what should be the salt levels for a fowlr and a reef?

[spacenyc]

as the title says, i have a fowlr, another tank of mostly snails and crabs, and another tank with some basic corals,what should be the salt levels. what are the benefits or disavantages of low salt vs. high salt. thanks as always

 

[pecan2phat]

If you are keeping snails and crabs in your fowlr, I would keep the salinity at the minimum of 1.022 and your reef at 1.025 - 1.026.
Low salt keeps cost down for extremely large systems and gives the fish an easier time at osmoregulation.
True fowlrs with no inverts can keep their salinity at 1.018.

 

[Awibrandy]

Do a research on salinity in the ocean. That will tell you what salinity you should have in your systems.

LFS, and some others will keep their fish only tanks at 1.018 believing that this will keep parasites away.
I kept my fowlr at around 1.022, but it is now at the same salinity as my reef. Both are maintained at 1.025. I am trying to keep all my animals as close to natural habitat as possible.