Fish LTA not happy sick help
 

Hello all. I’m having my first real “serious issue” with my reef. I started noticing my fish (coral beauty, yellow tang,6-line wrasse) spending most of their time in the reef where they usually swim all over. I also noticed my tang’s right eye cloudy. That was on Friday. Today Sunday, both my coral beauty eyes were swollen. I tested my water and everything was very good zero ammonia, zero nitrates, ph at 8.3, phosphate was a little high at.25. But the main issue was was my salinity was low at 1.020. I just upsized to a 75 gallon from a 45 3 weeks ago. I haven’t done a water change since. I’m guessing that adding all the fresh water without a water change could have done that. I’m wondering if low salinity could be the cause of the sickness of the fish. Also my LTA will not attach his foot anywhere. Again is that the low salinity causing the unhappiness. I’m hoping someone can advise. I did a 15 gallon change but the salinity only went to 1.021.

Doubtful, hypo brings the salinity down to 1.009 and can be done in one shot.
Raising salinity however has to be done slowly.

How would you raise yours if you had it?

I do have to slightly.
It can be done in top off water or by taking out a gallon or so & adding salt, mixing & returning. I added about 2.5 gallons worth into the 1st section of the sump slowly.

In the short term, fish would not mined a bit, lower salinity is easier for fish to process respiration however inverts and corals might not be as happy.

Bring up salinity .002 per day (allows time for fish to adjust) and maintain stable at 1.025-1.026.

A small cup of super salty RODI water added to the DT is fine, but do not exceed .002 in a day.

Keep in mind that STABILITY is the most important aspect, and when parameters fluctuate, inhabitants are stressed and stress bring problems.

I agree that the fish would be okay with the lower SG, but the anemone might be more unhappy. I would target 0.001 units per day or so. Topping off with saltwater at 1.0264 for a while probably would be good enough.

I think I figured it out. I went to LFS and they tested my water and everything was perfect. So it wasn't the salinity at all. Then it came to me. I had a 45 gallon tall tank with the 165w lights about 12 inched off the water and running them about 90%. I then moved the reef to a 75 gallon standard tank with a shallow canopy. Lights 4 inches above the water. and didn't think to turn the lights down. Also the 75 gallon tank is much shallower than the 45 tall. I think I did damage with the lights. I have turned them down to like 60% and am running them for 8 hours instead of 12. Do you think the lights caused the fish to stress out so much. And burn up my hammer and damage my wonderful Toadstool leather?

I would have expected most fish to be okay with brighter lights, but it does depend on the species. The corals should recover if they're not overstressed. They can be damaged by excess light. That's fairly common, actually.