My Tank Crashed

[Cosmoreef]

Hi My LFS mixd my RO water wrong and put way to much salt in the water so my angel and my fire fish died. my Exinia died my corals are sick. and my clown is sick. im adding a picher of fresh water once every half hour and taking out a picher to lower the salanity. and im gonna do that till its fixed any other tips? :'(

[Lalani]

How high was the SG and what is it measuring at now?

[reef keeper]

Hi My LFS mixd my RO water wrong and put way to much salt in the water so my angel and my fire fish died. my Exinia died my corals are sick. and my clown is sick. im adding a picher of fresh water once every half hour and taking out a picher to lower the salanity. and im gonna do that till its fixed any other tips? :'(

That sucks hope everything thats still alive makes it.

[FishyFishy!]

Maybe try setting up a quarantine tank/rubbermaid mixed with the proper water? Add a power head or two and even some filtration/airstone.

[Cosmoreef]

How high was the SG and what is it measuring at now?

 

The SG was 1.032 now its 1.026 but i have to do it slow soi dont shock my clown

[Lalani]

The SG was 1.032 now its 1.026 but i have to do it slow soi dont shock my clown

1.032 is not super high, 1.026 is right where I keep my tanks, so don't lower the SG anymore. Something else must have caused the fish to become sick. Did anything else change or have you added anything new to the tank recently?

Remove what's dead and do water changes with good saltwater while you try to figure out what happened.

[Cosmoreef]

1.032 is not super high, 1.026 is right where I keep my tanks, so don't lower the SG anymore. Something else must have caused the fish to become sick. Did anything else change or have you added anything new to the tank recently?

 

Well when i tested the SG it was off the charts and i normally keep it at 1.023, And i added some Zoas and a richordia

[reefer916]

That's a pretty hefty swing in SG, which will definitely shock a system. You did the right thing by slowly reducing the SG. I'd definitely start mixing your own saltwater for many reasons. Most LFS's don't use high end reef salt in their mixes either. I'd also test the RO/DI water that they're using with a TDS meter. I noticed a diatom bloom and some GHA growing on one of my rocks. I tested the RO/DI water I was getting from my LFS and it had a TDS reading of 32, which is relatively safe but not ideal because of the phosphates. Now I get my water from another reefer who has a TDS meter hooked up to his RO/DI system, until I get my own setup.

 

I agree with the previous posts and start doing frequent water changes to make sure the water quality doesn't deteriate due to the die off. Good luck

[Lalani]

How large of a water change did you do with the LFS water?

[Austin]

+1 to Lalani 1.026 is fine, pretty standard for reef tanks.

 

Your SG went from 1.023 to 1.032? That would be an enormous WC...

 

Are you using a swing arm or a refractometer?

 

I think something else caused those deaths, Cosmoreef...

[Dani3d]

yes 1.032 is not enough to kill fish I think. probably something else.

 

I would not trust that LFS any more. Buy your own RO and you will save time and money on the long run. There are even portable and affordable RO unit.

[andrewguilfoy]

TDS 32?! I would shoot your LFS owner and steal all of his fish. tell him to change his "mem"-brane before I go "in"-sane

[Bill Nye]

This is why I always mix my own salt. You can never assume someone else is going to do something as well as you would, even someone who does this for a living.

[mrbigshot]

1lb 5.1oz of reef crystals to 4 gallons (about a middle finger down from the lip of a 5 gallon pail) of water (thats for 1.0245 1.025), weight never changes but as salt settles you can get more if you measure by volume.