Bad h2o change

[MICU murse]

i have a 55 gallon mixed tank that had been up and running for about 6 months or so w/o significant issue. I have been battling high nitrates, but everything (fish and coral) has seemed happy. In a foolish attempt to lower my nitrates I did about a 50% water change and it killed 5 snails, a crab, and my clam... I've never had issues in the past with changes, but this was a bigger water change than I normally do. It's been 3 days or so and everything still looks unhappy despite my nitrates being almost back up to where they were. What should I do next, I have a diy sulfur reactor I was going to start, but I don't know if I would help or hurt. Anybody have any experience with this or any insight into what my next step should be? I'm frraking out a little, I'm afraid this is he beginning of the end. Feel free to ask more about the tank if you have questions.

 

[Big G]

Salinity, temperature the same. I did I big w/c once and only put in enough salt for 5 gal mix but It was for a 20 gal mix. Oops.

 

[TheEngineer]

Salinity, temperature the same. I did I big w/c once and only put in enough salt for 5 gal mix but It was for a 20 gal mix. Oops.

That was my thought too. Big water changes are usually fine

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

A big water change shouldn't do that.
Any idea what the mistake was?
Salinity ?

 

[MICU murse]

I only have a small container to mix it in so I do it in small batches. I check temp and salinity before I add it. I also checked after and my salinity was the same. I'm not positive, but the temp may have been down slightly but to be honest I'm not sure. If it was a temp difference and it's resolved now is there any recourse for my poor corals? I'm also torn about starting the sulfur reactor now because I don't want to upset the system further.

 

[MICU murse]

Trolling the internet I found someone make a comment that rapid temp changes can kill the bacterial population so I decided to check my ammonia and nitrite because I do t normally check them frequently.
On 9/2 it was
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0

Now on 9/28
Ammonia 1.2
Nitrite .1

I'm going to add microbacter and hope it can survive the epic cycle...

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

A minor temp change won't do much if anything. Nor would a minor salinity change.

The ammonia is only a bit odd , but likely die off from the accident.

Is there any chance of contamination of the mixing bucket?

And yes. The bottled bacteria is a must right now.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

And yes. No changes right now.

Are you using rodi water?

Do you have a current picture of the tank?

 

[MICU murse]

And yes. No changes right now.

Are you using rodi water?

Do you have a current picture of the tank?

I will hold off on the reactor for now, added the microbacter. Shouldn't be any contamination, same bucket I've always used. I pulled all the dead stuff out the other day. unfortunately I'm using tap and not ro/di but that's what I've been using without issue. When I mix it fresh it reads 0 nitrate, phosphate, ammonia, and nitrite. I know I need a filter, but I just haven't been able to get one in my budget.

Also, I will upload a pic tomorrow when I get off work. As much as I want to stay home and stare at it utill the problem goes away I guess I still need earn money to dump into it. Thank you for all the insight.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I will hold off on the reactor for now, added the microbacter. Shouldn't be any contamination, same bucket I've always used. I pulled all the dead stuff out the other day. unfortunately I'm using tap and not ro/di but that's what I've been using without issue. When I mix it fresh it reads 0 nitrate, phosphate, ammonia, and nitrite. I know I need a filter, but I just haven't been able to get one in my budget.

Also, I will upload a pic tomorrow when I get off work. As much as I want to stay home and stare at it utill the problem goes away I guess I still need earn money to dump into it. Thank you for all the insight.

Hmm. Not to pry , but where do you live. Where I live the the tap water will kill a gold fish in about a month due to the cloramines. Not all water systems have this. And yes. Some folks have great success with using their tap water. Thus the tap water is ok is misleading in most cases.

And trust me. I understand the budget thing. So shame there. It happens
Tag or pm me when your ready and we can shop for a good unit. I picked mine up used

But In instances like this the water becomes a variable in trouble shooting. If the tank (a young one) was doing ok(not thriving) one might not know even know it really. And a slight or major shock could put it over the edge.

For instance , if in your old mature water the clormine had been mostly nutralised by oxidization and bottled bacteria over time etc, a large fresh dose of it in the new water could in theory cause problems.

So if it's available at a lfs , premixed seawater might be a good fix.
Petco quite often sells boxes of natural seawater but I have no idea what that costs

 

[MICU murse]

I live in Lynchburg va, and I don't measure chloramines so that's a good point. I guess I've spent enough elsewhere on water quality, it's probably about time for me to go ahead and invest in a ro/di filter. I'm burned out from a long day at work so I will pm you tomorrow. Thank you everybody for all the insight. Slight improvement in water quality today, I will keep measuring daily until it returns to normal. No outright deaths noted in any corals, but they are definitely Italy retracted and unhappy looking. Fish seem ok too although one of my clowns doesn't seem happy b/c in the morning I find him laying on the bottom. I will keep posting updates to let you all know how it goes.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Sleep well.

 

[ThunderGoose]

I will hold off on the reactor for now, added the microbacter. Shouldn't be any contamination, same bucket I've always used. I pulled all the dead stuff out the other day. unfortunately I'm using tap and not ro/di but that's what I've been using without issue. When I mix it fresh it reads 0 nitrate, phosphate, ammonia, and nitrite. I know I need a filter, but I just haven't been able to get one in my budget.

Also, I will upload a pic tomorrow when I get off work. As much as I want to stay home and stare at it utill the problem goes away I guess I still need earn money to dump into it. Thank you for all the insight.

I agree with @saltyfilmfolks it could very well be a tap water issue. Sometimes cities "flush" the system by changing the chemicals used. A town I used to live in did this once without notifying anyone - pretty much everyone who did a water change that day (a SATURDAY!) lost livestock, in some cases whole tanks. After that the city sent notices to LFS before they did another flush (there were a few angry folks calling the city on Monday, as you can imagine).

Even without that my tap water changes seasonally, when fall hits the reservoir gets lots of leaves that change the pH for example.

Before you add anything else save up for a RODI system or start buying it from somewhere (a pain in the butt but a good stop-gap). You LFS may sell it - you can try to do smaller changes until you get your own RODI.

Good luck! I'm sorry for this disaster.

 

[MICU murse]

I agree with @saltyfilmfolks it could very well be a tap water issue. Sometimes cities "flush" the system by changing the chemicals used. A town I used to live in did this once without notifying anyone - pretty much everyone who did a water change that day (a SATURDAY!) lost livestock, in some cases whole tanks. After that the city sent notices to LFS before they did another flush (there were a few angry folks calling the city on Monday, as you can imagine).

Even without that my tap water changes seasonally, when fall hits the reservoir gets lots of leaves that change the pH for example.

Before you add anything else save up for a RODI system or start buying it from somewhere (a pain in the *** but a good stop-gap). You LFS may sell it - you can try to do smaller changes until you get your own RODI.

Good luck! I'm sorry for this disaster.

Ya, I knew I needed the ro/di filter but I had been putting it off. I would think about premixed but I just bought a 60lbs bag of salt... naturally. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get one. I'm also buying a large container to mix salt in as well as a heater (already got a strong power head) and I will start mixing everything ahead of time to cut down on potential differences in the water I'm adding b/c my method currently isn't very accurate or precise. It could have been the tap water or it could have been my own lack of caution, either way I think b/t those 2 changes I should help cut down on potential for failure.

 

[MICU murse]

Corals look a little better today, some zoanthids beginning to open, rainbow torch and hammer a little open as well.
Ammonia 0.8
Nitrite <0.1

No coral or fish deaths thus far, will continue to update till both return to 0.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I will hold off on the reactor for now, added the microbacter. Shouldn't be any contamination, same bucket I've always used. I pulled all the dead stuff out the other day. unfortunately I'm using tap and not ro/di but that's what I've been using without issue.

Several things in tap water could have caused that issue, and which are also variable. Copper for example, could very easily have been the cause.

 

[MICU murse]

Several things in tap water could have caused that issue, and which are also variable. Copper for example, could very easily have been the cause.

I definitely see this as a potentially contributing factor, it just seems surprising that it would cause issue now and not earlier. It was a larger change than I typically do, however if all the water is tap it seems like the change wouldn't be that drastic. None the less to remove potential variables I will get a ro/di filter. It only stands to benefit me, even if it wasn't the cause of this issue I'm sure it hasn't helped, even if it is pristine tap water (which I doubt). I also mentioned getting a larger mixing container as well as "aging" the saltwater at least overnight with a powerhead and heater. I think between all these changes I will greatly reduce the risk for human error compared to my current methods. Thank you everyone for all of the advice, I think the issue is correcting itself and I have the necessary info to reduce the chance of reoccurrence.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I definitely see this as a potentially contributing factor, it just seems surprising that it would cause issue now and not earlier. It was a larger change than I typically do, however if all the water is tap it seems like the change wouldn't be that drastic. None the less to remove potential variables I will get a ro/di filter. It only stands to benefit me, even if it wasn't the cause of this issue I'm sure it hasn't helped, even if it is pristine tap water (which I doubt). I also mentioned getting a larger mixing container as well as "aging" the saltwater at least overnight with a powerhead and heater. I think between all these changes I will greatly reduce the risk for human error compared to my current methods. Thank you everyone for all of the advice, I think the issue is correcting itself and I have the necessary info to reduce the chance of reoccurrence.

Copper comes from your own pipes.

If the water had been sitting in them longer than usual before you collected it, or if the incoming pH was lower than usual (for reasons relating to the water company processes, not something you control), you might have more copper in the water than usual.

 

[MICU murse]

Good point, thundergoose mentioned cities flushing their systems. Could have been poor timing to do such a large change. I ordered a 3 stage brs ro/di filter so hopefully that will be up and running within the week. I will keep posting updates until it's fixed. Hopefully someone else will benefit from my mistake.