White sponge (1 Viewer)

[mikster]

Here’s the yellow sponge:



Here’s what might be white sponge:

The yellow one looks like a sponge. The white one looks the same as mines. Mines is smooth and hard so I really didn't think it was a sponge.

 

[Reefahholic]

Yeah the white probably is sponge, I just don’t know. Wish I could identify it and read about it.

 

[johntdaballa]

They can survive in phosphate levels of 2.0+, Nitrates 50+, and other abnormal variables, but these are not ideal. 95% of Acropora dominated systems will not run the salinity below 1.025-1.026.

Do you want your hard corals to “survive” or thrive?

Ok good you pointed that out!! I was confused why no one mentioned salinity being so low.

I keep mine 1.025 sometime peek 1.026


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[johntdaballa]

Oh wow, thanks for the info. I no one ever told me salinity was most likely the reason my hard coral never survived. I will give it another go. Thanks so much!

Where did you get that info to keep salinity so low?!


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[mikster]

Where did you get that info to keep salinity so low?!


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I'm not sure but someone told me a long time ago that fish like 1.021 and corals like 1.026 so 1.023 was a compromise for both. I guess it made sense so I never questioned it. Lol

 

[PorpoiseHork]

The salinity of seawater can vary quite a bit depending on what part of the world the sample is taken from. There are some areas where the salinity is as low as 10-15ppt (1.0075-1.0113) and others like the Red sea coming in at 40ppt (1.0302). The general average salinity of seawater is 35ppt (1.026). The thing to note here is that stability is far more important than chasing numbers. There are plenty of hobbyists out there with successful SPS dominant tanks and running salinity at 1.021-1.022. As long as the parameters in your tank are stable and do not fluctuate, the fish and corals will adapt over time eventually thrive in the environment you have created for them. If the parameters shift from hour to hour or day to day, this is where you start running into trouble. The corals can easily become stressed, especially the more sensitive acros and ultimately will likely end up with them dying. So it's better to make sure your tank is stable, has adequate flow and lighting. If the tank parameters are not right, make small changes over the course of several weeks to bring them back in line. Too large of a shift in the parameters can and will stress corals as well.

 

[Cody]

The salinity of seawater can vary quite a bit depending on what part of the world the sample is taken from. There are some areas where the salinity is as low as 10-15ppt (1.0075-1.0113) and others like the Red sea coming in at 40ppt (1.0302). The general average salinity of seawater is 35ppt (1.026). The thing to note here is that stability is far more important than chasing numbers. There are plenty of hobbyists out there with successful SPS dominant tanks and running salinity at 1.021-1.022. As long as the parameters in your tank are stable and do not fluctuate, the fish and corals will adapt over time eventually thrive in the environment you have created for them. If the parameters shift from hour to hour or day to day, this is where you start running into trouble. The corals can easily become stressed, especially the more sensitive acros and ultimately will likely end up with them dying. So it's better to make sure your tank is stable, has adequate flow and lighting. If the tank parameters are not right, make small changes over the course of several weeks to bring them back in line. Too large of a shift in the parameters can and will stress corals as well.

Who specifically is running a reef tank at 1.021 salinity? At 1.019 it's brackish.

 

[PorpoiseHork]

Who specifically is running a reef tank at 1.021 salinity? At 1.019 it's brackish.

There was an article on R2R or another board about master level SPS tanks with a bunch of them running ULN and talking about keeping them at a lower salinity at 1.021-1.022 that I came across a couple years ago or so. I'll have to see if I can hunt it down.

 

[Cody]

There was an article on R2R or another board about master level SPS tanks with a bunch of them running ULN and talking about keeping them at a lower salinity at 1.021-1.022 that I came across a couple years ago or so. I'll have to see if I can hunt it down.

Yeah I'm calling BS on that author. Drop your tank to essentially brackish and half your tank dies. That experiment has been ran a long, long time ago. There's a reason we have the suggested parameters that we do and anyone spouting the low salinity system is actively impairing and harming the community.