Moray Eel sick again :*( PLEASE HELP!!! Weird algae growing too!

[Hebily]

Your water change schedule is very likely a problem. You should be changing out water much more frequently than that. 25% a week would be the minimum I would reccomend. You also need to sample and keep an eye on the parameters. You need 0 ammonia, and 0 nitrItes, all the time. If either one of these is over 0.25, you should immediately change as much water as neccessary to bring it back below .25. I'm not sure if it's the temperature or the salt that killed the rosies, but I'm pretty sure that they prefer cool, fresh water. Is your sg at 1.010? I don't know if moray's like the temp as high as 86 or not. That might also be a problem, but I am not sure. Most aquarium fish prefer between 75 and 80.

 

[aquariumdude]

lol i meant 76 sorry, you probably think im toasting the guy lol...i'll raise the salinty tonight to almost pure salt then. Won't that hurt him if it's an immediate change. The LPS told me do it slowly but obviously these nuts have no idea what they are talking about really unfortunaly. What salt do you recommend bc aquarium salt sucks!! takes way too much to change the salinity

 

[Lycanthropic]

do it slowly or you risk killing all of your bateria! about 1.002 per week increase tops IMO

 

[Hebily]

Ok, I'm really not into the whole salt/brackish thing yet, so I don't really know, but isn't marine salt usu. used to create a brackish environment?

I do know enough to know that any major change to water params will cause shock if not done slowly. In some cases, this is better than the fish continuing to live in the conditions they are in, but I do think that in this case you are better off raising specific gravity slowly.

 

[Star_Rider]

you can do it slowly thru water changes using full 1.025 sg.
i would not recommend large water changes in marine tanks .
properly set up they are much different than FW tanks. use LR as part of the filtration with a sump/fuge.
my marine tanks with lr get maybe 10% per week changes.

btw consider
RO/DI if you go full salt.

 

[Hebily]

I'm going to re-emphasize this, because I feel it may be important.

Should the OP be using Aquarium salt to create a brackish environment?

 

[aquariumdude]

.

 

[aquariumdude]

so 75-80 degress
need to get marine salt and raise slowly
more frequent water changes

How slowly should I add the marine salt though, just once a wk maybe when I do the water changes? Also do I have to have a refugium or skimmer?

 

[Hebily]

From here on out, I'm learning just as much as you are. I'm not entirely sure you need marine salt.

 

[Star_Rider]

I'm going to re-emphasize this, because I feel it may be important.

Should the OP be using Aquarium salt to create a brackish environment?

No. OP should be using marine salt

it has the buffers added which is why I suggest moving to RO/DI you need to really start with a control for source water..

as you do water changes ..say 10% use 1.025 sg water this should be done over the course of days/weeks.
this will slowly raise the SG of the main tank.
once the sg reaches the desired level then use ro to top off.
you do not have to have a skimmer. I suggest looking into a refugium as this will eventually help transport phosphates and nitrate.

they make HOB fuges that are little ecosystems.
but really these are optional and add to smaller water changes.

lr rubble in the fuge with macro algae helps keep water quality .