Almost Instadeath

[Shaun Sweeney]

I overlooked the tank size. Belay that last comment.

 

[Bam327]

API ammonia kits are not the best. I would get another test kit, but if you had an ammonia spike it would probably be converted by now. I'm leaning towards ammonia being the culprit. I've heard people getting a faulty reading on API.
Did anything die off? Even a turbo snail? You may have stated this, but did you use dry rock? Did you cure it? I didn't cure mine (stupidly) and the amount of decay and decomposition was significantly more than I was anticipating. Also, what kind of rock do you have? If its Pukani, things can disappear inside it never to be found again. Is it possible something died that you didnt see and cause an ammonia spike?

 

[9975]

I received 300 lbs of this rock https://reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/florida-reef-rock-100lbs-free-shipping

As for snails and crabs, they are moving around the tank like nothing happened. The fish all died with a few hours of each other but nothing died other than that. I checked the ammonia during my panic mode and it was zero along with the ammonia alert badge showing zero

 

[KenO]

I thought ammonia too. When you said the badge didn’t change I started thinking about other causes. Your setup is big and I don’t see how a small amount of salt would have put the system over the edge, but have you mixed a small batch of the salt in a bucket and tested it. Check ammonia, ALK, etc. if there was an ammonia spike before you got home, that would have destroyed the fishes gills and they wouldn’t be able to breathe. Did you look at the gills on the fish that died? Also if the salt was placed in the sump close to the return pump the pump would have sent the salt along with the highly concentrated salt water into the tank. Any fish swimming through it could have had their gills burned by the high salt levels. This could explain why most the fish died and the snails and crabs are fine. There is a reason you premix SW and not add it to the sump. Not to make your wife feel any worse, but find out where she dumped the salt in the fuge.

 

[9975]

Let's give a little update:

- Clownfish are eating and acting like normal in QT along with the leopard and Melanurus wrasse that were already there
- Snails and crabs are still going strong in DT
- Worked on my GLH 4E the last two days. 76.3 degrees, 1.0229 salinity, 8.0 ph (willing to wager that it would be closer to the previous 7.4 during the deaths since there are currently zero fish in DT)
- Going to get a line from outside to my skimmer to hopefully help with ph

The only conclusion that I can come to is possible CO2 issue based on very low ph level. Other than that I'm at a loss

The fish come out of QT on 07/04. I'm going to put them in an acclimation box in QT. It's the biggest one Octo makes that I won here on R2R! This way I can monitor them and remove if any signs of an issue arise.

If anyone thinks of any other potenta issues please feel free to throw it out on here and I'll answer to the best of my ability

 

[KenO]

Let's give a little update:

- Clownfish are eating and acting like normal in QT along with the leopard and Melanurus wrasse that were already there
- Snails and crabs are still going strong in DT
- Worked on my GLH 4E the last two days. 76.3 degrees, 1.0229 salinity, 8.0 ph (willing to wager that it would be closer to the previous 7.4 during the deaths since there are currently zero fish in DT)
- Going to get a line from outside to my skimmer to hopefully help with ph

The only conclusion that I can come to is possible CO2 issue based on very low ph level. Other than that I'm at a loss

The fish come out of QT on 07/04. I'm going to put them in an acclimation box in QT. It's the biggest one Octo makes that I won here on R2R! This way I can monitor them and remove if any signs of an issue arise.

If anyone thinks of any other potenta issues please feel free to throw it out on here and I'll answer to the best of my ability

So are you keeping your SG that low or are you raising it to 1.026?

 

[Casket_Case]

Could something have gone wrong with the RO water added? Maybe the RO filter didn’t work correctly? Or a storage tank was somehow tainted?

 

[9975]

I'm going to raise the salinity up in the next week.

The RO is something I havent tested at all. Besides TDS, what tests can I run on it to check for issues?

 

[KenO]

I'm going to raise the salinity up in the next week.

The RO is something I havent tested at all. Besides TDS, what tests can I run on it to check for issues?

For your salinity hook up your ATO to you SW storage. I did that on mine to slowly raise up the salinity. Or mix a 5 gallon bucket to a higher level say 1.030 and pull from that for your ATO.

I didn’t ask the question about the RO water, but if you get an ATI water test kit, they give you an extra tube for RO water and will test it for you in addition to testing your aquarium water.

 

[9975]

Any salt that gets put in is via a 5 gallon bucket right now (ATO system is a work in progress). We run the RO straight into the sump to a set point.

As for RO water, I just check the water and its 17 ppm before the di resin and 1 to 2 ppm after right now. It's a 6 stage system with 2 DI resin containers

 

[KenO]

Any salt that gets put in is via a 5 gallon bucket right now (ATO system is a work in progress). We run the RO straight into the sump to a set point.

As for RO water, I just check the water and its 17 ppm before the di resin and 1 to 2 ppm after right now. It's a 6 stage system with 2 DI resin containers

With a 6 stage system, that water should be 0 TDS going into your storage container. When was the last time you swapped out DI resin? What’s the numbers going into and out of your RO membrane?

 

[9975]

I haven't changed any yet. Its 170 ppm going into the whole unit and it was the 16/17 going out of the membrane. I didnt measure it going into the membrane itself

 

[9975]

Welcome to MAX WATER -

www.maxwaterflow.com

Unit I have....

 

[KenO]

I wish I had 170 TDS going into my unit. I have 650 TDS. Liquid rock. Do you store your water or does the RO unit turn on as you get evaporation in your sump?

 

[KenO]

For the unit you have it says it’s Membrane 98% Efficient. Your running around 90%. How old is the RO membrane?

 

[9975]

Yes it goes straight into the sump for evaporation. I've used the filter and resin 6 to 7 months.

The 170 is after the water softener

 

[KenO]

I would suggest using a storage container. You will get tds creep doing what your doing. When an RO/DI system first turns on you can get an elevated tds level. The longer it runs the better the RO/DI becomes. So when you get evaporation the RO/DI system will turn on and off for short cycles. Also coming out of your DI resin you want 0 TDS.

 

[9975]

I have two new 55 gallon drums but just haven't put it on the top of the priority list unfortunately

 

[KenO]

With A 170 tds of your softened tap water your 98% efficient membrane should give you ~3 tds. With dual DI resin it should be 0. Plus those DI resins should last a long time. Try running your RO/DI into a bucket and then after 30-40 min take a sample coming from the RO tubing and test tds. Test the water in the bucket also.

 

[KenO]

Also test the tds after the membrane after the 30-40 min to see what the tds level is. If the level is less than the 98% efficiency your membrane may need to be removed and reseated.