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

michika · #1 03-31-2008, 04:24 AM

Exactly how old is this tank?

I wouldn't add anything to your tank until you get your water chemistry in line.
You should be showing 0ppm for ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite. Your rock should provide enough natural filtration to bring those levels down. You can also do water changes to speed the process along.

Your calcium is quite high, are you dosing anything for Calcium? You may want to consider stopping. Your dKH or alktalinity is also high, 250ppm translates to 14 dKH which is quite up there. You might want to check out this article for more info on chemistry and the relation between Calcium and Alkalinity.

aussiefishy · #2 03-31-2008, 04:49 AM

just wondering if you have check your pH, or alkalinity.

first, i do not think the reason for your losses came from change of salt, skimmer not running or air pump not running.

the most probable cause would be poison, such as from excess use of impure chemicals, like dechorinator, or the elavated Mg might kills invertibraes or other micro-organisms that created a NH3 spike.

Can you give us a brief description of the fishes that were dead? like signs of physical trauma, or certain notable conditions?

you mentioned O2 depletion, did you check this with a reliable test kit?

recommended improvement might be regular testing of water parameters, keep log of these data and create a record of different happenings for your tank. From my experience, i did solved a lot of my tank's problems by checking these valuable logs that i kept over the years.

hope it helps.

michika · #3 03-31-2008, 04:54 AM

FYI: KH or dKH = alkalinity

rdnicolas · #4 03-31-2008, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michika

Exactly how old is this tank?

I wouldn't add anything to your tank until you get your water chemistry in line.
You should be showing 0ppm for ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite. Your rock should provide enough natural filtration to bring those levels down. You can also do water changes to speed the process along.

Your calcium is quite high, are you dosing anything for Calcium? You may want to consider stopping. Your dKH or alktalinity is also high, 250ppm translates to 14 dKH which is quite up there. You might want to check out this article for more info on chemistry and the relation between Calcium and Alkalinity.

Thanks for the link!
At this point I'm cosidering tearing the tank down and cooking the live rock. before I tried the Tech M cure, I tried using a method a LFS suggested. They sold me a bottle of aragonite and they told me to dump it all in the water to make the water ultra murky. the aragonite was supposed to cover the algae and reduce photosynthysis. I was to reduce the light levels at the same time. After trying that and it didn't work I did a water change and then slowly started to dose Tech M. I won't tell the store that told me to do that but I'm now boycotting them b/c they cost me a couple cheap bt anemones AI sold me for under 20 bucks I think. I'm actually more ****ed of at myself for listening to them