Brandon Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 so today my 4 month old fish only tank had a massive failure after a water change =( i lost my black clown fish, coral beauty and my 3 stripe damsel for the life of me i cant find what went wrong when i measured the tanks levels i fount this PH: 8.2 NO2 Nitrite: 0 NO3 Nitrate: 0 NH3/NH4 Ammonia: 0 GH General Hardness: 180 KH Carbonate Hardness: 240 Salinity: 1.021 i was quite devastated at the loss of my beautiful fish steve at pollys said it must be my waters KH and GH can anyone offer any insight to my situation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaJMasta Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 What was your salinity before the water change? 1.021 is a little low, but if you were running 1.025 or higher the sudden change in salinity of the water change could definitely do it. Also was the water you used already heated? If you have a big loss immediately after a water change, it's usually an indicator of bad water chemistry going in. Occasionally it could be stirring up something or killing something in the cleaning process before the change, and sometimes it's a coincidence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 Did you have any fish that survived? I know it's a fish only tank but do you have any inverts as CUC? If so how were they affected? Is it possible the equipment you use for doing water changes got contaminated somehow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 How long had your new saltwater been mixing/agitated? If it had been sitting stagnant for very long the oxygen content could have been low enough that when you did the change it in effect suffocated the fish. What kind of salt and how long have you used that brand? How big is your tank and how big was the water change? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 Also - I've never seen anyone on a saltwater forum talk about GH - you are using saltwater test kits, right? What brand and how old are they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 How long had your new saltwater been mixing/agitated? If it had been sitting stagnant for very long the oxygen content could have been low enough that when you did the change it in effect suffocated the fish. What kind of salt and how long have you used that brand? How big is your tank and how big was the water change? +1, this is a real possibility, I've had this happen before. I used well water that later I learned has 0% dissoved oxygen and it dropped my ph down to 6.5 for a short time, many of my fish broke out with ich and some of them died. Now I always arreate my water for at least a day before using it now. I quickly learned all about dissolved oxygen and ph the hard way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derekreefer Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 How long had your new saltwater been mixing/agitated? If it had been sitting stagnant for very long the oxygen content could have been low enough that when you did the change it in effect suffocated the fish. What kind of salt and how long have you used that brand? How big is your tank and how big was the water change? +1 good call E. I agitate the fresh for a day before mixing....I guess I'll continue to do so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Posted April 9, 2011 Author Share Posted April 9, 2011 (edited) the water change salinity was 1.022 and the water change temp was 78 degrees the tank runs at a steady 80 degrees the mix had been left mixing for 10 to 15 minutes this is the same process i had followed for every water change before i lost all fish it is a fish only tank except for the two very small cleaner crabs that survived as far as what test kit i am using it is an api saltwater marine test kit Edited April 9, 2011 by Brandon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 Most people mix their saltwater a day in advance. You didn't say what salt you're using but it's possible it wasn't mixed thoroughly enough. If the crabs survived contamination seems less likely. Where are you getting your fresh water with which you make your saltwater? Is it tap or RO/DI? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Posted April 9, 2011 Author Share Posted April 9, 2011 i am using oceanic salt and i had been using tap water with no issues but can i get away with using the ro water from the culligan machine at walmart the closest places i know of that sells ro water to me is 20 miles in any direction Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 Yes, you can, but it might be worth it to invest in an RODI unit of your own. Did you dechlorinate the tap water before mixing it with the salt? Not trying to be insulting, just trying to get to the bottom of your problem. You also still haven't said how big your tank is and how big the water change was. The more info and the more specific you can be the better we can help you. I'm also still a little puzzled by the GH reading. I've never seen a saltwater test kit that measured GH but I'm not the most experienced person around, maybe someone else can chime in why you'd measure that on a saltwater tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Posted April 9, 2011 Author Share Posted April 9, 2011 no worries no insult taken i know im a beginner in salt and im very prone to make some very rookie mistakes there are just somethings all of my books on saltwater keeping doesnt really cover in great detail.... it was a 5 gallon water change in a 55 gallon tank i plan on investing in a RODI unit as soon as i can .... as far as de-chlorination i did not de chlorinate the water since i had talked with a man who works at aquadome who said he had no issues with using tap water in his salt fish only tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myvirtue Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 im sure the man at aquadome still dechlorinates his tap water. its a must for freshwater and saltwater tanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 With municipal water systems there's no telling what was in the tap water you used, unfortunately... +1 on dechlorination or switching to the RO. Very sorry for the loss of your livestock! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Posted April 9, 2011 Author Share Posted April 9, 2011 thank you all very much! from now on im going with RODI water only i just called around and there is a LFS in san marcos that is actually starting to sell RODI water in two weeks no more tap water for me! lesson learned Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 I'm glad to hear you'll be able to get RO. I know people locally using tap water on reef systems successfully but when I switched to RO years ago a lot of my nuisance algae problems cleared up on their own and I still feel a lot safer using RO. A precipitous drop in oxygen would explain why the fish with their higher oxygen demand died where the crabs survived. I would urge you to monitor your tank very closely as you start to add more fish. It's reasonable a 5 gal. water change caused this dieoff but over the years I've had to do much larger water changes with dechlorinated tap water in emergencies without an immediate or significant loss of life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 I have lost fish in a large system in which I had propagating tanks using 4 hours of indirect sunlight. As I was using 64 square feet of tank with a 6" water de[th, it was easy to saturate some of these low level light demanding softies, On one occasion, while vacationing for two weeks in the Smokie Mountains for Autumn Roilage, a power outage with the local co-op caused a low level oxygen reading in the water coloum to kill all fish. No invetebrae were hurt, howevfer, there was much stress to the system. Luckily, this occurred the day before I returned home from vacation. No fish had decomposwed after the short time after death. Unless you monitore dissolved oxygen levels levels 24/7, you will nwever know for sure. Keep the Peace,Spread the Faith. Patrick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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