Originally Posted by duhwun
what happen to your tank when your clean up crew die. i have my tank set up for 2 months already, i got live rock and live sand in it, now my brand new clean up crew dies.. aren't they suppose to eat the algae and stuff i have in the tank. Or was i suppose to feed them? cuz i never fed them, they been in there for only about 4 days, and they all slowly dieing off. i dont kno why. all my parameters are goood, nitrate 10, nitrite 0, ammonnia close to 0, ph around 7.8 or 8, temperature is 80, salinitiy is 1.023 .
I would agree with above postings BUT when did you test your water? Before or after they died? If you tested after they died, that's probably where your ammonia is coming from. You really should bump up your salinity a bit, don't fill it with freshwater for top off when you get evaporation, just top off with your premixed saltwater. Depending on how much evaporation you get, I lose about half a gallon per day. It was at 1.025 and I bumped it to 1.026, I keep it around 1.025-1.026. So I dump in about half a gallon or so of saltwater and that brings it up to 1.026 since it was just a tad bit higher then 1.025 in the first place. Do that once and see, test your salinity, if it's still low, do it again the next day. Make sure you mark your waterline so you know where your at, after bumping it up to a correct level, you can just top off with fresh RO water to that level each time and you should be good. I would top off with premixed saltwater in mine about once a week cause of my protein skimmer, it creates wet foam, that's the way I like it, some people prefers dryer foam. So I top off with saltwater to make up the difference that was lost by the skimmer. :happyfish