How do you keep fish alive???

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oreo12

Guest
I did not read all the post so if I repet anyone sory. Nitrates don't mater how high they are for fish nitrites and amiona do fish live well anywhere for 21-26 the main thing is to aculmalte them real slow geting them ajusted to your water. I have a 29 gal with 5 fish a green star and sevreal snails. some type of huge shrimp. and sevreal corals I have 40 lbs of live rock a power filter with no media for water fall into tank to help with air into the water and 2 large power heads. my salt is 24 my temp is 78 the tank will do best once it has been set up for over 1 year I don't do water changes like so many on here do My tank has been up for 11 years now I have a tomato clown a pigmy angal and 3 damsals stick with it you will find what works for you
 
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oreo12

Guest
if the amiona is high just wate and the tank will take care of it by cycling once you let it alone and it naturaly brings itself down without trying to help it along then the tank will be able to keep fish alive
 

miked0523

Member
Make sure the bucket you use for making saltwater is new and has never had soap cleaner etc. in it. also tap water contains all sorts of stuff ,clorine, floride, heavy metals, which are all bad to marine fish. Be careful adding any chemicals to the tank or treating tap water. It might make your skimmer go crazy and make a big mess. The most important thing is do everything slowly. Water changes are good as long as the water you put in is good. Does your LFS sell pre mixed RO water if it does that might be the best way to go.
 

hansgraf

New Member
It's good to know that we can have a successful 29 gallon tank. From what we have heard the bigger they are the easier they are to maintain. I would like to try and see if we can be successful in this tank before trying to upgrade. I know that I will be going tomorrow to buy some of these test kits and a bunch of disstilled water. Do you still put the water conditioner in the distilled water or is it ready to go after you add the salt?
We have used the same bucket for all of our water chnges since we started the tank and it was new at the time. Each time I do another water change I rinse it out before filling it up. So I should do about 3-4 gallons of water change once a week?
We have a Penquin 200 Bio Wheel filter, a Penguin 550 powerhead 145 GPH, and a SeaClone 100 protein skimmer.
Is windex a serious no-no? If so what do ya all recommend for keeping the little fingerprints off the glass?
rstiles - What is the buffer talked about? Something you put in the water?
 

1journeyman

Active Member
Seriously, Grab "A conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Fenner. The book will really open your eyes t owhat and why things happen in your tank. If nothing else, it gives you the knowledge to know truth from fiction at the pet store.
For instance, adding 3 fish to a 29 gallon is not wise. They should have told you that.
Some other questions: Have you ever medicated your tank? (bad idea)
Do you have good oxygen exchange on the surface of your tank? (no glass coverings, plenty of waves, etc.)
 

puffer32

Active Member
Windex should not be sprayed on the glass, but on a rag and then used on the tank glass.
You do not have to add any water conditioner to ro/distilled water.
 

miked0523

Member
You are going to want reverse osmosis water. Not distilled.You should be able to buy it at wal-mart and dont put any water conditioner in it just mix with salt let sit and areate for at least 24 hours and thats it. you should not need to use any chemcals ie stress coat ammonia remover it is unneeded. Buffer is used to maintain and bring up PH slowly. You can buy aquarium safe glass cleaner from you LFS or Online.
 

snipe

Active Member
Mixing water 24hours ahead of time will be alright some ppl mix it 10 to 12 hours ahead of time. Water flow should be 10 to 15X the tank gallons for fish only and 20 to 30 times for reef. Nitrates do effect fish if you read alot of fish are effected by nitrates and 50 max even for the toughest fish. Nitrates feed algae so keep them as close to 0 as possible. Like said 20% for a water change every other day to bring the amonia down is fine as alot of ppl would recomend or do 30% (mine went up and 1 20% change brought it to 0). It wont shock the live rock as bacteria is the only thing that makes live rock live and its shipped up to 4 days in wet paper towels. And yes Windex will whipe out a tank as things in it are deadly to even pets. All I use to clean my tank is warm water (the whipe on whipe off method, "young grasshoper"). The buffer is something that keeps the water stabalized for that perticular thing (calcium, kalkwasser, PH, Alkalinity) all have buffers. Read before dosing and be sure to test the water as dosing or you could add to mutch.
 

monalisa

Active Member
Originally Posted by hansgraf
It's good to know that we can have a successful 29 gallon tank. From what we have heard the bigger they are the easier they are to maintain. I would like to try and see if we can be successful in this tank before trying to upgrade. I know that I will be going tomorrow to buy some of these test kits and a bunch of disstilled water. Do you still put the water conditioner in the distilled water or is it ready to go after you add the salt?
We have used the same bucket for all of our water chnges since we started the tank and it was new at the time. Each time I do another water change I rinse it out before filling it up. So I should do about 3-4 gallons of water change once a week?
We have a Penquin 200 Bio Wheel filter, a Penguin 550 powerhead 145 GPH, and a SeaClone 100 protein skimmer.
Is windex a serious no-no? If so what do ya all recommend for keeping the little fingerprints off the glass?
rstiles - What is the buffer talked about? Something you put in the water?


hansgraf, as everyone else has stated, I'm really sorry you've had such a hard time.
I'm maintaining a 37 gallon tank with, well I won't say "no" problems, but very few and I'm managing them at the moment...that can always change as I've found.
Is your Wal Mart a super center? If so, they will have a "drinking water" machine, probably back by the other beverages. The initial cost for the containers is like 12-13 bucks filled for 3 gallons (I bought 2), but after that bring the containers back for a refill of less than 2 bucks for both!! I also started out with distilled tap before I found this site, and I think I may have dodged a few bullets by switching quick enough. After enough of the water changes with RO, you will be amazed at the quality of life in your tank. I generally keep two 3gal containers on hand during any given week. This works well for me with topping off and changes...I do a 10% change every week, even since my skimmer is in, just cause I love to do it, weird, I know. :help:
As far as the Windex goes, I've tried furiously to keep any kind of chemicals away from my tank. I just use a clean cloth towel, and I'm getting some new cloth diapers for that purpose...I'm hoping they'll also work great on the windshield of my car.
You will definitely have a healthy 29 gallon...you're in the right place. Whenever I get a "wild hair" I come here first to see if it's feesible. Everyone here is great to share.
Lisa :happyfish
 

duke jjz

Member
A very important question that i cant believe anyone asked yet is: How are you acclimating these fish? Are you dripping them?
 

hansgraf

New Member
I followed the acclimation process suggested from SWF.com to the letter. I put them in their bags in the top of the tank for 30 minutes. I put them into a 2 gallon bucket and dripped them for three hours. I then put them in the tank with the lights and powerhead turned off for another three hours. At which point I turned the lights back on, turned the powerhead back on and fed them some pellets.
I was at Walmart today and yes it is a super-center. Funny you brought it up because I was in the back buying pop and I saw these two ladies filling up water bottles from something that looked like a huge water container like you would see in a office building. Only it was big and noisy. Pardon my naivetee but is that the RO water everyone is talking about???? Can you also buy it in a gallon container??? What is the difference between RO and distilled??? :notsure:
 

snipe

Active Member
Ro is Revers Osmosis and Distilled is DI its just a diffrent way of filtering the water and Reverse Osmosis water is a better filtration method though distilled will work. You can buy it buy the gallon its colored and usually by the big tank you were talking about but costs around 38 cents a gallon as were the machine costs around 32 cents a gallon.
 

miked0523

Member
when people say ro/di it means deionized water meaning water going through a ion exchange chamber after an reverse osmosis filter . Distilled water is not as good
 

jerthunter

Active Member
Here are my 2 cents, even though I am sure this all has be covered in great detail already. I will only try to give suggestions that have not been made before or atleast not totally covered.
1. If you use a tap water conditioner then make sure it sits over night, water conditioners can cause a lack of Oxygen initally.
2. The difference between RO & DI was covered but I want to clarify, RO/DI water is theoretically better then just RO water but on such a small scale it is not worth it in my opinion. DI water is not BAD for a fish tank. This topic was brought up in another thread, it is bad for humans, but since you are going to mix it with a salt mix for your fish it will be ok.
3. Rule of thumb for mixing salt, 1/4 cup for 1/2 gal. Of course test your water before you change it.
Now in my opinion your water parameters are fine and the fact that your inverts are still living but not your fish makes me think that the death of your fish has little or nothing to do with your water parameters. I hope you have better luck from now on.
 

tscuda

Member
Everyone else is telling you how to keep them alive. So I'll cover the other side.
When you see that they are not going to make it. The kind thing to do is put them in a Dixie cup and put in the freezer for about 10 mins. They kinda fall asleep just like what you'd do for a common house pet.
 

snipe

Active Member
I dont think my dog would fit in a dixie cup and he definatly aint goin in the freezer!!!!!
 

mikeyjer

Active Member
I don't think what I'm gonna say matters much cause your fish don't live long enough to know. What are you feeding them?? Certain fish requires certain food, a variety of food is good. Is kinda amazing that your inverts are doing well when you have so much problem with your fish. All the stuffs I want to say were covered by all the previous post. The only time I ever had fish died from the first day was from the very beginning when I first got these tanks. Insufficient oygen cause the death. I've learned since then and I haven't had too much problem keeping them alive except when I encounter ich and parasites. That's been long gone now. If you have the money, at least invest in a larger tank like a 55 gallon to start with for saltwater, 29 gal is a bit small and harder to keep up. Do you LFS sell premixed water? If you have a ***** near by, they sell premixed 5 gallon. Also at what temperature do you keep your tank?? You need to make sure there's a good water flow in your tank, cause if your fish died within 18 hrs, it sounds like they suffocated from insufficient oxygen if all the other readings are good. You need to position the powerhead to where it can disturb the surface water. Maybe you need to get another powerhead, one for the surface, the other going down towards the rock work. I have two maxi jet 1200, one on each side, both pointed towards one another on either side going just a bit upwards to disturb the water. I only clean my tank glass with a damp soft clothe. Good Luck with your tank, I hope something I've mentioned would help.
 

rstiles

Member
I use Seachem Marine Buffer it will buffer at 8.3
All so I would recommed getting a hydrometer(to test salt) I found the ones you put the water in and a arm will flote to the reading can be off as much 2-3 points if your tester is showing .23 and it is higher it will affect the live stock most lps keep it around .21 so if you are in that rang your ok.As far as adding any thing to the ro / distiled water your salt will have all the trace elaments,target temp of fish only 72-80 , 75-78 for reef.Adding large quantities of salt to a small amount of water can cause calcium to precipitate lowing ph to dangerous leavels,so fill your mixing container with all the water you will need before slowly adding the salt,I add about 1/3 at a time.Hope this helps
 

snipe

Active Member
1.021 or 1.023 is way to low for a reef tank. Inverts like it around 1.026 and a swing arm is a hydrometer your talking about a refractometer.
 
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