Please help

the claw

the claw

Active Member
Sorry LeopardBabe for the bad luck. I was just reading through your posts. Three thoughts occured to me. One was the windex, two was the mixing of your saltwater. There has been discussion on hear as of late of Instant Ocean having a bad batch of salt. I think Thomas was talking about it about 3 weeks ago. It wiped out his tank. The third thought was do you have any clean up crew such as sea cucumbers, which could cause cuke nuke. Just some thoughts.
 
michaeltx

michaeltx

Moderator
sorry for the fishies.
but i think it could have been any of the things that were mentioned above.
if I would have to pick on that I suspect it would be a combination of lack of O2 and the possible pollution of the glass cleaner.
none the less its one of those things that you have to look at all the possibilities and see what you can do to fix what might have caused it.
The only thing that I will add is this when you clean your glass of the tank the best thing that I have found to get the excess salt creep or splatter off and get the glass clean is rubbing alchol on a lint free cloth and rub it till its dry it will give you a nice clean glass and less chance of spraying anything in the tank.
Mike
 
leopard_babe

leopard_babe

Active Member
thanks mike I will try that instead. I use rubbing alcohol on everything. I will do that from now on. that is interesting about the instant ocean. Is there a way to check and see if it is bad?
Claw I do not have any cukes in my tank, so it was not that.
looks like I am going shpping tommorow. Maxi jets, carbon, and maybe my new lights. Thanks for all the replies. You guys have been extremely helpful. I think I would be clueless in this hobby if I didn't have this board.
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Glad to hear you are hanging in there!
It's rough to lose a fish, especially when you don't have any idea why. It seems like you have thought everything through and are going to correct anything that *might* have caused the problem.
Looking forward to hearing your future success stories.
 
michaeltx

michaeltx

Moderator
Is there a way to check and see if it is bad?
from the way I read everything from thomas and others and the threads that I have read is that the bad IO doesnt become clear but stays cloudy and precipitates a white crust on the bottom of the mixing containers. as far as tests you can run the main battery of test alk, ph and such in one of thomas' threads it says what is high in the bad mix but I dont remember which was WAY off.
BTW I use it on everything to including my hands and arms and then rinse before I do anything in the tank. I deeal with chemicals in my grooming shop for dipping and medicated shampoos for various dogs and thats a chance I dont want to take any chances when dealing in any of my tanks and so far I havent had a problem ever with this method of sanitizing my hands other than them getting dry LOL .
HTH
Mike
 
tony detroit

tony detroit

Active Member
Leopard babe, don't forget to use the little screen baggies for the carbon. You can get them at petsupplies plus on west rd., if tanksalot doesn't have them. They're about 2dollars for a couple, and they help mucho.
Also take the glass lids off. If you are concerned about your fish jumping out you can do what I do and buy eggcrate. If you go to home depot go into the lighting department where they have those four foot long fluorescent lights like in the hospital or office buildings and you will see it. It is little 1/2'' squares in like three -four foot sheets, I think it's about ten bucks. Get that and cut it the size of your glass tops and it will fit your aquarium. You will still have good gas exchange and you won't have to worry about your fish jumping out.
 
leopard_babe

leopard_babe

Active Member
Mike: You put the alcohol on your hands and in the tank? Doesn't that hurt the fish? You know it might have been the salt. This white crustiness is sounding fimiliar to my salt. i will have to find that thread. thanks for the advise.
Tony: I got the carbon today, n put it in the baggy. When should I change the carbon. the directions on it are not that clear. How long should I leave it in there? I dont know if you read my thread in agressive, I was contemplating a small eel. So that is why I would put the lid back on. I didn't realize that could cause a problem. I will look into this home depot thing. Uh oh I have to build now. I think that I can handle that. I am running a wet/dry with a cap 1800 and a protein skimmer. And yes I love leopards. Yours looks AWESOME. Someday I would like to have sharks. When I am WAY more experienced. Do you have a pix of the whole set up of the tank. i would like to see that. Hopefully i will have fish in my tank of doom in the next year or so. :rolleyes: Thanks for your help.
Leopard
 
tony detroit

tony detroit

Active Member
Word of advise, those Cap pumps blow. They're pretty much a Rio knock-off. When yours goes you should replace it with a Mag-drive.
 
michaeltx

michaeltx

Moderator
No I dont use alchol in the tank I use it on my hands and arms and then rinse it off really good before I go into the tank to get everything off so that I dont contaminate the tank water and then on the outside of the glass.
Mike
 
tony detroit

tony detroit

Active Member
You don't really have to build those covers, they come in sheets, you just trim them to fit your tank. All you'll need is a small handsaw and a tapemeasure & marker.
 
leopard_babe

leopard_babe

Active Member
Hey tony, anything that you can't use scissors on is building. I think that i am going to do that. The 2 caps came with my sump. When I bought the wet/dry that is what it came with, so I didn't think anything of it.
Mike the alcohol doesn't harm anything in the tank? I know that it is just on your body, but i would think that it would hurt the water. I am going to try that. I dont have anything in there so it won't be a problem.
Thanks guys,
Leopard
 
tony detroit

tony detroit

Active Member
Rubbing alcohol volatizes quite rapidly.
I.E. If you spill a cup on a hot driveway in the summer and come back five minutes later, you won't even see a wet spot. You really don't have to worry much about it getting into your tank even without washing off.
 
leopard_babe

leopard_babe

Active Member
So you could use alcohol on your hands and it wouldn't effect the tank. I see how that would work. Maybe I will just stick to washing my hands with hot water.
 
leopard_babe

leopard_babe

Active Member
LFS. The vending machine thing at meijer gave me bad water one time. I asked them the last time they changed there filter, and hey said it was so long that they didn't know. That is a great thing to tell a paying customer. My LSF water is reliable. I haven't ever had a problem.
 
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