Salinity Death?

[kadella]

Hi All - I just had a mysterious death of my 2 clowns. Water was tested by me & LFS, was perfect, also tried a poly filter to check for toxins & none there. The only thing noticeable was I hadn't realized my salinity had risen so high to 1.028 as I had been taking out so much water for testing & didn't put in enough topoff. The clowns were drip acclimated last Friday into water of 1.025, 1 clown died on tues, had sort of dry skin look to him and the other just last night after I lowered the salinity to 1.024 on Wed. The lfs checked their tank where the clowns came from & all of theirs were fine, no brook/parasites or anything. They also were not eating hardly & their gills seemed to be moving rapidly & hovered around surface quite a bit before they died. Would the salinity rise be enough to cause this? I feel terrible, these were my 1st 2 fish, I am reluctant to try again. Also, how can I test the oxygen level? Help!

55 gal long
aqua c prot. skimmer w/maxijet 1200
emp 400
50 lbs LR
50 lbs LS
2 maxijet 900's
10 HC
15 Nass Snails
ph 8.3
amm 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
current sal. 1.024
calc 320

 

[pclown]

How often are you adding water for top offs? When you take water out for testing that does not change the Salinity. Evaporation would though.
Are you using tap water?
Dont give up, things happen somtimes but you will get it.

 

[kadella]

Thanks for the encouragement... I'm still so sad though - I top off with RO water from the unit I set up in my basement. I usually add some topoff every 3-4 days or when I notice the water line below the black lining on the tank - I really cannot tell how much I'm losing each day, I guess I though my taking out water often lately may have affected it. I really don't think I have much evaporation- most of my water missing was from testing & acclimating the 2 clowns & some crabs/snails.

 

[pclown]

You may already know this but when you top off are you using salt water or just plain RO water w/no salt?

 

[kadella]

Ha, knew that was coming! No - I always use RO water the same temp as tank to topoff. Apparently salinity is something that needs to be monkey'd with every day as opposed to every few days as I thought. It is a constant battle to keep it steady with evap. & water chgs etc. Do you think I have plenty of oxygen in the tank?

 

[lionfish1]

What I do is have a spot on my filter where the top of the water is so I can keep track and top off everyday to that same spot.

 

[saltfan]

Originally Posted by kadella
Hi All - I just had a mysterious death of my 2 clowns. Water was tested by me & LFS, was perfect, also tried a poly filter to check for toxins & none there. The only thing noticeable was I hadn't realized my salinity had risen so high to 1.028 as I had been taking out so much water for testing & didn't put in enough topoff. The clowns were drip acclimated last Friday into water of 1.025, 1 clown died on tues, had sort of dry skin look to him and the other just last night after I lowered the salinity to 1.024 on Wed. The lfs checked their tank where the clowns came from & all of theirs were fine, no brook/parasites or anything. They also were not eating hardly & their gills seemed to be moving rapidly & hovered around surface quite a bit before they died. Would the salinity rise be enough to cause this? I feel terrible, these were my 1st 2 fish, I am reluctant to try again. Also, how can I test the oxygen level? Help!

55 gal long
aqua c prot. skimmer w/maxijet 1200
emp 400
50 lbs LR
50 lbs LS
2 maxijet 900's
10 HC
15 Nass Snails
ph 8.3
amm 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
current sal. 1.024
calc 320
That skimmer you have should be sufficient for your oxygen levels. That and your 2 powerheads.

 

[kadella]

Lionfish! You are a lifesaver!! I am so overwhelmed right now I did not even think of that-I am going to mark a spot with tape or something so I know exactly how much water is missing... Now if only I could figure out why my 1st 2 fish died.... All I can do is try again I guess.. :happyfish

 

[j-bird]

Don't mean to hijack thread, but to go back to original question about salinity causing death. Is 1.028-1.029 enough to kill fish if you are normally at 1.025. Very curious because I also just had fish die and all other parameters are good??

 

[kadella]

Bump - does anyone know if a fairly quick rise in salinity to 1.028-029 could cause fish death? Tx!