High salinity damage

[OSjoylynn]

Hey guys! I need some advice. I've had my tank for about 3 weeks. It was inherited form a friend who had success with it for 5 years. I followed her directions exactly..two days ago when I got up my mandarin was dead and long spine urchin was losing spikes- they weren't breaking so much as actually coming out with flesh attached.
I freaked out grabbed a bag of the water and raced to the store. They tested the water there and found my salinity was way too high. Due to evaporation? I bought a refractometer, to avoid this EVER happening again, raced back home to get the salinity back down. The fish bounced back (2 clowns 1 blue chromis and a young engineer goby) the short spined urchin is also recovering well.
The main concern I'm having now is the long spine urchin and mushroom corals.
Urchin looks really really sick. It's been 24 hours since I corrected the salinity issue and he is still alive... But not looking good. The mushroom corals seemed to thrive in the higher salinity. It's at 1.025 now -down from 1.033 and they are detaching and looking very deflated. They looked proud and happy in the high salinity.I have various colors and a couple mushroom bubble anenome. It's really heartbreaking. I feel terrible. Is there a humane way to put the urchin out of his misery? Or should I wait and see?

[Coelli]

So I hate to tell you this, but if you corrected your salinity all at once you may have done more damage. That's a really big drop to do suddenly and inverts are really sensitive to sudden changes.

Someone may have some ideas for salvaging the urchin and mushrooms (I don't) but in the future...

1) Only top off with RO/DI, not saltwater. Topping off with saltwater just adds more salt and salinity will rise.
2) If you have to lower salinity, do it over the course of a few days, replacing salt with fresh.
3) If you have to raise salinity, top off with saltwater.
4) If you have the budget, invest in an ATO. It will help keep your salinity more stable than manually topping off.

[Sk8r]

Ok, LOWERing salinity rapidly is ok. RAISING it rapidly is not.
Unfortunately a salinity problem can explode cells in areas and organs which have most directly to do with excretion---kidneys, eg. Some of the lower critters in the tree of life have tissue that does a lot of jobs. I don't know if these are going to survive, but the best thing you can do is keep the salinity stable. The shrooms will simply adjust by expelling water and taking in water of the new salinity. The urchin is probably on his way out, and will smell to high heaven as he begins to decompose and pollute the water, but if he is moving his spines at all, he is still alive. You might just put him into a qt tank or bucket of absolutely identical salinity and temperature and see if he can recover.

[OSjoylynn]

Yeah I did the drop rapidly. Over the course of about an hour. I had to take out a total of 8 gallons and replace with fresh water. I bought a refractometer that set me back a ton but it's worth it to be able to monitor it accurately. So the mushroom corals detatching -are they dying? Should they be pulled out? Or can they re attach?
The urchin is still moving I check on him very frequently because I know I can't let him decompose in there.

[OSjoylynn]

Ps thank you guys so much for your replies!
I wasn't sure if anyone would respond at all.so thank you !!!!

[Sk8r]

The shrooms can reattach. Collect them in a small bowl so they don't get sucked into the downflow teeth, and put a rock in the bowl. They may crawl up and attach on their own, but they're probably perfectly fine. You can get them to attach again. They just fled hoping an ocean current would carry them to safety---not that they think, but their reactions protect them that way. You be the ocean current, give them a bowl without metal on it, and let them recover. This is also true of popped euphyllia coral heads. They can regrow bases. The shrooms will just stick to a rock.

[OSjoylynn]

Thanks!
My urchin is STILL alive! I wanted to wait to see if he could pull through. But don't want to prolong his agony if he does pass away. Any suggestions ? It's been 3 days since the issue happened. The mushroom corals that first looked deflated now are perking back up. I think I will try the bowl rock trick with the ones who have detached. It seems to be only the purple and green mushroom corals that have detached. The red are all still attached.

[Nina51]

do you see the urchin moving around your tank? if so, he might be ok. if you have a qt, i would take sk8r's advice and move him to it. if he declines and decides to die in a hard-to-get-to spot behind the rocks, you won't be able to get him out w/o moving everything around.

[OSjoylynn]

He is still moving. I've been literally checking on him every hour since he started to deteriorate. He is in a fairly easily accessible spot at the front of the tank. And he's been there for the entire time. It's his remaining spikes that are moving still and not due to current, but actually moving. HI don't have a backup tank and I don't want to stress him out more than necessary. I could try to float a bowl in the tank I have ones that I think could work really well for that- to avoid any temp/salinity changes.

[Reeferside]

Did you check nitrates? I use to have an urchin that dropped his spines when my nitrates kicked up once

[OSjoylynn]

Yes everything was checked. My salinity was 1.033 that's what caused it- I lost my green dragonet as well. Both of those things having problems -the guy I talked to at my local salt water store -called Pisces -was very knowledgable. He ran a battery of tests. Everything was in line but the salt level.
I'm a noob the tank is 5 years old. I didn't want to mess anything up so I bought pre mixed water. For my water change. I suspect the salinity levels had been rising due to evaporation for some time.- the friend I got the tank from had no test supplies. Needless to say after this happened I bought them. Trial and error right? I just hate that it cost a life in the process(maybe two) cause of my mess up. That's why I'm on here now. Better to have access to resources.

[droog]

You do know that you need to replace water lost due to evaporation daily right? You need to use freshwater (RODI or distilled rather than tap). The water evaporates but salt stays. Assume you know this but just in case.

An auto-top-off (ATO) system is probably the most useful thing after a skimmer for overall tank health. Keeps the salinity level and system volume stable.

-droog

[OSjoylynn]

Yes now I know about evaporation -
It's been a bit of a learning curve. And I'm still learning.

now I have a new very big problem.

My ammonia levels began to rise a few days after the salinity was corrected.
I've been doing 20% ware changes the last 3 days (what the team at my local aquarium advised to get ammonia levels down-they said because of the stress to fish/corals from the high salinity it's common to have a spike in ammonia) Because I lost the urchin and my blue chromis.
All other levels seem to be within acceptable parameters. NO2 and NO3 PH and salinity -just the ammonia is at 1.0ppm that's down from 4.0 3 days ago.
Will the water changes eventually get the ammonia down? Or is there any other options to get it down further aside from the water changes? I bought all the test kits for home so I can test the water daily.
Im really feeling guilty about all the stress/trouble I've caused to all my little creatures. It's tempting to just throw in the towel. I really want to succeed but am feeling like a murderer. I only took the tank because my friend was moving away. I have NO clue how she maintained it for 5 years with no test supplies... Nothing. I've had to invest in all of them-glad I did instead of running frantically to the aquarium shop with a bag of water.
I've lost so far 3 fish and one urchin. My tank is looking pretty bare bones at the moment. And I have absolutely no intention of introducing ANYTHING until my water is safe.

My mushroom corals are looking really well now they have bounced back. And same with the bubble tip and mushroom anemones.

I'm just so stressed with the ammonia. Any suggestions are very welcome

[Martini5788]

It sounds like your tank is cycling again. Make sure you search for anything that died. And get some prime to detox the ammonia so you might be able to save whatever else you have in there

[homer1475]

+1 on the seachem prime to get things to a safe level.