Total Failure

[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.

[Dolf]

Originally Posted by Myka

Most LFS employees don't know enough about sw tanks.

+++1
That is only part of the problem. The other part is that they are salesmen whose product carries no guarantee and if you need to replace your livestock on a regular basis all the better. A part of it may be bad fish as has been suggested. But if that is what you suspect then a trip to a different store may be in order. If those parameters were what they considered good I would certainly question their knowledge.

I would also check the temperature you are keeping your livestock at. Many people keep it at a much lower temperature than optimal. While it may not kill your fish directly, it will contribute to the stress. Finally, don't tear apart your tank unless you do have reason to suspect that there is a rotting fish. The small burrowing snails should be necessarius (sp?) snails. They will usually eat the dead fairly effectively. Good luck with the tank and keep reading.

Oh, you likely already know- but be careful how you clean the fluvial- you don't want to kill or replace all of the bacteria on the filter. Which actually brings me to the next question (though unrelated to a complete crash...) how much live rock did you include in the tank?

[subman]

What brand of salt are you using?

[alfredshouse]

I am just getting over a major tank crash, I lost all my fish over night. However, I did learn alot. My suggestion is, go to the LFS and buy an O2 test kit, they are only $15. I had no O2 in my tank, none. I now have a sump and I raised my O2 using airstones and a few other tricks. Oh yah, the LFS cannot test for O2 because the water has to be tested as soon as it comes out of the tank. Hope this helps.

[Fox]

Thanks for the tip...I have an air stone in there but I will pick up a tester just in case...

Anyone have any thoughts on the salt I was using? Just to recap I am using Coralife Scientific grade Marine salt. It's almost an empty bag and once its done I have a big tub of instant ocean sea salt.