Inverts and fish dying! Help!

[brianjfinn]

I Found Nemo;560913 wrote: Now it's between 1.030 and 1.032. I mixed the water with prime, ph buffer, and turbo cycle stuff that I bought at the LFS for start up. All three things should take care of whatever problem it is if it's not the high salinity. They pretty much just equalize everything is what the LFS told me. Is this true?

No, it's not true. You need to be doing two things. Lowering the salinity and doing a water change. If you have a tang in a 40 gallon tank, your nitrates are going to be off the chart, which is probably what's killing everything. Remember this: Water evaporates, salt doesn't. If you add salt water to top off water that has evaporated, you are raising the salinity. You should only add RO water as top off. Water changes should be done with water that you mix, and the salinity should be adjusted based on the salinity of your tank water. If your tank water salinity is slightly high, the water change water should be slightly lower.

Thanks so much for all of the advice and thanks for not being quick to judge. This is all still new to me. Every fish store I went to when I started this up gave me 10 different answers for every question :confused2: A lot of this can be very confusing for a beginner, especially after getting bad advice in the past.

Look around on here for a while and find out what stores other people like. There are a number of good ones that will be able to give you the best advice. I'm very happy you have an interest in this hobby, but it looks like you need to go back to square one.

http://www.melevsreef.com">www.melevsreef.com</a>
[IMG]http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=43292">http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=43292</a>
[IMG]http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29625">http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29625</a>

Those links should help out. Spend a fair amount of time combing around and learning what you can, and don't be afraid to ask any question. We're all here to help you out and make sure you enjoy this hobby to the fullest. That being said, initial startup can be a little daunting, and the amount of new information can be overwhelming, but we really want to help you succeed and have nothing but the interest of you and your livestock at heart.

Happy Reefing!

 

[i found nemo]

Do I need to do a complete water change? I took out about 4 gallons and have been slowly increasing back up to the regular water level and am closely monitoring the salinity. I thought it would stress the fish too much to do a complete water change at this point until I know exactly what is going on, which I will find out tomorrow when I test the water. The tang is only about an inch and half...would that small of a tang raise nitrates that much? I have a lot of live rock in there, which I was told would keep the nitrates down.

Like I said, when I set up this aquarium, every person that gave me advice gave me 10 different answers for one simple question, so I feel like a complete idiot at this point and I also feel very mislead by the advice I was given :spam::***: I never knew about the forums when I started this, I just read the first advice that came up on google....bad mistake I guess! :sad:

 

[moebious]

Correct me if im wrong but live rock does not remove nitrates. Live rock houses denitrifing bacteria. This bacteria converts amm. into nitrites and then nitrites into nitrates. The nitrates can only be removed by macro algea and water changes.

 

[cr500_af]

moebious;560964 wrote: Correct me if im wrong but live rock does not remove nitrates. Live rock houses denitrifing bacteria. This bacteria converts amm. into nitrites and then nitrites into nitrates. The nitrates can only be removed by macro algea and water changes.

Technically also by a sulphur denitrator, but for practical purposes you are exactly right.
"The solution to pollution is dilution".

 

[i found nemo]

You could be telling a complete lie and I would have no clue at this point LOL....I got this from a supposed "marine biologist" that owns a LFS...sounds like maybe he needs to go back to school?

 

[jcusmarine]

I gotta tell you my friend, I think you should take the livestock out the tank and slow this down....not for too long, just long enough for you to get the basics down and get into a routine. The maintenance is the boring part, but I would practice keeping the tank <u>parameters</u> <u>stable</u> and performing water changes accurately and regularly, with a focus on understanding how to keep optimal parameters and reef conditions.

You could post up a 100 questions here, but it may help to visit the new member Q&A forum for a read, or possibly buy a book:

The Conscientious Marine Aquarist

A Commonsense Handbook for Successful Saltwater Hobbyists
By Robert Fenner
Publisher: TFH Publications (1997)

With that said, this club is definitely the place to be and we will help all we can. Heck, if you were close by I would gladly come over and roll up my sleeves and help. I do think it better to take the fish back and run the tank for a couple of months to get things dialed in.

You will reap many rewards by taking your time :up:

 

[smallblock]

jcusmarine;560981 wrote: I gotta tell you my friend, I think you should take the livestock out the tank and slow this down....not for too long, just long enough for you to get the basics down and get into a routine. The maintenance is the boring part, but I would practice keeping the tank <u>parameters</u> <u>stable</u> and performing water changes accurately and regularly, with a focus on understanding how to keep optimal parameters and reef conditions.

You could post up a 100 questions here, but it may help to visit the new member Q&A forum for a read, or possibly buy a book:

The Conscientious Marine Aquarist

A Commonsense Handbook for Successful Saltwater Hobbyists
By Robert Fenner
Publisher: TFH Publications (1997)

With that said, this club is definitely the place to be and we will help all we can. Heck, if you were close by I would gladly come over and roll up my sleeves and help. I do think it better to take the fish back and run the tank for a couple of months to get things dialed in.

You will reap many rewards by taking your time :up:

+1 JC actually has a thread for new members its very impressive and must have took forever.

 

[toph]

I would definitely study up just to save frustration. I made the mistake of learning only after problems came up...burned me out big time.

 

[i found nemo]

Well I went and bought a test kit and started the whoe water change process.

This afternoonmy little 4 year old girl asks me to help her feed her fishies.

I tell her to wait a few minutes and she says "OK"

I go back in the bedroom for a phone call, and come back out and she has gotten a stool and fed the fishes 1/4 of a package of "fish pellets"...... andtheuneaten pelets itter the fish tank floor.

So, another thing to add to my headache.

What should I do now, besides call a shrink/therapist and hire a professional fish tank person lmao?

 

[brianjfinn]

I Found Nemo;561710 wrote: Well I went and bought a test kit and started the whoe water change process.

This afternoonmy little 4 year old girl asks me to help her feed her fishies.

I tell her to wait a few minutes and she says "OK"

I go back in the bedroom for a phone call, and come back out and she has gotten a stool and fed the fishes 1/4 of a package of "fish pellets"...... andtheuneaten pelets itter the fish tank floor.

So, another thing to add to my headache.

What should I do now, besides call a shrink/therapist and hire a professional fish tank person lmao?

Siphon/net all of the food you can, and do a water change. If this was a more established system, I wouldn't be too worried, but since it's only been set up a couple months, you may experience another ammonia cycle.

 

[brianjfinn]

BTW, what type of test kit did you buy?

 

[jcusmarine]

1 - Siphon the excess food out and continue your water change and maintenance routine.

2 - Remove all additives and foods from kids reach

3 - May be a good idea to make sure the aquarium is kid safe (power bars, equipment wires etc)

4 - Study up

This hobby requires a lot of diligence and work....I know you are going to enjoy the rewards of your labor and planning of a beatiful home reef aquarium....

 

[Jaycen B.]

dawgdude;560993 wrote: . Never add water from the LFS (this is a TERRIBLE suggestion from the store) as their water is prone to have nasty disease and pathogens living in it.

Or copper for the fish! Which will kill your inverts...

 

[i found nemo]

Ok, so the verdict is in and my 4 year old daughter was the culprit of the high salinity. She has amazingly figured out how to put a step stool on the bottom of the fireplace (the fish tank is above, on the mantle, which is cut out for a tv), and dumped salt in the tank the other day. That's the reason it got so high so fast. I only found out that she did this last night after cleaning the tank out to get the rest of the food out. I had a feeling that she might have done it because I noticed the salt was wet and clumped together. I knew I never put water in the bag of salt, so I asked her about it and sure enough she did it and so innocently admitted to it! She thought she fishies needed more salt!!!! ugh!!! :Flush:

Thanks you all so much for all of your help!!! I now have the salt level right where it should be and all of the other levels are checking out good as well. The rest of the fish, the shrimp, and the hermits are all fine! Amazingly, my nassarius snail made through all of this!!! I went and bought an API test kit and all of the levels checked out fine- surprisingly, even the nitrates were perfect! I did look for the other test kits that someone mentioned, but had no luck finding any by those names except on ebay. I didn't have time to wait for shipping since I needed this in a hurry.

Now I just have to figure out a way to keep my daughter off of the stool.....:eek2::eek2::dunno:

 

[jcusmarine]

I am really glad to hear the inverts and fish are fine and your levels checked out.

I have a 5 month old daughter and I this thread reminded me I need to prep my tank and secure everything for when she starts to get around - so, thank you!!!

 

[brianjfinn]

I Found Nemo;562498 wrote: Ok, so the verdict is in and my 4 year old daughter was the culprit of the high salinity. She has amazingly figured out how to put a step stool on the bottom of the fireplace (the fish tank is above, on the mantle, which is cut out for a tv), and dumped salt in the tank the other day. That's the reason it got so high so fast. I only found out that she did this last night after cleaning the tank out to get the rest of the food out. I had a feeling that she might have done it because I noticed the salt was wet and clumped together. I knew I never put water in the bag of salt, so I asked her about it and sure enough she did it and so innocently admitted to it! She thought she fishies needed more salt!!!! ugh!!! :Flush:

Thanks you all so much for all of your help!!! I now have the salt level right where it should be and all of the other levels are checking out good as well. The rest of the fish, the shrimp, and the hermits are all fine! Amazingly, my nassarius snail made through all of this!!! I went and bought an API test kit and all of the levels checked out fine- surprisingly, even the nitrates were perfect! I did look for the other test kits that someone mentioned, but had no luck finding any by those names except on ebay. I didn't have time to wait for shipping since I needed this in a hurry.

Now I just have to figure out a way to keep my daughter off of the stool.....:eek2::eek2::dunno:

Glad to hear it!! I think it might be easier to keep the fish food and salt out of reach of your daughter, then trying to keep her of the stool, just a thought.

About the API kits, I've never had nitrates appear on an API kit, even when I knew my nitrates were high. I absolutely do not trust those kits. I've heard a few people say they like them, but most will tell you it's best to spend the extra money on something that works, like Elos or Salifert, than buy something that is marginal at best.