Salt hit my LTA

[jenpo76]

Any one please help ! I have a 50 reef tank. I was doing a water change. 25 %
And an hour later I noticed that the salinity was a little low so I went to grab some salt and I tripped some fell in tank! On my LTA! It shriveled up like an old man in the polar bear club!!! It seams to be in pain! My true percula is frantic also!!! Any suggestions !! Thanks!!

 

[KathyC]

How low was the salinity and what is it at now?

Unfortunately unmixed salt in a reef tank can be a deadly combination for the animals.

Make sure any salt is not on the LTA...think lots of water movement.
Can you possibly post a picture?

 

[KathyC]

Also - how long has the tank been running?

 

[jenpo76]

The tank has Been up for 7 months now! I've had the lta for about 3 months. Untill now it's been doing great! It even ate one of my fire fish! I do a 25% water change once a month.

 

[jenpo76]

I was afraid that u would say that salt is deadly!! Alot of the tenticles turned brown. Now it moved to a different spot and went into itself. Also it let out alot of cotton stuff! The sp was 1.017. This happend about 40 min ago. Now it's 1.029

 

[KathyC]

Salinity swings like that are not a good thing. When you need to make a salinity change you need to do it slowly - over the course of days, not hours.
I sincerely wish I could be more encouraging.

Your fish wil probably be fine as it can adjust slightly better to what has happened. Not a good thing, but better...

Please don't make any further adjustments to the water tonight..tomorrow start topping off with small amounts of unsalted water as the salinity is too high now. Maybe 1 1/2 - 2 gallons worth - NO more than that please.

Keep an eye on the LTA, if it's foot lets go entirely (of whatever it is holding onto) and doesn't grab onto something very soon, it is probably dying/dead. THAT can wipe out your entire tank. Don't leave it in there if it starts getting mushy.

Might you have an extra powerhead laying around and a small tank..in case you need to take out the LTA?

 

[jenpo76]

I wish I could get a pic but I don't have a comp. I use my iPhone for Internet. Thanks for all the help!!! I noticed that it reattached to a rock and it doubled in size! Yay ! I wish I had another tank but I only have one . I will do what u say and I promis not to mess with the salinity till tomorrow night!! Thanks for all your help!!!

 

[jenpo76]

So far so good ! My anemone and clown seems to of settled down! I tell ya though I've never seen sandsifter stars and my sm spiny sea urchin move so fast!! But thankgod all my critters have settled down.

 

[KathyC]

I wish I could get a pic but I don't have a comp. I use my iPhone for Internet. Thanks for all the help!!! I noticed that it reattached to a rock and it doubled in size! Yay ! I wish I had another tank but I only have one . I will do what u say and I promis not to mess with the salinity till tomorrow night!! Thanks for all your help!!!

Just keep using unsalted water for topping off and keep your eye on the salinity, don't do anything else to adjust it at this point, they do not need more of a roller coaster ride ! You don't want it to change quickly!

If your LTA is still hanging in there tomorrow - happliy attached to whatever - try and feed it something small and do let us know how it is doing! ok?

 

[jenpo76]

What do u recommend I should feed my LTA? I've never directy fed it !

 

[albano]

A few questions:
Are you mixing the salt, in the tank? or mixing it in a separate container?
How long are you letting it sit before adding it to the tank?
What was your 'normal' (average) salinity, before the water change?

To bring a 50g tank from 1.017 to 1.029...meant that the make up water was WAY, WAY over 1.030, are you checking the salinity of the make up water, BEFORE you add it to the tank?



.

 

[THEDLO]

remove a gallon from the tank, and replace it with RO, and let that mix, (it should take 5-10min) and then test. and repeat till desired salinity is met.

 

[aznt1217]

Salt directly on inhabitants is definitely not good. Try and see if you can "shake the salt off" by flipping the anemone upside down in front of a powerhead and gently shake it.

I did this with my frogspawn when I was rushing I just threw salt in the tank thinking my Vortech would mix it lol. I shook it and the frogspawn is recovering. I only had a handful I don't know how much you dropped in...

Don't worry about the clown he'll survive.

With regards to salinity try and take a gallon or 2 out and put straight up RO into the tank (depending on your tank size) it should equalize some things out.

 

[albano]

remove a gallon from the tank, and replace it with RO, and let that mix, (it should take 5-10min) and then test. and repeat till desired salinity is met.

This is NOT good advise!...Kathy had it correct!

Salinity swings like that are not a good thing. When you need to make a salinity change you need to do it slowly - over the course of days, not hours.
Please don't make any further adjustments to the water tonight..tomorrow start topping off with small amounts of unsalted water as the salinity is too high now. Maybe 1 1/2 - 2 gallons worth - NO more than that please.

 

[tynman]

Well if you keep topping of with fresh RODI water and not removing saltwater your salinity isnt going to change, cause salt doesnt evaporate with the water, so what I do is take a large DD ice coffee cup of saltwater out of the tank and then add the same cup of fresh RODI unsalted water back and I think 4 of those cups = 1 gal but to play it safe just do 2 a day 1 in the morning and 1 at night until you get your salt to 34 or 35 ppm. But this is just my opinian.
Good luck..

 

[seldin]

First thing I would do is check the salt reading, to see if it gets high. Possibly, it may not be as bad a salt spike.

However, you must take a turkey baster and blow off the salt off all of your corals. Salt can cause damage to corals when not diluted in water.

Keep your skimmer on.

If you blow off the salt quick enough most salt damage should not be permanent to kill so much, as it may need a bit of time to recover.

 

[Acone15]

I added unmixed salt to my 50g today because I was running late and it killed my cleaner shrimp. I won't make that mistake again.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[seldin]

Accidents happen. Sorry....

Shrimp and starfish are very sensitive to salt changes. Even when acclimating them to a new tank, should take a good amount of time, to limit stress on these critters.

 

[KathyC]

Jenpo - any update on the LTA/fish?

 

[jenpo76]

Thanks all for helping so much!! My lta reattached itself!! It's tentacles are normal in appearance but it hasn't grown yet. It's still tiny. But I'm guessing that it's gonna take time.. Can anyone recommend what kinds of food I should feed it. Or if I should just wait! (ps srry for not responding my comp time is limited) but thanks for al the help u guys rock!!!