Obsessive Compulsion + Lack of Sleep = 500$ Worth of Live Stock

[rdnicolas]

Originally Posted by Brighteyes_13

i know im putting in my input pretty late in the thread but i see a couple of culprits in the killing.

1) you said you use warmer water to aid in the disolving of the salt for the changes. warm tapwater is lower in oxygenation than cold tapwater. warmer water has less of an ability to hold onto oxygen. By allowing the water to cool overnight as in previous times you allowed the water to reoxygenate. so i dont believe the skimmer was the issue at all.

2) You added the salt and allowed the water to cool. exactly how long was the salt mixing in the water before being added. partially disolved salt is very harsh on the gills of the fish (i believe its quite accidic?)

3)dechlorination possibly bad. the overnight mixing method would definately have given more of a chance to offgas chlorine, whereas this change was possibly quite chlorinated, even if the dechlorination product you used removed part of it.

all of these things kinda lead to the same conclusion though. The waterchange was probably at fault in some way or another. one of those items alone would definately stress your fish out and cause bad things, but the combination of 2 or more of them could have caused such widespread casualties.

as for your algae problem, i definately agree with your decision to go RO/DI, silicates in the water cause all sorts of nasty algae blooms. thats part of the reason we chlorinate, to kill biological matter in the water.

anyways.. just my point of view.


and dont give up, i just lost everything too, maybe not as much, but an empty tank for a few weeks is better than no tank at all.

Hi Thanks for the advice. Highly appreciated. Thats where my God forsaken obsessive compulsive thing came into play. I couldn't feel that I could go to sleep until I had done the water change . If I had waited one extra day I might not even be posting this thread.

Well I checked my ammonia levels today and they are down to 0.1! didn't realize that it can change that drastically in such a short time. I'll have to check my nitrates and nitrites in the next little while. I'm going to take half of the problem rocks out tonight and cook them.

With people using RODI do you temper your water before you put it through the filter?

Thanks

Reggie

[Myka]

Originally Posted by rdnicolas

I'm going to take half of the problem rocks out tonight and cook them.

Be aware that there is absolutely NO point in cooking your rocks unless you're testing for phosphates. Do weekly 100% waterchanges with RO/DI water (of 0 tds) making sure to swish the rocks in fresh saltwater to clean them off during the waterchange. You should have a good test kit by Salifert or Elos to test for phosphate. Once those those test kits read 0, then you should use a high sensitivity phosphate kit like the MERC one (these are about $80). Once this test kit also reads 0, then you can add the rock back to your tank. This process can take 12 weeks or sometimes much more. If you're not willing to do this, then you may as well leave your rock in your tank because a partial cooking will be a moot point.

[brizzo]

One more thing Reggie,

Don't give up man!!!

Being a keeper of marine life can be a tough job, and a learning experience; but never forget your love for the hobby! It has its ups and downs at times!

[Myka]

^ Good advice!!!

[Reefhawk1]

When making large water changes make sure you match the temperature of your aquarium water. Saltwater fish will stress and die quickly if drastic changes in temperature occur in the aquarium.

Also remember to make slow changes to your water parameters. Quick changes will cause problems as well.

[Thelonious]

Edmonton uses chloramine to treat their water. Running a dechlorinator or RO unit in Edmonton is a gamble due to the ammonia bond.


I doubt it had much of anything to do with the dead fish, but I agree that a RO/DI would be a good investment, and probably solve your algae problems as well. Edmonton's water tests really nice on a TDS meter, but the chloramine makes a proper RO/DI necessary in my opinion. You can get a decent three stage RO/DI on ebay for around 170$.

[vazgor]

i have been useing tap warter for a year now in edmonton with no real isues.
but a friend of mine had a beautiful reef going for over a year and suddenly everything just started dieing corals fish evrything and it turned out his refactomeeter was wonky and he was reading 1.023 but in accuality it was 1.001 now i dont know if had you perameters checked at the lfs but maby it something as simpel as a bad salinity tester.
most stores will test your water for you just my two cents oh and if that is the case dont do what he did and changed his water to proper lvls over night and killed off the rest of his live stock