Just call me an idiot!!

[AW2EOD]

Well...in the 3 years that I've been keeping freshwater and the 6 months that I've been keeping salt water, I've made the most idiotic mistake EVER. Night before last, I noticed that the salinity was up to 1.028 from 1.026 on my reef...so, I did a water change. My girlfriend calls me at work today to tell me that my Percula and Firefish are "acting" funny. I tell her..."oh, it's no big deal...fish act wierd sometimes". A second call from her, this evening, reveals that both my Percula and Firefish are dead. :(

I raced home, and sure enough, both had wedged themselves into the live rock and passed on to the big ocean in the sky.

In all of my glorious stupidity, I didnt check the salinity after I did the water change. When I checked it, today, after flushing the fish, it was at 1.019. The salinity drop (from 1.028 to 1.019) was so drastic that I murdered the poor S.O.Bs. I took everything out of the reef (live rock, crabs, and Hammer Coral) and have placed them in the 55 gal. that I have been cycling for a few weeks and they seem to be doing alot better (they all looked like that had one foot in the grave when I got home).

I guess it's just another mistake that I chalk up to beginners.

[reefpicker]

Hi,

I am sorry to hear what happened to your fish.

It could be that you simply stressed an already stressed fish..

I doubt that the salinity change was enough to harm anything, but if it was too drastic, it could have sent the animals into an all-out stress attack....

I have kept clownfish for years and althought I may have never done such a drastic change (from 1.028 to 1.019, thats .010 units! How did you do that? How much water did you change?), I would expect them to survive. What happened in you tank? I am not sure. One thing that can kill fish and some of us forget is pH. Since the FW water is not at the same pH as your SW, if you attempted to lower the salinity by taking a few gallons of SW and replacing them with FW, you could have effectively lowered the pH. This would have a very drastic effect on the animals and would certainly stressed them.

Bottom line: Do not be alarmed if you salinity goes up, just bring it down by topping it off with FW. If topping off is not enough (i.e you just did a water change and your salinity is too high), then you can take some water out and replace it with FW but not a lot, say 5% only...

PD How much FW do you need to lower the salinity in your tank? What I do is that I use a weighted average. The "weights" are your salinity in s.g. units:

10 g at 1.029 = 10.29 units + 5 g at 0 (FW) = 15.29 / 15 = 1.019.

I bet you did a 5g water change in you tank!!!


HTH

[AW2EOD]

Reefpicker:

Thank you for your condolences (sp).

Now I feel even more stupid. lol I did do almost 5 gal....more like 3gal. Big time screw up, and I still cant believe that I did it.

By "topping off" do you mean if some saltwater has evaporated, just fill it back to the top with freshwater? Do I do it a little at a time, measuring salinity after each freshwater adding?

I'm really catching alot of heat over this...these were my girlfriends fish and now she's pissed that I killed "nemo-fish" (her name for him...lol).

I've taken everthing else out of the 15gal and put them in the cycling 55 gal. Do you see any problems with this? I siphoned about half the water out of the 15gal. and have added salt accordingly to get it back up and then I'm going to put one piece of live rock and the Hammer back in the 15gal. The crabs will do fine in the 55gal. while it's cycling and I'll add more live rock back to the 15gal. when I buy more, next week, for the 55gal.

[Cearbhaill]

By "topping off" do you mean if some saltwater has evaporated, just fill it back to the top with freshwater? Do I do it a little at a time, measuring salinity after each freshwater adding?
Stability is everything in reefkeeping.

Once you get your SG in the perfect range- draw a line (or put a piece of tape- whatever) on the outside of your tank at the exact water line. When the water level dips below this line add freshwater to level it up again.

I "top off" twice per day- it depends on the total volume of water that you have. Smaller tanks need to be topped off more often to keep things stable.

[AW2EOD]

Cearbhaill:

Excellant idea with the water line mark. I'll do it on both my 15gal and the new 55gal.

I bought some new live rock, today, for my 55gal. and have put 2 pieces back into the 15gal. after taking everything out. One of the pieces of rock that I got has a small anemome on it. I have no idea what it is. So, I put that piece in the 15gal. Tank inhabitants now are Green and Purple Sunburst Coral, unknown anemome, Large Green Mushroom, and a Large Hammer Coral.

[Cearbhaill]

Keep an eye on that unknown anemone.
"Aiptasia" (http://www.aquarium.net/faqs/aiptasia.shtml) anemones are common on some live rock and they spread like wildfire.

Just something else to worry about :D

[reefpicker]

Hi

Water is evaporated continously from the tank. This is why we top-off our tanks... Ideally, I would do it daily, but I have developed the bad habit of doing it once a week. However, it is important to keep an eye on the water level, as this can affect the filters in the tank.

If you do frequent top-offs, you there is no need to do them very slowly... However, one thing I have discovered is that topping off is easier if you have a "reservoir" tank that slowly siphons (i.e IV drips) the water to the tank. You only need to fill the reservoir every two or three days.

The marker idea is good. I have done this too but only when I need to keep the water below the tank's frame line, otherwise I always topoff just below the frame.

Also keep that "formula" in mind if you need to do a major top-off so that you can guess the effects that this top-off will have on the inhabitants.

I still think that your main problem was more a huge swing in pH. I have seen this kill fish before.




HTH