Buying online? Check parameters!

[wantsummora acropora]

I just received a fish order from LiveAquaria. The bag felt pretty warm so I busted out the HANNA checker. The temp was 83 degrees and the salinity was 1.027! This is my 2nd order of fish from them. Both shipments were aqua-cultured Bengai Cardinals. Two from the first lot died within 2 days. The temp came down almost immediately once they wre put in acclimation. It needed to, but I didn't know what to do about that anyway. The salinity I am bringing down slowly over 4 hours in acclimation. I won't be using them anymore. So far out of 3 online stores I've bought from, Blue Zoo has the best packing. The heat pack is between the cardboard box and styrofoam not in the styrofoam box. They include a drip line with suction cup and a small pack of food (fish & coral).

 

[Adam]

Generally speaking salinity can go down pretty quickly without issues. It's going up quickly that causes problems.

 

[jcook54]

If it's 1.027 at 83° it's different at 78°. I'm working from memory here but when I use my Hanna checker, the 'salinity' will slowly go down as the temp probe warms up. I could have that reversed but I do know Hanna Meters are temp calibrated and different temperatures of water will give different reading. I'd check it again and 78° and see what it says.

 

[Steve Burton]

As temp goes up so does salinity

 

[scuba steve]

Salinity and temperature are independent of each other.

What you are reading is density, which is impacted by temperature. Warmer water is less dense than colder water and your reading would be affected accordingly.

 

[scuba steve]

This article has some good tables for reference on both density and salinity.

Salinity & specific gravity - saltwater, reef aquarium

Saltwater aquarium & reef salinity and specific gravity review and charts.

www.algone.com

 

[Steve Burton]

As temp goes up so does salinity

Ok, so technically the salinity doesn't change, but the reading on a refractometer or hydrometer does change due to the difference in density.

 

[timeconsumer]

Also temperature and density variations aside, I really wouldn't worry all that much about acclimation for small variances. A four hour drip for 1.027 is kind of crazy in my opinion, I don't really do any salinity matching with fish unless they came to me in water like 1.019 (I run 1.027 in my tanks) in which case I might do one 50% water scoop then let it sit in that for 30 minutes and then drop it in the tank. Otherwise if the bag water is within around .004 of my tank I just temp match and drop them in.

Also if the fish was shipped you could absolutely be doing more harm than good with a drip acclimation as you are running into the ammonium/ammonia issue when the pH of the bag water starts to rise.