The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by fissure

IMO, yes. Let it fully cycle and you'll have less issues in the long run. Ammonia and nitrites should be 0. Also, if you are going to be keeping corals move the salinity to 1.025 I tried corals with the salinity in the low 20's and in the mid 20's. They seem much happier (growth and color) with the higher salinity. Also use a refractometer, or if you are using a swing arm or floating hydrometer get it calibrated from someone that has a refractometer.

I agree the corals will do much better with the higher salinity.

Flipside on high salinity is the impact to the fish.
Not many know that fish, although they live in salt water, have their system designed to filter out the salt water via their organs and their slime coat, in essence processing final water as non salt water or very limited salt water.
The higher the salinity, the tougher it is for them to combat parasites and diseases.
Also, parasites thrive on higher salinity so pests lik ick, flukes and other nasty ones will be tough to combat (folks - always use a hospital tank and quarantine and you minimize concerns).

I actually experimented on low salinity and while the corals didn't do well, the fish only system that was maintained at 1.12 for 12 months did quite well. In fact, they lived quite care free as they seemed less "stressed" for a better word. I now keep my fish only system pictured in this thread at 1.016-1.019 on average (when I remember to take a reading). Wouldn't do that for a reef system though.