HELP!! Newbie Mistake!!

[wilson0427]

Ok, I've been a little too eager to add fish & coral to my tank. My tank is just over a month old. Tonight we needed to increase the salinity so we added SALT TO THE WATER!!

I have a manderin dragonet that has been doing great but now he's looking pretty bad. My mushroom also looks like he may be gone. Is there anything I can do or is this just a live and learn, expensive lesson? Thanks for any help.
Leigh

 

[kevin34]

Whenever you need to raise the salinity in ur tank use premixed aged saltwater that has been mixed for at least 24 hours. Not sure what will happen to your fish and corals though. If the mandarin doesnt make it do not get another. They need very established tanks(8+ months). What size tank is it?

 

[floatingfish]

i would try to get a turkey baster and blow off the shrooms and i dont know about the fish. what is your salinity right now?

 

[wilson0427]

It's a 24 gal Aquapod. The salinity is 1.0022 now.

 

[jimmy 4]

Why do you age the saltwater?

 

[big911dog]

unless you have an established QT you can get the fish into, its a wait and pray game now. there are pre-mixed waters you can get if you're really in a rush, but make sure to pre-mix for 24 hours. not only for salinity, but for temperature also. good luck!!!

 

[big911dog]

you age the water to stabilize the chemicals

 

[reefforbrains]

Originally Posted by Jimmy 4
Why do you age the saltwater?
lets everything balance for correct readings and nothing cloudy. I will get crucified for saying this but I really dont think its all that manditory. Certainly good practice to mix it and let it sit for consistancy sake. But 15 minutes or half hour beforehand is fine for me if temp is right. Have done it for years.
Guess it depends too on the additives you mix in also brands of chem. some are quick some are slow. I use a powerhead in the mixing tank so its always worked for me to just mix earlier in the same day

 

[autofreak44]

ok as far as the salt problem, do a 20% water change with water that is pre mixed. in the future, you want to bring the salinity by either a batch of salt water with a slightly higher salinity. if you want to bring it down, do it slowly by adding ro/di (reverse osmosis/ de-ionised water)
now your bigger problem is that you have a mandarin dragonet. their food source is copepods. im not going to go into detail, but basicly your 24 gallon tank will not be able to create a good food source for the fish, and he will starve to death. mandarins will need at least a 125 gallon tank inorder to live long-term. take him back to the store immediately
hope this helps

 

[lsu]

24 gallons is way to small for a mandarin, please return it to the store!!! they need at least 100 pounds of LR to support the pod population. if you decide to keep it you will have to buy pods online, which will get very expensive,

 

[wilson0427]

Thanks guys. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. My husband is getting a 125 gal soon so I can move the manderin to his tank(if he survives!)

 

[tahoetanks]

Originally Posted by wilson0427
Thanks guys. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. My husband is getting a 125 gal soon so I can move the manderin to his tank(if he survives!)

In the mean time, I would buy some live pods to feed him-if it's not going to be too long to get the 125 going.

 

[rbaldino]

Originally Posted by ReefForBrains
lets everything balance for correct readings and nothing cloudy. I will get crucified for saying this but I really dont think its all that manditory. Certainly good practice to mix it and let it sit for consistancy sake. But 15 minutes or half hour beforehand is fine for me if temp is right. Have done it for years.
Guess it depends too on the additives you mix in also brands of chem. some are quick some are slow. I use a powerhead in the mixing tank so its always worked for me to just mix earlier in the same day
Don't worry; you're not the only one. For years, I've dumped salt in the bucket, filled it with water, stirred, and added to the tank (once the proper SG had been reached, obviously). I've yet to see this cause a problem. It's also what every aquarium maintenance business I know of does.

 

[weatherby]

Originally Posted by rbaldino
Don't worry; you're not the only one. For years, I've dumped salt in the bucket, filled it with water, stirred, and added to the tank (once the proper SG had been reached, obviously). I've yet to see this cause a problem. It's also what every aquarium maintenance business I know of does.
Actually, from what experienced peeps on this board have said to me and others.... When you mix artificial salt mixtures with water it releases a ton of CO2 hence part of the cloudiness of the water, but also if you watch the container you're mixing in you'll see some 'smoke' come off the surface which is CO2 being released from the water.. This is why you want to aerate and age new salt water.
Also, as I understand it, even filtering through a RO/DI unit, tap water has air compressed into it from the pumping process which can cause long term problems as it gets released in the blood of the animals breathing it in. Letting it age 24hrs or so should be sufficient to let the compressed air come out as well as allow CO2 gas exchange to take place so the water has the proper O2 balance....
This is how it's been explained to me. I too am guilty of dumping freshly mixed salt water into my tanks in a pinch, but I try to age it at least 24hrs out if not a lot longer... Though admittedly this sometimes contributes to me being late on water changes which is worse....

 

[aztec reef]

Originally Posted by rbaldino
Don't worry; you're not the only one. For years, I've dumped salt in the bucket, filled it with water, stirred, and added to the tank (once the proper SG had been reached, obviously). I've yet to see this cause a problem. It's also what every aquarium maintenance business I know of does.
But wasn't your water cloudy? Lol, I don't recommend on doing this, as the water it's really acidic at first. IMO aquarium maintanance business and lfs don't take the extra step to go the safe route. Like most hobbysts do. Because it's not their personal tank, they just do maintenance which = business to them.
You will cause Less stress on fish and reef inhabitants if you just wait, let it aerate with a powerhead,for at least severals hours, with a heater.

 

[rbaldino]

Originally Posted by Aztec Reef
But wasn't your water cloudy? Lol, I don't recommend on doing this, as the water it's really acidic at first. IMO aquarium maintanance business and lfs don't take the extra step to go the safe route. Like most hobbysts do. Because it's not their personal tank, they just do maintenance which = business to them.
You will cause Less stress on fish and reef inhabitants if you just wait, let it aerate with a powerhead,for at least severals hours, with a heater.
Obviously, I wait till it's fully mixed so I get an accurate SG reading. I've done this for over 10 years, with fish that all lived for over 10 years, so I can't say that I've ever seen it cause a problem. For those who wish to aerate with a powerhead/airstone, go ahead; I'm sure it makes for a better mix, but one you're going to be waiting around for.

 

[rbaldino]

Originally Posted by Weatherby
Actually, from what experienced peeps on this board have said to me and others.... When you mix artificial salt mixtures with water it releases a ton of CO2 hence part of the cloudiness of the water, but also if you watch the container you're mixing in you'll see some 'smoke' come off the surface which is CO2 being released from the water.. This is why you want to aerate and age new salt water.
Also, as I understand it, even filtering through a RO/DI unit, tap water has air compressed into it from the pumping process which can cause long term problems as it gets released in the blood of the animals breathing it in. Letting it age 24hrs or so should be sufficient to let the compressed air come out as well as allow CO2 gas exchange to take place so the water has the proper O2 balance....
This is how it's been explained to me. I too am guilty of dumping freshly mixed salt water into my tanks in a pinch, but I try to age it at least 24hrs out if not a lot longer... Though admittedly this sometimes contributes to me being late on water changes which is worse....

Yes, I'm sure that's all true. In my experience, though, I've never had a problem with this method, nor have I personally known anyone to have a problem.

 

[aztec reef]

Originally Posted by rbaldino
Obviously, I wait till it's fully mixed so I get an accurate SG reading. I've done this for over 10 years, with fish that all lived for over 10 years, so I can't say that I've ever seen it cause a problem. For those who wish to aerate with a powerhead/airstone, go ahead; I'm sure it makes for a better mix, but one you're going to be waiting around for.

lol, I bet your fish breath rapidly when you do this. does that mean that you DON'T heated up either?..You're lucky man.. What's the hurry all you have to do let it sit overnight :notsure:
And i don't know how many times i've done water changes, but everytime i do them i already know the ammount of cups of salt that it takes. There's is no need to wait for the SG reading since you been doing this for 10yrs. You should have a pretty good idea of how much salt it takes.

 

[rbaldino]

Originally Posted by Aztec Reef
lol, I bet your fish breath rapidly when you do this. and that would mean that you don't heated up either..You're lucky man.. What's the hurry all you have to do let it sit overnight :notsure:
And i don't know how many times i've done water changes, but everytime i do them i already know the ammount of cups of salt that it takes. There's is no need to wait for the SG reading since you been doing this for 10yrs. You should have a pretty good idea of how much salt it takes.
I've never seen the fish exhibit any kind of stress during water changes, other than hiding from the siphon. And I generally do know how much salt it's going to take, though from batch to batch the salt doesn't always perform the same. Should I take this to mean that you don't check the SG of your freshly mixed saltwater since you already know exactly what you're going to get beforehand? That doesn't sound like a very good habit to get into.

 

[aztec reef]

This is what i do: I put water in bucket, put x amount of cups of salt which should be the SG of tank(i already know the ammount)Believe me it hasn't changed much... I do not check SG at this point is "useless". I let it aerate overnight with heater and two powerheads.
24hrs later......
I CHECK SG at this point because nothing is going to change before i do a waterchange..(few seconds from now).
So far i haven't had to make any arrangements and i know i've done like 7666767654 water changes..Anyways, then when i'm ready..
I syphon the amount of water to change, then just use one of the powerheads to pump it back to tank. It literaly takes me less than 2 minutes to do a waterchange.