Saltwater and alkalinity

[Alyciac327]

Here's the story with questions at the end:

 

I usually get my saltwater from a store that sells Red Sea.  I went to check out another LFS on Thursday who said Red Sea's Alkalinity is too high and that might be why my zoas weren't opening.  I checked the alkalinity at home and she was right - it measured at a 13.  So, I decided to switch to the water at the new LFS over a period of three days.  All was going well until yesterday when they sold me fresh water instead of saltwater.  Trusting them, I went ahead with the water change unaware that they gave me the wrong water.  I noticed something was wrong a little later when my corals never opened back up.  Today, I went to the LFS and the woman was VERY rude and wouldn't take any responsibility for what happened.  I'm never going back there but I don't know if I should go back to my original LFS store if they are selling me water with such a high alkalinity.  There is one other store but they are kind of dumpy so I don't know if they would be much better.  I really don't want to mix my own.  I have very little space to be able to do it.  Oh, and with the new saltwater change today, my alkalinity is too low - at a 6.  

 

Here are my questions:

 

1) How do I know if my corals are already dead?  I'll post pictures.  I couldn't get a good picture of the zoas but they look deflated with a white dot in the center of each.  

 

2) What alkalinity levels do you keep? 

 

3) Do you think I should go back to the store selling Red Sea?  

 

4) do you have any other advice regarding this?

[jservedio]

If you want any consistency, you've got to mix your own - simple as that. All it really requires is at most a 5g bucket. If you have a Pico, an old 1g milk jug will work fine.

[banasophia]

First of all if you used freshwater instead of salt what is your salinity now?

[banasophia]

You can buy 4-5 gallon jugs of either Nutri-Seawater (can get from Chewy and some chain pet stores), or Imagitarium Seawater (from Petco)... that’s what I did in the beginning before I was ready to mix anything myself. This option is the priciest, but with only one small tank could be a consideration. 
 

Then, I started getting premixed from my LFSs like you did to save money, but i encountered similar problems to what you experienced. After a few months, as I got more comfortable in the hobby, I started mixing my own water using store bought distilled water from the grocery store which I bought by the gallon. 
 

Now I get 5 gallon jugs of distilled water delivered to my house on a monthly basis which I use for mixing my own. So... lots of options. 

[AquaVaj]

Always, always test your new water for salinity and temp even if you make it your own. 

[Tamberav]

Unfortunately problems like this are not uncommon and you are not the first person to be given RO instead of saltwater. A LFS may slack on filter changes in their RODI or something gets in and contaminates their water (depending how it's stored) and so on. 

 

The only way to be confident in your water is to mix your own. 

 

Dead soft corals will disintegrate and dead hard corals will turn to white skeleton.

 

I keep my alk 7.5-8 

 

 

[OfficeReefer]

Agreed with several comments on here. Questions are, what are your tank parameters now?

 

First piece of advice, buy yourself at least one item - either a Hanna Salinity probe for quick checks in the future or better, for about $200 you can get one from Apera with Bluetooth and other features. Check your water yourself from your store, especially dHK, pH and salinity. Don't chase the pH however, because it moves but it should be similar during the same times of the day. It's called PC60-Z Bluetooth Multi-Parameter Smart Tester.

 

Most corals can survive a dip in freshwater, in fact quarantines are recommended. What I would do is get those parameters back on track. I would mix up some either Blue Red Sea or Reef Crystals from Instant Ocean on a whim, mix it up and test it - even if you have to use a hydrometer for now to get the salinity close. From the looks of 8h of the post, I'd say your local LFS should be your first visit. Frankly, an initial correct purchase of the water you used before would be the safest bet for now and then start transitioning to the 7-8 dKH. You can also buy the KH Up from Red Sea too but I would get your tank stable first. 

 

Lesson learned from this, always check your LFS... people make mistakes. Second lesson, mix your own where possible - stay consistent.

[Alyciac327]

Thank you everyone for your advice!