help made a huge error

sh2000

Member
so im trying to figure out what lead to the death of my royal gramma i moved him from my 80 to my 30 i realized when i did a water change i tested for ph and used fast test but just realized that these test kit expired.. and i was getting a 8.0 reading i just retested and the red sea test kit said the ph was 7.4...would this kill any fish ? or make a fish breath very rapidly ? i belive this was the cause of death and not stray voltage ?? anyways i added some ph buffer and increased the levels to 8.0 i hope the new fish i added tonight black cap basslet makes it it looks bleak..
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by SH2000
http:///forum/post/2509375
so im trying to figure out what lead to the death of my royal gramma i moved him from my 80 to my 30 i realized when i did a water change i tested for ph and used fast test but just realized that these test kit expired.. and i was getting a 8.0 reading i just retested and the red sea test kit said the ph was 7.4...would this kill any fish ? or make a fish breath very rapidly ? i belive this was the cause of death and not stray voltage ?? anyways i added some ph buffer and increased the levels to 8.0 i hope the new fish i added tonight black cap basslet makes it it looks bleak..

So what is the correct PH reading? 7.4 is dangerously acidic for marine fish. How did you add the buffer? I hope not right into the tank! You added the new fish with all of this going on??
 

spiderwoman

Active Member
I'd recommend slowing down. You seem to be buying fish left to right, not QT'ing all fish, setting up new tanks that are not ready for fish yet. But always the water levels are right on according to you. I don't meant to sound harsh, but you really do need to slow down. You have years to stock all your tanks and the more research you do, the better and healthier your tanks will be in the long run.
That's just my $0.02 worth and coming from someone who has zero patience, telling someone to slow down is not easy.
 

keith burn

Active Member
Originally Posted by SpiderWoman
http:///forum/post/2509455
I'd recommend slowing down. You seem to be buying fish left to right, not QT'ing all fish, setting up new tanks that are not ready for fish yet. But always the water levels are right on according to you. I don't meant to sound harsh, but you really do need to slow down. You have years to stock all your tanks and the more research you do, the better and healthier your tanks will be in the long run.
That's just my $0.02 worth and coming from someone who has zero patience, telling someone to slow down is not easy.
 

ccampbell57

Active Member
Originally Posted by SpiderWoman
http:///forum/post/2509455
I'd recommend slowing down. You seem to be buying fish left to right, not QT'ing all fish, setting up new tanks that are not ready for fish yet. But always the water levels are right on according to you. I don't meant to sound harsh, but you really do need to slow down. You have years to stock all your tanks and the more research you do, the better and healthier your tanks will be in the long run.
That's just my $0.02 worth and coming from someone who has zero patience, telling someone to slow down is not easy.
Fully agree with you SpiderWoman. You need to take 2 steps back and assess what you are doing. I have seen you post a lot of threads lately with how many tanks you have and what you are putting in them. Latest was a carpet anemone without the proper environment in a tank with iffy readings. If you have 5 tanks, every one of them should have the same readings. If you put a fish in a tank that has a significantly low (7.4 is very low IMO) from a moderate PH you put it into PH shock and SW fish do not take easily to changes like that. IMO you need to get one tank healthy and running correctly and then you can move onto your other tanks. 5 SW tanks is not easy to maintain (trust me I know).
Adding more fish to your unstable tank is like tossing in a stick of dynomite and lighting the fuse. I hope he makes it though. Breathing heavily is can definitely be PH related, could be ammonia, nitrite, etc. Post all your levels including salinity.
We are trying to help you out by giving you advise on what you should do from our experiences and our findings, but you seem to just let the information go right by you and continue to do what you want. I feel bad for the fish and also for your wallet. There is going to be hundreds of $'s that you could have saved by just listening instead of debating.
 

sh2000

Member
ok heres the deal every seems confused i qt all my fish just a few times i didint which lead to ick and i had to get all the fish out and qt them for hypo in the 55 in fact i have 3 qt tanks...a 30 and 2 55's my main tanks now are a 72 not setup yet and a 80 running 3 years and a 120 running with 55 corals and several inverts or many in there all fine no deaths....so this is what happend i got my 55 wi th 10-12 fish in there finishing up hypo...and the 30 was recently converted to sw running well and the other 55 also im using as a qt for new fish....now this is what happend...i did a water change and what i do is mix in a 10 gallon bucket for 36 hours this is to stabalize PH...etc..when i did the water change in 30 i did 6 gallons...now i added a royal gramma in there and acclimated him perfectly from the 55 qt with all the fish from the 120 that had ick there was no reason for me to worry about the ick being transferred to the 30 since it was the latter stages of hypo and the salinity was almost back to the original 1.205 what the fish were used to...the fish died when i put him in the 30 gallon after 1 hour and the symotoms was very heavily breathing...i could not understand what happend since i gace him a great drip acclimation as per directions on this site...and the levels were all good i.e. temp 79F,alk 3.5 ammonia -0 (absolute 0) nitrite0 nitrate 0...sal.1.025 now the PH read also 8.2 the fish then died in a few hours i was shocked devestated and sick...so i assumed it must be stray volatge since igot a new lighting fixture and i didint mount the legs and it was right on the tank....so i mounted the legs retested with red sea testing kits exceot for ph i was out of red sea and used again fast test which imo is a better test...the ph read 8.2...i put in a small wrasse to see if the tank was ok...the wrasse then died...same symptoms i was beside myself...i am sick to my head i was up crying till 5am.. i diidnt even go out last night...i thought carefully about everything and realized when i did the water change and tested i used expired fast test for ph and i went and got an API test for ph that i found well that took me forever to find to realize the PH was 7.4...i am very upset with myself for overlooking this and i think i might have had a bad batch of salt...because the ph was 7.4 and it should be stabalized at 8.2 i use reef crystals and i neevr had to add any buffer anytime...this was a new box...im not buying new fish just trasnfering some from different tanks and i lost 4 fish in years of this hobby..im not debating any1...im just misrable i lost these poor fish...
 

sh2000

Member
there are no fish in the 30 now...im keeping it that way until isee the levels perfect for a stable amt of time...i rasied the ph from 7.4 to 7.8 than today after about 14 hours from 7.8 to 8.2 the only thig alive in that tan whic is fine is a tree sponge...so if u all think i do not qt my fish i have 3 tanks dedicated to qt dif. kinds of fish...the hypo is almost done and im ready to return the fish in the 55 to the 120 the fish in the 80 are great when i say the levels are great i mean them i made 1 mistake in 3 years with uysing an expired test kit or it was a bad batch of salt that happends...now the 120 is thriving the corals in there are lps mostly with a few sps and leathers etc.. i also have 3 clams derasa and a corcea and a anemone that is considered pretty difficult to keep...all fine for almost a year and all grew alot...most of the items in there incuding the snails tripled in size over a year and i do not power feed...when i tell you i setup a 30 gallon like 2 weeks ago its not starting from fresh i use establish rock establish water and established sand and let it run for a week till level are fine...if you think i dont care about the fish iwouldnt have spent 12 hours upgrading my 55 to 120 so give the fish a better home...and then spend 12 hours breaking it down to get out every fish incuding the ones in the sand and getting stung a million times by corals and my anemone which gives a pretty mean sting...only to save them from ick and hypo them all...the 80 is left alone and running well i have nice skimmers on most of the tanks and i run some cansiter and hob filters and a really nice wet.dry for my 120 with a 36-40 gallon sump...the 72 is just sitting oin the floor for now i have my hands full.... the point of the second 55 is to qt fish and the 30 is also a qt to decide were they fit in best in the 80 or 120...the good news is the yellow belly hippo and the blut tang are fine for now in the 55...now that i got the 30 under control and fixed the issues i will restet again and wait a few days after ghost feeding to make sure all is ok...just to give u an idea of how much i test i have 2 boxes of the red sea 5 in 1 test kits and backups for ammonia and nitrate as well as mag. phosphates..calcium alot of calcium tests...i test alot even though the readings stay the same on the main dt's..to also give u an i dea of my 80..i have 4 or 5 fish small in there so thats a little bioload and very consciencous in my opinion.. i also had 10 fish in the 120 if i feel any fish outgrows the tank i bring him to my friends who has a 210 or to the lfs...so im recovering on my mistake ...and im still in shock.
 

sly

Active Member
There is already a thread regarding this. Duplicate thread: https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/310738/emergency-help-with-stray-voltage
 

keith burn

Active Member
As for me ok i do understand.
You must understand how it looked ie(read) with hobby experience of
3 Years, you were not talking like one.
It is IMO easy to talk the talk but not walk to walk or swim the swim...
We all try to keep our friends in the best way we can and as healthy as they need to be.
We or I see people all the time not walking the walk but only talking the talk.
IMO if a question is worth, asking it is worth you taking the time to thoroughly think about it before you ask.
 

sh2000

Member
what are you ppl talking about ?> as far as the duplicate thread remark..wow that was necessary.. great job
 

ophiura

Active Member
IMO, no, pH alone would not kill a fish that rapidly.
I think you have several issues going on. To be honest, you have a "shot gun" approach to posting and it is hard to follow what is going on. That is not meant to be harsh, it is true. I really am not trying to be mean.
People try and deal with one "shot" and then there is another thread with different info on the same issue (eg Sly above, who responded in the other thread). He was not being mean, just saying that there is another thread on the same tank/issue - even though the cause was thought to be something else.
Fish are frequently not acclimated and may suddenly experience signficant changes in pH, alk, specific gravity...(eg freshwater dip). Many LFS do not acclimate and I promise you the pH in those bags compared to the new tank is pretty significantly different.
I think you have several issues going on, and the best advice is to SLOW DOWN and post in one thread. IMO, stop looking at new things to buy for now (your title, "I waaaant that" - you may not realize - is not helping you here because it is hitting very close to home and it has personally frustrated me in threads on carpet anemones, sea apples, etc). Otherwise, I am sad (and concerned) to say, future success may be limited.
We are all more than happy to try and help you - both in these issues and in selecting future successful animals to keep. But it is up to you to really appreciate that people ARE trying to help and that you have to facilitate that.
 

sh2000

Member
this is acclimation...this is the fish in the tank.. my levels have been checked 10x in the past 24 hours with readings of 0 0 0 on trates trites and ammonia and ph 8.2 and alk 10 dkh the fish died becasue b4 that the ph was 7.4 everything else was the same...so maybe it had aheart attack if in ur opinion ph at 7.4 is not toxic.. thats not that issue as far as what ur saying slowing down ? i dont know what that means stop buying corals inverts fish for my 120 why ? like i said i lost maybe 1 percent of every animal i ever bought..miatkes happen you move on you dont say oh i made a mistake ill just wait 60 days till the levels are in check..i know how to acclimate fish..there is a differnce in acclimation from a fish that has been shipped overnight then a fish from my LFS a mile away with the exact temp sal and ph in the tank it was from and same lighting..then a 3 hour acclimation is worse...anyways to move on and i will be placing an order for more corals and whatver i see that i want i will not slow down no need to i identified the problem it was an error you move on.. and learn from mistakes as far as questioning my hobby experience 3 years its more like 4...i acclimate perfectly and guess what i have my new fish that i got today my powder blue tang being qt in my 30..this is the 4th tang i have purple and yellow belly go in the 120 eventually and blue and powder blue go in the 80...thats what i chose to do if any of you think that is wrong that just too bad i dont tell you what fish to put in your tanks..as far as my threads for sea apples and carpet anmeones or whatver else disturbed you you shouldnt read things that disturb you its not good for you...enjoy the pics... and for those of you who want to see pics of my sumps setups and tanks i dont have time to post them...belive whatver you want i really do not care at this point..


 

spiderwoman

Active Member
Wow that was a long sentence!
There is a reason why everybody is telling you to slow down, but hey we don't know anything :)
When everything is always perfect, levels are perfect and you know how to do everything perfect, things should be perfect :)
Anyways, I wish you luck!
 

sly

Active Member
Originally Posted by SH2000
http:///forum/post/2510117
what are you ppl talking about ?> as far as the duplicate thread remark..wow that was necessary.. great job

Fine. Fix it yourself. It was for administrative reasons as you seem to have started 2 threads regarding the same problem. It wasn't directed at you but was to serve as a note for people searching the forums in the future for problems they may be having. I tried to help you... but since you want to be a jerk, fix it yourself. I won't bother responding to your threads anymore. I've kept various saltwater tanks for 8 years... I've been a member of this forum for 4 years. If you won't listen to people, then people won't listen to you. Ignored.
 

m0nk

Active Member
Yeah, I've got to be honest, I agree with everyone that you need to slow down; especially when you're dealing with ich in one tank and have X number of QT's going. Ich is a tough thing to deal with and if you slip up you could go sticking your arm in a QT or another DT that doesn't have ich without having washed up from dealing with the tank that does.
Patience in this hobby is key, and it does seem like you're lacking there. Several people have said it already, so I won't go on about it, but if you don't listen, and you keep going at this rate (as well as getting belligerent when people try to point out that you should slow down), eventually no one will want to help, even though you will keep having troubles. And listen to ophuira on the "shotgun" postings, maybe stick to one thread for your entire run of issues. Make sure you specifically point out which tank you're dealing with, what fish are in that tank, and the exact water parameters in the beginning of the thread.
If you really do have 3-4 years of experience then you should know all this already, but you need to "let go" of the angst and take a deep breath, and only then can you move on with success. Spend some of your time researching instead of putting things into your tanks at 3am.
 

sh2000

Member
Originally Posted by Sly
http:///forum/post/2510195
Fine. Fix it yourself. It was for administrative reasons as you seem to have started 2 threads regarding the same problem. It wasn't directed at you but was to serve as a note for people searching the forums in the future for problems they may be having. I tried to help you... but since you want to be a jerk, fix it yourself. I won't bother responding to your threads anymore. I've kept various saltwater tanks for 8 years... I've been a member of this forum for 4 years. If you won't listen to people, then people won't listen to you. Ignored.
im insulted mods please do your job and give this person an infraction for calling me a jerk.
 

sh2000

Member
for the last time this is research im not gonna google my wuestion and read some biologists answer i wont understrand if i have a wuick question and need an answer ill reaserch by posting here if you wana answer fine if you dont thats also fine
whatver you want not singleing anyone out thats fine..your opinions are takin into consideration sometimes used sometimes not this is called research for the last time. enough.
 

spiderwoman

Active Member
sad for the little fishies that die due to the *research*, but hey all is good

I guess I just have a hard time reading stuff like this. Maybe I'd be OK with it if I were a bit younger, but now at my age a wasted life is a sad thing. No matter how it's in the name of research. Anyways, mistakes happen and we move on, right!
 
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