Fish doing great, everything else dying!!!! Help!

Come on guys, go easy on him. His dealer sold him a system and then sold him a service contract. He seems to have thought he was doing the right thing originally and is now realizing it is wise to go to other sources of information. Let's try to help him.

JK, I'd go out and get your own test kits. If you don't have corals get ones for:

Ammonia
Nitrate
Nitrite
pH
Alkalinity
Copper

If you do have corals or clams also get ones for

Calcium
Magnesium

Also do you have a hydrometer or refractometer (this one is more accurate)? Give us the number you have for SG/salinity.

Run the test kits and then give us the numbers.

Look at your service contract and tell us what it says they will do when doing the weekly service. Do you see them bringing in water? Have they set up a RO/DI unit at your home? Or are they using tap water?

How are you or they adding inverts? Meaning the acclimation I asked about earlier. Are you testing the SG of the source water before starting the acclimation?

Are you getting all the stock from one store?
 
BadRoma1 said:
this person asked for help, but won't give us what we ask. i don't think that he is interested anymore, he is letting a store to take care of the problem, but i just really wonder who gave him an idea to change all his live rock. acclimation possibly is not only a problem here. i brought snails and corals from someone else's house to mine and it was very hot in the car and the water heated by the time i got home, and i had no choice but throw them in my tank. they all are still alive few months later. with an improper acclimation something should make it through, unless it's a clam, which something in fact did. but if something like anemone isn't acclimated properly, it doesn't die that fast. i want to know what his corals and snails look like before he throws them away thinking that they are dead. shrimps do die withing few hours for whatever the reason because they are easy to stress. he depends on the store for testing, but my store was using dip sticks and was telling about my parameters that weren't true. their specific gravity was the highest you can go and hardness was off the chart, and so were their nitrates.
proper testing and letting us know the reasults is a must for us to go on in helping to figure out what is going on.
Click to expand...

Please don't be so presumptuous as to think I don't want help. I asked for opinions and I am VERY appreciative of the ideas presented. As for test results, I was shown every result as the tests were done and I could see that the results were in the "good" range. The one thing that I just tested myself that was not done in front of me was specific gravity. Mine is Around 1.25....out of the "good" range of my hydrometer.

I think we may be on to something here. Possibly the high salinity combined with a few minute acclimation might explain the issue here.

As for the condition of what is dead or not. I can assure you, I can see when something is dead. The smell is pretty compelling proof.

My next move is to take my water to the store where all the livestock has been purchased and do an A-B test for salinity.

As for copper, it was never added to the tank at any point. I am sure of this. I also have an RO unit hooked up to the tank as well to auto fill when levels require. I am not sure it is working.

Again, thanks for all of the input. I will take some water tomorrow and report back on the salinity difference. Could this be the problem with the inverts that has zero effect on the fish? My fish are thriving and I have not had any die on me (with one exception).
 
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Grins, thanks a lot for comments. As a self-proclaimed novice (and father of 4 very young children), I really thought I would let the "pros" handle the tank. I know how delicate a reef tank can be. I had a few SW tanks years ago and I know enough to be dangerous, but my lack of time between job and family led to the situation I am in now.

I have the test kits here. I will do some testing and because I haven't done it in a while, I follow every direction to the letter. I don't (or in my case can't) rely on memory for the number of drops like the service does. What I am saying is that my tests will be accurate since I am being ultra careful.

All livestock from same source. My gut says their water is too different from mine and that is the underlying issue.

Results to follow shortly. Sincere appreciation to all...
 
OK, test results are in....my water is totally screwed up!!!

pH - 8.0
ALK - high end of low range ~ 1.6
Nitrite - .05 ppm
Ammonia - .25 ppm
Nitrate - high - on the chart I have there is a high and low range (not sure what that means), the low range number was 20 and the corresponding high number is 100. That said, it was on the 5th out of 6 colors. Very high.

The salinity is 1.25.


I now have a major issue with my fish store. What the hell have I been paying for????

Any suggestions from here (other than a new service?)

I have a big credit based on the huge number of dead critters...I feel bad enough about that as it is.
 
What kind of test kits? Liquid? Strips? Brand? The liquid are better than the strips for many of results but the test kits do expire so sometimes will give "wonky" results.

You do want to test for copper even if you've never added it. For instance, do you have copper pipes in the house?

Your salinity is a little high at 1.025 but not scary horrendous. I shoot for 1.23-1.024 myself.

We can help you with how to do a water change, how to acclimate, make recommendations on equipment, compatibility and so forth but if your fish are safe for the moment your first line of defense might be in the contract. Are you in a large metro area? Even if not there may be a local reef club. If I was in your situation I'd contact the local reef club (a good place to start looking for one is http://www.masna.org/members/clubs.php ) and ask them for advise on local vendors. Don't be surprised if the LFS you are doing business is a sponsor of their's. That isn't a bad thing...if anything the local reef members won't put up with them not honoring a contract or giving bad advice if that is what they feel is the case.
 
Well the good news is that you an fix the problem, but you'll need to start with some water changes. Your ammonia and nitrite don't seem that high, but the nitrate is very high if it is at 100.

As far as your salinity goes, 1.25 is the top of the range. The Instant Ocean Hydrometer only goes to 1.24 from what I have read for a reason, they place that there for those that don't refill for evaperation daily or have an auto top off system. Since you have an auto top off it shouldn't be a problem as long as you can confirm if it is working. Otherwise you'll need to monitor the water levels and top off the water with RO/DI. But again I've heard of people having salinity levels higher than yours and fish surviving.
 
ive heard that fish can tolorate higher levels of dissolved metals than inverts.

i hear about a gut who couldnt keep peppermint shrimp alive for more than 48hrs. everything else was "ok", but the shrimp were all gonners

he used tap water that happened to have Extremly high levels of copper.

just another option to check for. especially if you've been buying "pre-mixed" h2o from the lfs
 
Red Sea Marine Lab liquid test kit. I am in Ft. Lauderdale, so yes to the major metro area. Even with bad water, the fish couldn't be doing better. They are healthy and thriving. The corals are in bad shape and the snails are dead...5th go round on snails. They were added yesterday and all sitting on the bottom...not moving.
 
I need to check for copper....I might have a kit in the area under the tank, I need to look. I had the same problem with peppermint shrimp. I can't recall how the tank was initially filled. The RO under the tanki is hooked up to a
copper water line. The house is brand spankin' new....not sure if that is better or worse. Going to look for a copper test. Would the nitrates level be enough to kill the turbo snails virtually on impact? I saw one on the glass last night, but by morning he was back in the pile of dead snails below. I think the poor guy was trying to escape....

I am furious at how poorly my tank has been handled. Spent $200 a month to avoid this and have nothing to show for it.

On the bright side, I have a potentially gorgeous 8ft long tank in the wall that will get fixed and become what it was intended to be. Thanks to all of you.....the saga continues.
 
one more thing....if the copper is high, how is that fixed? I have sand at the bottom of the tank...would that need to be removed?

Come to think of it, I seriously doubt copper is the issue. Even if the initial fill was tap, the tons of water changes would have remedied that. Copper seems less and less likely the culprit, but the kit will tell for sure.
 
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