Need help ASAP please

[Jlobes]

best to get natural sea water (NSW) or premix salt water from your LFS if you need to do emergency water change. Mixing a new batch would usually take 12 hours to settle. You should purchase a good hydrometer to measure salinity. Did your ATO put too much water in or was it not working while you were away?

what!? 12 hours, not a chance. no salt takes 12 hours to mix or "settle" as you say.

 

[melev]

Are you only mixing up 3-gallons of water? If it is very cold, the salinity measurement may be off. I have an article about how to mix saltwater for water changes here: http://melevsreef.com/articles/mix-change-saltwater The more you know, the better you'll do.

The glass being green on three sides is normal when you travel for a week. Cleaning the glass is something we do every two to three days.

 

[Diesel]

^^^^ best advice so far^^^^

Lot of things that can be wrong here.
Without knowing any test results it's hard to say where to look for.
Salt might be bad, Po4/No3 spike, temperature crash........ who knows.

[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG]

 

[justjes45]

Well I gave it a very thorough cleaning, and now I'm busy sitting here staring at/obsessing over it. The fish are still fine,as always, and some of the things simple stuff like Zoas, opening back up. There are a couple I am still worried about but as it comes up to temperature hopefully it will continue to improve-

 

[melev]

Well I gave it a very thorough cleaning, and now I'm busy sitting here staring at/obsessing over it. The fish are still fine,as always, and some of the things simple stuff like Zoas, opening back up. There are a couple I am still worried about but as it comes up to temperature hopefully it will continue to improve-

While you were away, did the tank receive daily top off water (automated or by a friend/family member)? If not, salinity will have risen in the tank. As it gets more salty, the livestock may respond accordingly. Topping off with freshwater (RO/DI is preferred) will keep salinity stable, and it should be done daily.

 

[nervousmonkey]

While you were away, did the tank receive daily top off water (automated or by a friend/family member)? If not, salinity will have risen in the tank. As it gets more salty, the livestock may respond accordingly. Topping off with freshwater (RO/DI is preferred) will keep salinity stable, and it should be done daily.

^^^^^^^^^ this ^^^^^^^^

 

[Jlobes]

agreed, more info would help. who took care of the tank and with what instructions while you were away?

need to test the tank, those results will/would have told much about the issue. if you have already done the water change, test the tank now.

as for the salt mixing, get yourself a decent refracometer and some calibration solution. hydrometers are not the most effective/efficient tool for this job. not sure the brand of salt and its instructions, but like others have said, it may be instructing you to mix to 1.022, when you want 1.026(+/-). I use a scale to measure a set amount of salt per 5 gallons of water(710grams/5gallons) and that gets me to where I need to be everytime. hope that helps.

test that tank, the results will help with more advice from others and help to narrow down your issue(s)

 

[Pfisherman]

Well I gave it a very thorough cleaning, and now I'm busy sitting here staring at/obsessing over it. The fish are still fine,as always, and some of the things simple stuff like Zoas, opening back up. There are a couple I am still worried about but as it comes up to temperature hopefully it will continue to improve-

While you were away, did the tank receive daily top off water (automated or by a friend/family member)? If not, salinity will have risen in the tank. As it gets more salty, the livestock may respond accordingly. Topping off with freshwater (RO/DI is preferred) will keep salinity stable, and it should be done daily.

Jess, Mr. Levenson is one to listen to I would be honored to have a response from him in my threads ;). That being said, are you doing water changes with cold water? I notice you say things will hopefully improve as the temp comes up. You should always be sure to get the water very close to the same temp as your aquariums temp.

If you are stuck with the swing arm hydrometer for now always make sure you clean it when you are done testing. Go to Walmart and buy two five gallon buckets one of the cheapo powerheads they sell, a cheapo heater and a floating thermometer. This is considered by me to be step one of water changing. You only need to mix until the water is at the right temp and the salt is dissolved.

 

[nervousmonkey]

:D:D

Jess, Mr. Levenson is one to listen to I would be honored to have a response from him in my threads ;). That being said, are you doing water changes with cold water? I notice you say things will hopefully improve as the temp comes up. You should always be sure to get the water very close to the same temp as your aquariums temp.

If you are stuck with the swing arm hydrometer for now always make sure you clean it when you are done testing. Go to Walmart and buy two five gallon buckets one of the cheapo powerheads they sell, a cheapo heater and a floating thermometer. This is considered by me to be step one of water changing. You only need to mix until the water is at the right temp and the salt is dissolved.

Again, same advice as before. ^^^ to listening to Mr. Levenson, aka melev. He is one of the smartest guys around and a legend in the reefing world. :D
If he replies to your thread pay close attention then go to his site (melev's reef) and read, read, read and watch, watch, watch. You will be surprised how quickly you learn what you need.

 

[melev]

The article I linked you to about water changes goes into why you want to mix it in advance, as well as measure it to make sure temperature, pH and salinity match your aquarium. It also includes a story when a batch of salt went out nationwide that lacked alkalinity. I didn't even know it was a problem because I simply added buffer to match pH and in doing so corrected the problem. My reef never skipped a beat while hobbyists across the nation gnashed their teeth in despair as their livestock suffered due to the missing ingredient. That article should help you get a good idea how it all works.

 

[justjes45]

Well – I have learned so much in one day! Thank you! I have ordered the refractometer it should be here in two days – from now on I will mix my salt and water in advance. Usually when I filled it up from the sink, I would add warm water. This time because I have the distilled water from the store, it was cold/room temperature.
You guys of all been extremely helpful. I will post my measurements as soon as I can test the tank – hoping to do that ASAP.
Now I am disappointed that I did not test it before I change the water, as I could've learned from that. But I just panicked and wanted to change it as soon as I could.
Thanks all!!

 

[melev]

Never ever use warm water. The deposits in the water heater are bad for your aquarium. You could be introducing a number of things. If you ever see someone clean out a water heater, you'll be shocked at what comes out. Cold water should be fed into a RO/DI system you own, warmed up to temperature (76°F) with a heater and powerhead. You could even add an airstone (with air pump) to oxygenate the water and then add the correct amount of salt necessary to attain proper salinity. I use 1.026 sg for my systems, but perhaps you'd aim for 1.024 sg for the time being.

 

[nervousmonkey]

I use 1.026 sg for my systems, but perhaps you'd aim for 1.024 sg for the time being.

I think that what melev is saying to you justjes is that since your salinity is low already, you should aim for a salinity of 1.024 instead of 1.026 as to not shock your system with a drastic swing in salinity (and also alk and pH as a side effect of having a higher salt level)

 

[justjes45]

Ok- here it is-
PH 8.2
Ammonia zero ppm
Nitrite zero ppm
Nitrite zero ppm
Calcium 440
Temperature 78°
Salinity right between 1.021 and 1.022
With my plastic hydrometer.

 

[justjes45]

Oh yeah- phosphate is 0.0 ppm

 

[Reefnjunkie]

If you have to continue to use tap water I hope you're using prime or some chloromine remover, not sure what your TDS reads out of the faucet but locally I'm lucky, .12 across the river in Washington State 160-good idea with the distilled, which you can also use to calibrate the refractometer.

Everything mentioned is spot on but one thing to consider going forward-never panic and "jump" things rarely crash in a short time. Take a breath, evaluate maybe post what's up for replies.

We've all been there and panicked and "reacted" and sometimes later thought, why'd I do it that way.

Anyway all will be good I'm sure-huge learning curve in this hobby :) so ask questions as you did, ther is a great support group here ;)

 

[justjes45]

Love it here- only support/ knowledge I get-
What is "TDS"? How do I test that?
Tomorrow my RO system will be up and working... I hope.

 

[Reefnjunkie]

Total dissolved solids

You can get an inline unit that reads water in and out of the RO/DI unit.

I stopped using an RO unit a few years back and just use the DI, granted I still use the pre filters, carbon block etc but my tank is larger than average and waste water was killing me. I will say though that my DI canister stands 4.5 feet tall and holds about 100 pounds of resin ;)

TDS out of the canister is zero

My point (and my opinion/experiance) depending how poor (or how good) your water out of the tap is could determine whether all that waste water (3 gallons down the drain for each gallon kept) is that bad.

 

[justjes45]

OK – something is still very wrong. I did a full extreme water change two days ago. The glass is once again completely green with more green stuff growing on my rocks. I just used the magnet to clean it i'm in a go, and was amazed at how much gunk it already had to scrape off. Fisher fine, all my tests are fine Dash two of my corals look miserable and one I think is died – what else can I test for? Copper? These are the only tests I have here at home so far-
My refractometer did not get her today, so testing the salt level was the only thing I haven't tested again.
Frustrated and worried.

 

[melev]

Until you know your salinity for sure, you'll have to wait another day. Green growing on the glass quickly can be attributed to higher phosphate levels, as well as possibly seasonal if the tank is getting a lot of ambient light this time of year due to trees being leafless.