Total Failure

[68shelby]

The only thing I see that looks odd is your Ph (low) Possibly ph shock. and I get roused everytime I take mine in and its at 8.3 how is the KH? As for the ammonia I assume its more your reading the test strip as nitrates are zero. I myself havent even dared keeping an anenome yet as i hear they are tough to keep. So you are doing something right.

[naesco]

All very good advice.
Forget about what your LFS is saying. He makes money selling you fish and reselling them when they die.
In a small tank you should be only adding one fish at a time once a month. The tank adjusts slowly.
If an animal dies you must remove it or is will cause your tank to have an ammonia and than nitrite spike and kill everything.

Do not add any fish to your tank until everything stabilizes and do not add any further chemicals.
Patience is the key in this hobby, eh

[Pan]

Originally Posted by Fox

Phew that was a lot of information to go through but I believe I have the answers to all.

To start I would like to clarify a few things. Whenever I have bought fish I have always asked for the advice of the LFS and let them know the history of the tank, I always bring in a water sample and I let them know whats in the tank.

I would also like to clarify that it wasn't a manderine goby I had in there, (thats on my future wish list) its was a dragon goby...the guy who eats the sand and spits it out through his lungs...or did before he died...He is still in the tank somewhere...do I need to rip it apart to find him or will my cleaner shrimp make short work or him if they haven't already?

The tank is 33 gal, no sump with a protien skimmer, in tank fluval, T5 HO lights and a power head. I started the tank on Dec 29th and waiting 9 weeks before I and my LFS (Big Al's) was satisfied that it was cycled.

Anytime a fish was added I dripped them for about an hour...maybe a bit longer using some rubber tubing and a chip clip.

I am using Red Sea marine lab test kit and the quick dip 6 in 1 test strips.
My test results as of tonight are Alk 120-180, pH 7.0-7.4 (hard to tell), Salinity :1.022 Nitrites :0 Nitrates :0 and the one that of course caused the problem I am sure Ammonia : 1.0...

After seeing the ammonia test I did a 10-15% water change...hopefully not too much. I have been doing weekly water changes along with the freshwater tank every weekend...

I hope I answered everything...maybe the one thing I am missing is how often I am testing and what I am testing for...maybe I would have seen this coming. The odd thing is that all my inverts, corals and my anemone are doing great...everyone just keeps telling me I got bad fish but those bad fish are costing me good money...I hope I can get this worked it but its just heartbreaking and I just feel so defeated after soo many losses.

I just need hope that I am not a complete failure at this to keep going!

Thanks to all who replied...

Your salinity is low as is your ph...you also add to quickly. Don't listen to big als. Clean your fluval every week. Check your ammonia if it keeps rising the missing fish is probably decaying. You don't mention (or i Missed) a cleanup crew, this is an essential part of a tank as well. Test your own water most lfs use the tests till they run out who knows if they have expired (this is not all LFS, but with big als...well). Remember most ammonia tests rely on a valid ph test as well...ph is a certain level then ammonia toxicity is higher or lower. Save your money, stabilize your tank then try again.

The point in adding fish slowly to a tank is to build up the bacteria you need...which needs ammonia to form..but a tank can only process so much at one time...the bacteria doesn't keep growing and growing...it grows as more ammonia is added...to much the system cannot cope....so you have to think of it like this...every time you add a fish you are essentially doing a little cycle.
also...since you are new...try testing your replacement water for everything you test your tank for...see how everything compares...

[Fox]

Interesting...The pH has always been low which was why it was suggested I use the buff to help increase it...not sure how else to do it...

The ammonia, nitrite and nitrate reading were all from the test kit...only the alk and pH are from the test strips...

Thanks for the encouraging words...I just wish my clowns were still around to enjoy the annenome.

[68shelby]

I would be more than happy to test your water for you, What kind of water are you using? Reverse osmosis water the Ph is very low. and you will definitely have to raise with a buffer.

[Fox]

Originally Posted by Pan

Your salinity is low as is your ph...you also add to quickly. Don't listen to big als. Clean your fluval every week. Check your ammonia if it keeps rising the missing fish is probably decaying. You don't mention (or i Missed) a cleanup crew, this is an essential part of a tank as well.

Is t suggested that I tear the tank up in order to find and remove the goby??

I will start cleaning the fluval weekly with the water changes...I do have a CUC in there consisting over small burrowing snails, big (I think Turbo) snails and some little hermit crabs...they are all doing fine.

Originally Posted by Pan

Test your own water most lfs use the tests till they run out who knows if they have expired (this is not all LFS, but with big als...well).

I do test my own...lately I have been needing replacement fish and so I doubt my test results and want a second opinion...

Originally Posted by Pan

Remember most ammonia tests rely on a valid ph test as well...ph is a certain level then ammonia toxicity is higher or lower. Save your money, stabilize your tank then try again.

The point in adding fish slowly to a tank is to build up the bacteria you need...which needs ammonia to form..but a tank can only process so much at one time...the bacteria doesn't keep growing and growing...it grows as more ammonia is added...to much the system cannot cope....so you have to think of it like this...every time you add a fish you are essentially doing a little cycle.
also...since you are new...try testing your replacement water for everything you test your tank for...see how everything compares...

Thanks!

[Fox]

Originally Posted by 68shelby

I would be more than happy to test your water for you, What kind of water are you using? Reverse osmosis water the Ph is very low. and you will definitely have to raise with a buffer.

Just regular tap water with that concentrated tap water conditioner...I dont have a fancy RO machine...

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Fox

To start I would like to clarify a few things. Whenever I have bought fish I have always asked for the advice of the LFS and let them know the history of the tank, I always bring in a water sample and I let them know whats in the tank.

I am using Red Sea marine lab test kit and the quick dip 6 in 1 test strips.
My test results as of tonight are Alk 120-180, pH 7.0-7.4 (hard to tell), Salinity :1.022 Nitrites :0 Nitrates :0 and the one that of course caused the problem I am sure Ammonia : 1.0...

After seeing the ammonia test I did a 10-15% water change...hopefully not too much. I have been doing weekly water changes along with the freshwater tank every weekend...

I hope I answered everything...maybe the one thing I am missing is how often I am testing and what I am testing for...maybe I would have seen this coming. The odd thing is that all my inverts, corals and my anemone are doing great...everyone just keeps telling me I got bad fish but those bad fish are costing me good money...I hope I can get this worked it but its just heartbreaking and I just feel so defeated after soo many losses.

I just need hope that I am not a complete failure at this to keep going!

Thanks to all who replied...

Most LFS employees don't know enough about sw tanks. Knowledge usually comes with time, and with time comes age, so most people with lots of sw knowledge aren't going to be young enough to be willing to work a $8-14/hour job. Just my two cents on that one. So take their advice with a grain of salt.

The test kits you have are not very high quality, and their accuracy is hot or miss at best. I believe your pH is low (which is often the case in new tanks) I don't believe your pH is that low provided you have aragonite sand in the tank, and use marine salt in your water!

I also don't believe you have an ammonia reading without seeing nitrite. If you have ammonia in a cycled tank you should have nitrite as well. You could have nitrite without ammonia though, but it would be a sign that ammonia was recently present. I believe that either you DO have ammonia, but also have nitrite, or you don't have ammonia and may or may not have nitrite. Doing a water change is a good idea. 10-15% is definately not too much, you can do 90% water changes provided you match specific gravity, temperature, and pH very closely. For smaller water changes as long as you're close on the temp and salinity you should be good to go. Make sure you allow fresh saltwater to mix with a powerhead and heater for 24 hours before using it for a water change.

Your specific gravity is far too low for a reef tank, it should be 1.026. Slowly raise it up to that level over a week or ten days. Take your hydrometer (assuming you're using a swing arm hydrometer) to your LFS and get them to check it's accuracy at 1.026 against their refractometer so that you know how much your hydrometer it out by. Almost all hydrometers are out, by as much as 0.008 I have seen! Your (very) low salinity is likely an attributing factor to your low pH.

You need to get a more accurate reading for your alkalinity. 120-160 ppm is a huge gap. 120 is too low, and 160 is barely high enough.

Take a quick skim through the chemistry guide and the getting started guide in my signature. You might find some key information in there you are missing.

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by Fox

Just regular tap water with that concentrated tap water conditioner...I dont have a fancy RO machine...

This is likely a major part of your problems. Tap water is not good and has alot of dissolved elements you don't want. Probably even more so in Alberta than here on the West Coast. Get an RO/DI machine or buy RO/DI water from a purified water supplier. You can probably find them in the yellow pages. Some grocery stores and Walmarts also have the Culligan RO machines that dispense purified water.

[subman]

What brand of salt are you using?