinity so low.

.......thanks for listening.

 

[soco]

True what matt is saying. Most of us keep our tanks around .025. .023 is a little low

 

[rsigler]

Ok, so how do I raise my sg without doing another water change?

Thanks for helping!

Rob

 

[steved13]

The best way is slowly. Use salt water for evaporation instead of fresh until you where you want it.

 

[rsigler]

Thanks. What should the sg of the top off water be?

Thanks again for the help!

Rob

 

[steved13]

You can use any SG you'd like, the higher the SG the faster it will move the tank, I would mix it at about the target.

 

[tommyboynj]

+1 once you have had to do this once or twice you will know much top off water at what sg will get you there. I know that if I replace my 1.5g ato container with 1.025 saltwater my sg will have moved .001 in 24 hrs. This will be different for every system but it's handy to know things like that specific to your tank.