Need help!!!!

[Paula C Owens]

hello everyone!!!! My husband and I are VERY excited about having our VERY FIRST saltwater aquarium and need some help!!!!!! Out tank was an existing tank (150 gallon)being used for years by a couple. We bought it from them with everything but fish in it. Used ALL but maybe a few gallons of original water when we moved it and reset up the tank. After running it for about a week we added three mollies which are doing great on day two. We also purchased a couple of soft corals we are unsure of what they are. Neither of these corals
Seem to be alive or maybe they are just unhappy we don't know. This is where we need the help the most right now is with these two corals!!! Our salinity level has been at 1.020. We changed the filters in the sump tank and salinity level dropped to 1.015. We them drained about 10% of the tank added some fresh water to
Sump and added premixed (in a tote) to the tank. Salinity level is STILL reading 1.015. I'm afraid we are killing or have already killed our new corals!!!! PLEASE HELP!!!!! I am attaching pics of tank as well as two pics each of the corals. We are using the blue LED and T5 white bulb and T5 blue night bulb.

 

[Duke4Life]

First your salinity is low and the only safe way 2 raise is to do this slowly. I would make a batch of fresh salt with the salinity at 1.030 roughly and change out 20-30 gallons a day, but before making new the next day check your salinity. Over a weeks time this will raise that and not shock what else you have. Corals like a higher salinity and while this may not be the full issue I bet it is some of it.

Did you buy new sand or reuse the old? If old then it may have very well have stirred up some nasty stuff from moving it.

 

[JaimeAdams]

The coral aren't completely dead yet. The first one is a kenya tree which. is a soft coral. The second one is from the genus Euphyllia, but can't tell exact species because of how damaged the flesh is. You need to raise the salinity of the tank ASAP. You want to be 1.025. You can accomplish that by doing another water change with new water at a much higher salinity. You should mix you water in a separate container in the future not the sump. It takes awhile for the salt to fully dissolve. I use a clean garbage can that was bought new and used for only this. You want to put a pump in to keep the water moving and salt dissolving. Honestly at this point I would dump salt in the sump and toss a pump in there to keep the water agitated. Either that or dissolve allot of salt in a small amount of water and add that. The Kenyan tree has a good chance at survival, the Euphyllia isn't dead, but looks pretty bad off. How are you testing the salinity of the water? We all make mistakes.

 

[Paula C Owens]

We used all the existing sand,live rock, everything existing in the sump. Only thing new to The set up are the three fake huge plastic corals in the center of tank and in back corners and of course the 10% saltwater change in the tank and the reg water to the pump. The filters we changed because they were NASTY and we surface vacuumed the top of the sand.

 

[JaimeAdams]

When you say fresh water, are we talking tap water, conditioned tap water, RODI water?

It is advised not to re-use old sand from a tank because the sand bed kind of locks in a bunch of dissolved organics and nasty stuff that when stirred up can release compounds back into the water that can lead to bad tank parameters.

 

[Paula C Owens]

 

[Paula C Owens]

We bought from a lady and her husband who the wife worked at a saltwater specialty store that closed up shop. The water is well water

 

[JaimeAdams]

People are going to ask you what the temp of the tank is. What your Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and Phosphate levels are. If your tank was fully stocked with a bunch of delicate fish and corals and anemones I would agree with trying to slowly change your parameters. I personally would try to get my coral into proper conditions as fast as possible.

 

[JaimeAdams]

I do know members of our marine aquarium society that successfully use untreated well water. I know that it certainly is not suggested and investing in a RODI system is probably a wise investment since who knows what types of elements both good and bad are dissolved in it.

 

[Paula C Owens]

Here are some pics of our sump set up if that will help with any ?s anyone may have

 

[Paula C Owens]

Nothing in tank except for the live rock, the two corals and the mollies

 

[Paula C Owens]

Unsure of the ammonia and other levels due to the test strips she had expired 3 yrs ago and we don't have any other than those. We added 8 cups of the reef crystal salt to 18 gallons of water mixed in a tote and put the saltwater through the sump. I guess we need to do that again today but add it into the tank itself instead of through the sump???? The tank is at 72*F

 

[Duke4Life]

Have access to a store to get some carbon filters? These can help rid of some stuff in the water.

I add everything through my sump, opposite side of return pump.

 

[Duke4Life]

What type of container did you use 2 move the fish and coral?

 

[Duke4Life]

Also 72 degrees is on the cool side. Have a heater for the tank?

 

[Brew12]

Our salinity level has been at 1.020. We changed the filters in the sump tank and salinity level dropped to 1.015. We them drained about 10% of the tank added some fresh water to Sump and added premixed (in a tote) to the tank. Salinity level is STILL reading 1.015.

I'm a bit confused by this. What was your reasoning behind adding fresh water to the sump but saltwater to the tank? Do you use an ATO that you didn't turn off when you started the maintenance and that is what added the fresh water to the sump?

 

[Paula C Owens]

Idk why we did it that way honestly. That's just the way my husband wanted to do it

 

[Paula C Owens]

What type of container did you use 2 move the fish and coral?

We used a clean tote and the original
Saltwater form Draining the tank at the people's house we bought it from. The sand was moved in a separate tote. We put tank on stand at my house then hooked everything back up and put sand back in and added water then after water and sand settled added the live rock back in.

 

[Paula C Owens]

Have access to a store to get some carbon filters? These can help rid of some stuff in the water.

I add everything through my sump, opposite side of return pump.

When we changed the nasty filters we put everything back like it was with the exception of a thin green filter pad because we didn't have any so we added three layers of the blue rolled filter material. They only had one black carbon pad in their filter setup so we only put one back in. Should I add another black carbon pad????

 

[Paula C Owens]

What type of container did you use 2 move the fish and coral?

The only fish (mollies) in the tank came
Out of our freshwater tank. The coral was bought from a saltwater store closing their doors and was transported in a large plastic fish bag in a styrofoam cooler. They sat about 3 hrs before they were added to tank.