What Should The Specific Gravity Be In My Aquarium?

Although there are currently a few saltwater fish hatcheries, most saltwater fish sold in fish stores are collected from the oceans.  The salt content or specific gravity of ocean water varies in different parts of the world as well as individual oceans.  These saltwater fish which are collected from various oceans are shipped to aquarium stores and homes and are expected to live in whatever specific gravity the aquarium keeper decides on.

Back in the 1980’s and early 90’s I recommended my customers to keep specific gravity for their saltwater fish aquariums at 1.020.  The theory back then was that parasites were less prevalent at lower levels of salt.  This theory has been proven completely wrong – parasites continue to thrive at this level.  Specific gravity has to be much, much lower to kill parasites.  The flip side is that most fish also thrived at a specific gravity of 1.020.  But then I recommended my customers to keep specific gravity higher in aquariums with invertebrates and live corals.

Eventually it seemed to make sense to maintain a common specific gravity for all the saltwater Read More Here…

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