Help! Fish losses!

R

roxannej

Guest
Originally Posted by sldrdvm
http:///forum/post/3130221
I just did a routine water change (10 gallons for my 60 gallon tank) like I always do weekly. I woke up at 3 am and checked my tank...found one of my wrasses jumped out, my flame angelfish dead on the bottom, and now one my my skunk cleaner shrimp dead. Help! I don't know what is wrong!
parameters are: T=80F, SG 1.028, pH 8.4, Amm 0ppm, Nitrite 0.25 ppm, Nitrate 20 ppm, Phos 1 ppm, KH 11, Ca around 500 ppm
Nothing has changed except I opened a new salt container to mix the water for the change. It's the same brand I've been using (Oceanic) since my tank was set up. My tank has been set up since January.
Check ammonia. We had an incident with Oceanic salt - when we did a water change the ammonia spiked off the chart.
We checked everything we could think of.
Then, we checked a bucket of the mixed Oceanic salt. The ammonia in the bucket was off the charts. RO/DI water mixed with Oceanic salt aerated for 24 hours.
Oceanic couldn't care less. It took 4 emails to even get a reply from them and then it was "too bad, so sad."
 
242bats

242bats

Member
don't give up the hobby. just learn from it. i've been doing this off and on for over 15 years and i've made just about every mistake there is. i am currently upgrading to a larger tank and i'm sure i'll make mistakes with this process too. my first tank was a 55 gal that ran beautifully for over two years before crashing completely in just 24 hours. we never confirmed the culprit but, back then, we bought our ro water and we think it was contaminated with something. no other explanation. we did manage to take some great pictures of the elegance coral eating the dead flame angel but, unfortunately, we lost the film. i still get excited everytime i find a roll of "mystery" film in the junk drawer. just keep at it. it's a wonderful hobby and always an adventure.
 
julie853

julie853

Member
I agree 242Bats,I also have been in this hobby a long time with freshwater and saltwater and have made every mistake possable too.It allways makes me sad to hear people tell me they use to have a aquarium but that their fish died so they got rid of their tank.
In this hobby you will loose fish but you will learn and it is a wonderful hobby.
Stick to it,it's diffently worth it.
 
aquaknight

aquaknight

Active Member
Originally Posted by sldrdvm
http:///forum/post/3130272
So, let's see...I overstocked my tank, I'm not doing enough water changes, my nitrate, phosphate and nitrite are too high and my specific gravity is too high. Funny, I have successfully kept my tank up and running this long.
Still thinking about draining the tank. Maybe I wasn't meant to be a saltwater aquarist.
Not sure why you are taking this so personally. There are a number of different little things askew with your tank, and you're losing fish and inverts so something is definitely wrong. It's like you just want us to say it's only temporary, carry on or something %%
The problems we listed above could be why your losing animals in your tank. You have a 60gal with only HOB filters. Your tanks bioload availability just isn't that high, and you have a ton of fish stuffed in there. Going by "well friend's tank is ____" isn't a good idea either, as 2 tanks are never the same.
I'm sure there are many of us that would love to have larger sharks, but we don't because we're limited to the tanks we can have. If you're limited to a 60gal, so be it, just use some responsibility stocking it.
 
sldrdvm

sldrdvm

Member
Well, I'm sorry Aquaknight, I thought I was being responsible. I made a mistake...
Like I said, I'm stupid.
It won't happen again.
 
calbert0

calbert0

Member
first of all, i would go buy a new batch of salt from a different store and start doing water changes with that.
second, what is your tank temp?
 
naclfish

naclfish

Member
Dont be so hard on your self every one here has lost fish/coral at some point for one reason or another. so you lost a couple fish in the list of things that could have gone wrong i would classify this as big deal learn and move on. You caught it early and its not like your tank crashed. lose a couple of your bigger fish keep up on your testing and move on. Anyone in this hobby can tell you we all make mistakes and stuff happens.
 
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