here we go again

ricksconnected

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ok im still having issues. last sun i woke up to 4 fish dead.
i looked over the tank and seen nothing wrong. did water
test still everything seemed fine. this tank is a 30gal.
has 55lbs of live rock, skimmer, and hob filter.
i did 3 major water changes in 3 days. what fish that were left
seemed to settle down a great deal.
fish that died were:
1 cortez damsel
1 humbug damsel
1blue devil damsel
1 pep shrimp.

fish left:
1 humbug damsel
1 engineer goby
1 clown

i wake this morning and the humbug is panting like crazy and my corals are half open.
my corals are simple. a mushroom that ive had for 8 months, and 3 zoa frags.
on suggestion i put some poly filter in the tank as well as the normal filter changed in the hob, about a week ago. the poly has a very slight yellowish tent to it. non of this seemed to start until about a week after i added the first coral frag. not sure if that has anything to do with anything, just trying to think of what changes were made as of late.

my water seems to check out good. i had it checked the day of the kill off and everything was fine, as it is today as well.

gravity 1.025
ammonia .25
nitrates less than 20
nitrites 0
PH 8.0
alkalinity 2
phos 0.1

im thinking still that theres a toxin.
my clown and goby seem fine as they did last week when i had the die off. just the humbug seems stressed. this guys gills are going 90MPH.
i do have a deep sand bed. im wondering that since the others have died off the goby has been digging a new home. im wondering if hes uncovered a pocket of something? yet im thinking not because lastweek when all this took place he wasnt digging at all and the humbugs were panting and 1 died as mentioned above. i need to reduce that sandbed, not sure how to do it and keep everything in check. thats for another time and post though. does anybody have any ideas as to whats going on?
if theres a toxin, i was thinking that the poly filter stood a good chance of getting rid of it. i can think of no way that a toxin got into my tank. just did a water change last night when i saw the humbug panting like he is. did no good. so im open to suggestions at this point.
 
its been suggested that i might have voltage in my tank. anybody care to give me a step by step on how to check this?
i do have a meter but not sure the best way to check this.
 
Sorry about the problems your experiencing. I'm not positive about checking for voltage but that could be a potential culprit. You listed your ammonia at .25. Even a small amount of ammonia can prove fatal. I'm sure your using RO/DI but I've got to mention it anyway. Be careful not to overdo your water changes either...that can have an adverse affect on creatures as well. I believe (I may be wrong) that you should not exceed like more than 50% change in one week. Not sure but what I have been told. I would try to keep the stress levels down in the tank as well. This is all I can think of right this moment...hopefully you'll get some other suggestions. Good luck.....
 
i also question my test kit. seems mine reads higher on everything than the better test kits. just found this out last week and havent had the oppertunity to replace it yet.
 
cool

i agree. we did the water changes that way incase there was infact a toxin. kinda giving the system a flush to dilute the toxin if there was one.
 
If you have a meter and the leads are long enough. Set the meter to Volts AC and put the black probe into the GROUND(round) prong of an outlet. Then put the red probe in the tank, try it in a few places on the surface of the water. If you have a sump check in there also..

Just PM for contact info if you need any more help..

Jason
 
All Ammo Lock is going to do is "lock" up the ammonia for a short time.. Then it will become deadly again very quickly.. If you have ammonia of .25 that's the culprit.. No doubt in my mind.. Need to 86 it ASAP!
 
Rockdog;392704 wrote: If you have a meter and the leads are long enough. Set the meter to Volts AC and put the black probe into the GROUND(round) prong of an outlet. Then put the red probe in the tank, try it in a few places on the surface of the water. If you have a sump check in there also..

Just PM for contact info if you need any more help..

Jason

jason

your the goods. thank you. i was shown, but forgot.
 
whats the best way to lower my ammonia?
ok, last week when this all started my ammonia was at .25 by my tests.
the LFS that i took my water to tested 0 for ammonia.
so im thinking my test is bad. i need to replace my entire kit with something better. so if it is 0 at this time, anybody else have a suggestion to the above problem?
 
FWIW, I've never heard of a bad test kit reading high... seems they always read "good" when they shouldn't.
 
yep all my numbers were off to a degree last weekend. one was way off, nitrates. the LFS tests all came in lower than mine. i think 1 read equal to mine. my nitrates read 80 on mine, almost 0 on theirs.
 
Well, considering what is going on with your tank, I think the safe bet is that the LFS' kit is suspect moreso than yours.
 
i tried a different store a few months ago on another problem.
there again they said my nitrates were higher by my test than by their kit.
im using API.

any other ideas come to mind?
 
I dont think your alk at 2 would be doing any good or am I reading this wrong.
 
I believe most people try to keep it around 8-11 OHHHH I read mine as DKH not alk.....
 
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