Helen was an idiot... Salinity crisis

Discussion in 'General Reef Topics' started by Pdxile, Apr 10, 2015.

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  1. Pdxile

    Pdxile Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Oregon Coast
    I had a major catastrophe at 3am. I forgot to switch the top off containers and I could hear the pump running dry. So I fixed it and went back to bed. Next I wake up to the sound of the overflow dry. I went into the garage to find that the skimmer went nuts and was pumping water onto the floor. It spilled 10 gallons of salt onto the floor and sucked up 10 of fresh. I went to make 15 gallons of emergency salt. The bucket was stuck and the RODI pump just banged the unit onto the wall. Salinity in the tank is 1.022. Panic. Called fix-it guy. Able to open bucket with hammer and chisel. RODI not working even when I bypassed the pump. Cried a little. After troubleshooting every connection and bypassing each one I discovered that in a panic I had shut off the main supply to the hot water heater. Right now I have enough water to make a strong salt mix for top off and I'll be able to make a change tomorrow, start bringing salinity up. Everything looks ok cept for GSP all closed. Never seen it closed before. I am an idiot with no idea how to do this even after 5 years.

    How slowly should I raise my salinity.
     
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  3. rogerstammy

    rogerstammy Peppermint Shrimp

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  4. Pdxile

    Pdxile Coral Banded Shrimp

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  5. RavenSF

    RavenSF Astrea Snail

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    San Francisco, CA
    It happens to the best of us. No matter how much you plan, equipment can fail. Read up on Sanjay Joshi's tank crash; it can be a chance to make things more reliable.
     
  6. mdbostwick

    mdbostwick Vlamingii Tang

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    Just use regular salt water as your top off until it is at the level you want it to be at. It will more than a week more than likely which is good. Salinity is more tolerated when it goes down quickly and is pretty stressful if increases quickly. This shouldn't be to much stress on your inhabitants just make sure your other parameters are in check and don't fluctuate too much. Good luck!
     
    chris adams, Mr. Bill and Pdxile like this.
  7. Pdxile

    Pdxile Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Awesome advice. Did not know that salinity drop was more tolerable than rise. Perfect timing.
     
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  9. mdbostwick

    mdbostwick Vlamingii Tang

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    Did i catch you before you added salt? I have done very similar to your situation more times than i will say. Don't beat yourself up over it.
     
  10. chris adams

    chris adams Purple Tang

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    +++++1.
     
  11. Reefbuilder

    Reefbuilder Scooter Blennie

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    Do you have an apex? if so get a breakout box. Use an overflow drain from your skimmer into a brute container with a float switch. This way if your skimmer runs real wet all of a sudden only so much water will spill out before the float switch trips the apex into shutting the skimmer off. I learned that the hard way.