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Author Topic: perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps  (Read 3485 times)

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Offline Reefinmike

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perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps
« on: April 07, 2007, 17:33:13 »
well, ive had my 125 sps tank up and running for a long while now. it has been thriving and everythings been growing like crazy. for some reason, the past 3 weeks for some reason, i cant keep any new fish or inverts alive for the life of me. to start off, here are my params

ca-400
alk-12dkh
ph-8.3
temp-80.0
salinity-1.025(on a refractometer)
nitrate-0*
nitrite-0*
ammonia-0*

*on aq.pharm test kit

now that i think of it, this problem may have existed a few months before. i had a nice community of inverts in my tank consisting of 100 hermits, 3 turbos, and several astreas. i noticed my hermits slowly dwindled down to about 5 over a months time until i did an interceptor treatment which took care of them. i did only one treatment but i still did the 2 large water changes and carbon. so at that point i had my turbos and the astreas left, around this time, the algae started popping up. then my turbos seemed to dissapear. now were at three weeks before now. then i added 100 hermits, all of which dissapeared within 3 days(no i dont have a mantis) then i added three turbos. the first day they were doing fine, second, they were acting very slow, third day they were still alive but pulled back some in their shell and all three died by day 5. then i added a kole tang which did fine for a few days. he acted kinda skittish and hid but he was looking ok, then he dissapeared. keep in mind this whole time im adding frags of sps and theyre doing perfectly fine....

so thats where i am now. on a couple occasions i did a couple 50g water changes(my total system volume is 175 gal.) and i didnt notice any change


any ideas

Offline aquavista99

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Re: perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2007, 22:14:53 »
Your Alk levels seem a little high but not enough to kill fish, inverts, etc unless you experience  pH swings since you are using a calcium reactor.

 Adding Interceptor to your reef is not a good idea. This medication does not discriminate between pests and other inhabitants like shrimp, amphipods, copepods, and crabs. Since this treatment may cause all crustaceans in your system to perish, it is highly recommended that you either remove and treat the infected colonies in a separate aquarium, or to remove the crustaceans that you wish to save to a different holding aquarium. I haven't heard of interceptor causing fish death.


What about  existing fish? Are they alive and well. If so, maybe it is an acclimation issue?Have you been adding anything new to your reef lately, supplement wise?
 


Offline aquavista99

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Re: perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2007, 23:32:07 »
Hey Mike, do you use copper, which could  help explain fish and/or invert death. You may also want to check your  pumps and other devices to see if electricity is going into your water. Bleach is another concern ...can't test for it with aquarium test kits, but I suspect you may clean your filter socks with bleach as well.

Offline Reefinmike

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Re: perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2007, 00:13:11 »
tim-

the alk levils are slightly high but still within the reccomended range for a reef. ph is 8.3 during day and 8.2 at night.

i know interceptor kills crustaceans, however i have changed about 400 gallons of water(175g system) since then and ran half a gallon of carbon since the treatment.

my current fish are doing perfect. I do a 15 minute float and 30 minute drip acclimation for all incoming fish and the same for corals except i add iodine to kill off bad guys. the electricity came across my mind, i kinda doubt its that but im installing a grounding probe tomorrow anyways. i have not noticed my fish acting wierd, having LL disease or the water shocking me. the only thing i have changed since a while ago is what i dip my incoming corals in.

i have never used copper in my tank. when i clean my socks, i just turn them inside out, clean them off real well and throw them in the wash with nothing else.


im going to wake up early tomorrow and try to do everything i can to solve this problem... its really been getting on my nerves recently...

Offline aquavista99

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Re: perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2007, 13:54:29 »
Seems like your existing livestock has adapted to whatever is going wrong, but the new livestock cannot survive in such conditions. You may want to calibrate your electronic pH tester again and verify if your pH readings are correct. You may also want to take a sample of your water to a LFS and verify if your readings are the same as well. You could also set up a QT tank and gradually introduce your reef water into the  QT tank over an extended period of time, so the new fish or inverts have more time to adjust to your system.

Good luck!

slandis3

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Re: perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2007, 14:27:48 »
instead of just throwing a ground luge on the tank why not test for voltage first. I run ground on my tank for the accidental things if im not home. Once a week or so i remove the grounds and test for voltage to make sure there is no problems. I had a jebo power head go bad and i didnt find out until i knocked my ground out of the  tank and then stuck my hand in there. Also most grounds have very small wires. If something short real bad and pulls alot of amps it can melt the wire and cause a fire. I run 3 just in case. also everything that can be grounded is. Telling the wife ( or your parents) your fish tank burnt down the house probably wont go over to well.

Offline Reefinmike

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Re: perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2007, 19:22:24 »
i guess i can borrow a voltometer(or whatever they're called) from school tomorrow to see if that's the problem. i would think it would have to be a huge amount of stray elec going through the grounding probe to fry the wire, even though it is fairly thin wire.

tim- that wouldnt be a bad idea for the qt tank short term, but that seems like it would be a bandaid fix to a larger problem. i took my water to marine solutions and joe tested my salinity with a refractometer and it came out the same as my trusty old IO hydrometer. he also tested my ph with salifert test kit, and i tested it with an aq. pharm test kit and they were the same...

the thing thats just really getting me is why everything but sps are dieing... i hope it is just stray voltage which corals seem to be able to handle better.

slandis3

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Re: perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2007, 19:43:40 »
Its the amps the kill and start fires. Before i rewired my house we had a very old breaker box. A very cheap box at that. My pond pump shorted out the gfi nor the breaker tripped. How i found out it was bad was a pond full of dead fish and a burned wire in the breaker box.Im glad i caught it when i did or we would have lost the house for sure. Someone correct me if im wrong. When something a/c shorts out i can pull more amps that it should. Thats why the breaker trips. so if you have a stuck breaker or worse a fuse pannel with a penny in it ( yes ive seen it) and something shorts out it could easly pull enough amps to fry a 22 ga ground wire. If your fish are acting ok i doubt you have a significant amount of voltage in the water. good luck

Offline verper

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Re: perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2007, 19:56:11 »
Its the amps the kill and start fires.

In OSHA training, we were told 5 milliamps across your heart will stop it.


Quote

Someone correct me if im wrong. When something a/c shorts out i can pull more amps that it should. Thats why the breaker trips. so if you have a stuck breaker or worse a fuse pannel with a penny in it ( yes ive seen it) and something shorts out it could easly pull enough amps to fry a 22 ga ground wire.

Sounds right.  A hot line going directly to ground could give the same amps that come into the house-  ie 100 or 200 amps if the breaker doesn't trip.
« Last Edit: April 08, 2007, 19:58:18 by verper »

Offline ohioreef

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Re: perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps
« Reply #9 on: April 13, 2007, 20:33:28 »
I've heard that a 9V battery can kill a person if it's applied to the right place.

Offline scott wilson

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Re: perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2007, 10:47:21 »
are you using Ozone on the reef at all?

Offline Reefinmike

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Re: perfect water, cant add fish or inverts but can add sps
« Reply #11 on: April 26, 2007, 15:40:44 »
scott- no i am not using ozone

i believe i have found the problem(or part of). i was cleaning my tank some today and pulled out a severly corroded 2" iron nail. the nail was caked with black stuff.

 

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