Fatalities

[jcook54]

O.K., I haven't wanted to post this but I feel like I have to in order to learn and not repeat my mistakes. I was out of the hobby for a while but kept my tank up with live rock, a couple of fish and come crabs and snails. Things went o.k., fed them, lights were on timers and water changes twice a year.

Recently I have taken to upgrading and maintaining my tank with the goal of giving corals a try. I knew there would be some serious issues and I've worked hard to correct them. Late and wet nights. However, I think I've done too much too fast. I've changed sumps, added a fuge, new skimmer, canister filter maintainence, lots of water changes, new RODI and hundreds of tests. In the last two days my Coral Beauty and Royal Gramma. Water perameters are good (ref. hundreds of tests) and nitrates are coming down. Losing those two fish really stings. I have concluded that I stressed the tank out by making it "better" too fast. I was "in" it every day doing or adding something. Any thought would be appreciated. I really was trying to do better but it cost me two fish who've been in the tank from the beginning and it, well, it sucks. This feels like a confessional so I guess I'm looking for absolution, too much, too fast, number one rule of PATIENCE broken.

 

[ralph atl]

please post all of your current parems. Upgrading is not neccessarily the cause, although how it was done might be.

 

[steve]

Your thought of doing too much too fast could do it. Water params would def. help.

 

[jade76]

patience is a must in this hobby. Im soorry for your losses, but hey dont let it get ya down. Just learn from it and just like GI Joe taught us all..." knowing is half the battle"

 

[jmaneyapanda]

to be honest, I doubt it is "too good, too quick". Here is something to consider when replumbing an existing system. A lot of the oxygenation for the tank comes from the filtering systems. When you take that offlinbe to replumb, you are eliminating the oxygenation. One of my earliest mistakes was this exact thing. I turned off the return to replumb the sump. Despite having the 3 or 4 maxijets running in the 120 gallon, the water quickly oxygen deprived and/or overheated from the lights, and I lost 3/4 of my fish. Sucks.

 

[jcook54]

I have turned off the entire filtration on the tank so many times from a few minutes to maybe 45 minutes. To replumb the sump, remove old and add new skimmer, hunt majano's, add refugium and feed. This really may have been a serious problem that I never considered. I have an airstone w/pump, shoule I run this and one powerhead to help oxygenate when I turn of the system for any reason?

BTW - Ammonia -0, Nitrites -0, Nitrates -40(down from 80), Salinity - 1.024, Ph -8.3, Alk. -11dKH and Calcium.- 450 but haven't checked in a few days .

Another factor may be all the water changes. I've only recently got a refractormeter (thanks HarleyGuy) and was using a hydrometer to determine SG. I was really suprised how much difference the refractometer made. With the hydrometer it looked like a dead on match but with the refractometer the difference was as much as .004. Compounding the problem, the hydrometer didn't adjust for temperature while the refractometer does. The temperatures were the same but in my display tank I have a Pinpoint digital and the 5g bucket had a glass floater. Maybe this had something to do with it. Regardless, my tank is on lock-down. I'm going to keep my eye on water conditions and feed normally and not do any "upgrades" for a little while. I have a brown goby of some sort (Watchman?) that my daughter loves and if anything happened to him I'd be in serious trouble.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Hummm... It could be a salinity things... but it is just hard to say. Going up in salinity over a very short period (say from 1.020 to 1.024) is harder on the fish then going down in a short period. But honestly, a .004 jump is not that much. If you were going from hypo-salinity (1.009 or less) and trying to put them instantly in 1.024 water, I would say you would have a greater problem. With that said, angels are the most sensitive in my experience then any other fish.

There might not be a hard fast rule you broke. But it is good to always take a step back and evaluate the situation every once in a while!

 

[jmaneyapanda]

jcook54;225271 wrote: I have turned off the entire filtration on the tank so many times from a few minutes to maybe 45 minutes. To replumb the sump, remove old and add new skimmer, hunt majano's, add refugium and feed. This really may have been a serious problem that I never considered. I have an airstone w/pump, shoule I run this and one powerhead to help oxygenate when I turn of the system for any reason?

BTW - Ammonia -0, Nitrites -0, Nitrates -40(down from 80), Salinity - 1.024, Ph -8.3, Alk. -11dKH and Calcium.- 450 but haven't checked in a few days .

Another factor may be all the water changes. I've only recently got a refractormeter (thanks HarleyGuy) and was using a hydrometer to determine SG. I was really suprised how much difference the refractometer made. With the hydrometer it looked like a dead on match but with the refractometer the difference was as much as .004. Compounding the problem, the hydrometer didn't adjust for temperature while the refractometer does. The temperatures were the same but in my display tank I have a Pinpoint digital and the 5g bucket had a glass floater. Maybe this had something to do with it. Regardless, my tank is on lock-down. I'm going to keep my eye on water conditions and feed normally and not do any "upgrades" for a little while. I have a brown goby of some sort (Watchman?) that my daughter loves and if anything happened to him I'd be in serious trouble.

I ALWAYS leave the in tank circulation running (except when I am cleaning them) (obviously). If you turn off the circulation, turn off the lights (especially if they are MH) and keep those pumps running! This might be a huge stretch, but it happened to me once.