Salinity,what should it be?

Guys its really hard to get some knowledge that is consistent for salinity and what happens from low or high levels,
Could some one please explain what it should be, why and the best ways to obtain these levels ?
Any help please!

Gee the forum users can be slack at times, I had hoped some one would have put up at least some answers for you!

Firstly the only things that evaporate from your tank water is the H and the 2o,hydrogen and oxygen, that can be an advantage or a disadvantage, if you top up with salt water, that’s a big disadvantage as you are just adding more salt to the water by doing that.

If your water is a bit low on salt than you can add salt water to be an advantage, slow salt reduction or increasing is the way to go, always!!!!

The salt levels do not have to be totally exact, just good.

There are quite a few reasons you need to keep good salinity, which is best at .024 on a specific gravity tester or close to that.

The higher the salt levels the less available oxygen, and that’s serious!!!

Now about that way of testing your salt levels, they will vary in what they indicate depending on temperature and if the water in the tester is bubble saturated.

Once the water in the tester is at the right level, leave it sit for a minute or two and than tap it or flick it to free the arm of any bubbles that may be attached for an accurate test!

If you want to check the same water at different temps to see how much the specific gravity tester varies with those temps, thats fine but it shouldn’t be much any way!

Sit some of the water in the freezer for a while and get down to 20c and maybe 25c and maybe 28c in temps to compare your test results, than you will know all about your tester.

Hydrometers should be kept clean (not to clean or the resistance in the water will make them float to much) and be free of bubbles to work well, though I wouldn’t have one, a specific gravity tester is far simpler and just as, if not more accurate.

Salt issues in the aquarium are, if to low .022 or below this will encourage bacterial attacks to your corals and most inverts, though it has to be said that fish will stress far less in the short term with low salinities due to their biological set up working a little less harder to control salts that they have to drink due to osmosis through their flesh.

The next thing is with fish again obviously, the higher the salt levels the more stress on the fish as their bodies are working harder to balance sodium levels with in, this may help white spot find some unprotected flesh to attack while they are stressed.

Banded coral shrimp if you introduce them to water that has salinity varying greater than 3 points higher than the water they just came from, they will be normally dead before they hit the bottom of your tank, the same with temps and micro bubbles will also kill them in time.

Keep the salinity at .024ish and you will be fine