Please Help

[hollywooddiver]

Please. I need some input or ideas. I am lost here. Everything that has been in my tank since it was establshed, is doing great. My levels are great (except salinity. i have no idea if its on or not. i use a hydrometer, so it may be off. i know i know i need to get a refractometer.) but back to the question at hand. So it all started when I lost 2 hermits within a day of each other. I didnt think much of it. Then I added and bicolor goat like 5 days later and it was belly up within 24 hours of putting it in the tank. Then I just added a cleaner shrimp and it was belly up within 24 hours. I have no idea what the problem could be cause everything that has been in the tank is doing awesome. Any ideas what the issue could be. i have run out of ideas. Please help.

 

[geridoc]

Can you tell us how your acclimate new organisms, if you quarantine, and what is your true salinity?

 

[hollywooddiver]

i acclimate with the drip method. i dont have a qt yet. i am in the process of building a second tank right now and the one i have will be the qt. i dont know my true salinity cause i dont have a refractometer. my hydrometer is reading 1.023. i know i need to buy a refractometer but i am taking my water to the lfs tomorrow to get the salinity tested. i actually am buying a refractometer this week.

 

[al mc]

Rapid deaths many times are chemistry issues. You indicated your water parameters are OK. What are they? I would be suspicious of a problem with pH without knowing any of the parameters.

 

[t316]

Not to put you down, because I can tell that you care, otherwise you wouldn't be asking, but until I could know for certain what my readings are, I wouldn't add another living thing. I would retest everything, but it could very well be the salinity. Inverts have a very small tolerance to change.

 

[hollywooddiver]

Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 30
Ammonia: 0
Ph: 8.2
Calcium: 400
Salinity: Hydrometer says 1.023

 

[hollywooddiver]

Yeah no i'm not. i did a waterchange after i lost the bicolor which was like a week ago. i put the cleaner is yesterday. i'm going in tomorrow to get the water tested.

 

[wattsupdoc]

I believe it may be a source issue. Did these all come from the same source? Regardless though it could very well be a problem with the animals themselves. I believe that if there are fish in there now, and they are doing well adding the new fish shouldn't have been it's demise. As long as it was slowly acclimated. Of course your parameters could be way off when using the hydrometer. I was shocked to see I was running at 1.029 when measuring 1.024 on my hydrometer. This could definitely be a chemistry issue, but we cant rule out the initial health of the animals either. Coincidence? Possibly, but not such a coincidence if the source is the same. Remember that even different LFS can have the same supplier.....

 

[hollywooddiver]

i have three fish that have been in the tank and are doing wonderful. 2 are from the lfs i usually go to and one from a local lfs (which i no longer go to cause i have come to realize they aren't very good. the final straw was me calling to ask if they did full test panels and they use a hydrometer. 2 of the hermits that died are from that store.)

 

[t316]

"If" it is the salinity, then the invert deaths would not surprise me. I couldn't tell you how many shrimp I went thru before finally deciding to test the water that was in the bag from the lfs. Thru a lot of research, I found that in general, many lfs's keep a very low salinity, especially for inverts, to keep their tanks free from visible disease and ailements. So whether your readings are off or not, if their salinity is much lower than yours, not only do you need to do a slow temp acclimation, but an even slower water chemistry acclimation. Since I figured this out, and made the proper adjustments, I don't think I have lost an invert since.....and I use that lfs a lot less btw.

 

[hollywooddiver]

yeah. the bicolor goat and cleaner were both acclimated with the drip method for about 2 hours.

 

[hollywooddiver]

Anyone else?

 

[hollywooddiver]

ok so i just retested my tank. (dont test at night. hehehe) my ph was between 7.8 and 8.0. so i just added some buffer so we'll see what happens. hopefully that was the case and the problems will be handled.

 

[deejeff442]

better to raise ph with water changes.

 

[hollywooddiver]

i did a water change aswell.

 

[shrimpi]

Originally Posted by wattsupdoc
http:///forum/post/2890256
I believe it may be a source issue. Did these all come from the same source? Regardless though it could very well be a problem with the animals themselves. I believe that if there are fish in there now, and they are doing well adding the new fish shouldn't have been it's demise. As long as it was slowly acclimated. Of course your parameters could be way off when using the hydrometer. I was shocked to see I was running at 1.029 when measuring 1.024 on my hydrometer. This could definitely be a chemistry issue, but we cant rule out the initial health of the animals either. Coincidence? Possibly, but not such a coincidence if the source is the same. Remember that even different LFS can have the same supplier.....
this is exactly what i was thinking when I read the first post.
I would try a different source and see what happens.
Jess

 

[sean48183]

Get that ph up. And add buffer to all water top off. I use seachem 8.3 which raises both alk and ph and helps keep everything steady. Marine critters are real sensitive to ph problems.
Ps don't bother with the drip method. I use a turkey baster -take about a 1/4 of the water out of the bag and add the same amount of tank water in every 5 minutes for about 20 minutes. Much less stress on the critter.

 

[hollywooddiver]

yeah i use kent buffer. it handles ph and ak. i just forgot to use it ( it was in the bottom of my salt mixing bucket that i havnt used in a long time)

 

[sepulatian]

Do you know why the PH is low to begin with? What sized tank is this? What do you have for flow? What all equipment is on the tank? How long has it been set up? PH issues often have more to do with things set up improperly or a non-mature system than anything else.

 

[hollywooddiver]

i dont know why is was so low. i have a 10g. hang on filter. powerhead creating flow. 14lbs live sand, 10 lbs of live rock. its been set up for about 8 weeks now. so it's still new.