Two Goby losses?

[Winnie2020]

I’m not sure if this post belongs here or not since our tank is 2 years old. It’s a fish only tank, no corals. But we’ve come across a problem. We added a diamond watchman goby to our tank a week ago and it died the same day. We tried again this week with another, and it died after 1 day. We acclimated using the float method. We really thought this second one was going to be fine. I tested the water thinking maybe something was off, and everything seems fine except maybe the ammonia is a little high at .50 ppm (we had some snails die and didn’t think to test for ammonia after). I’m using the API test kit and I know a lot of people have said it isn’t accurate. Is this level of ammonia enough to cause these losses? If not, can anyone offer some advice on what it could be?

 

[DrkNMighty]

Sorry for your losses.
Just to confirm you are acclimating by float only? I’m wondering if there is a large salinity difference between where you are purchasing from and your tank.

 

[Winnie2020]

Sorry for your losses.
Just to confirm you are acclimating by float only? I’m wondering if there is a large salinity difference between where you are purchasing from and your tank.

Sorry, we are floating the bag to acclimate the fish to the temperature change and then we slowly add our tank water to their bag over a period of time before netting the fish into our tank.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I am certainly no expert here, but zero ammonia is always the preference. So from that thought, yes, .5 is high. Also, ammonia is heavy, and sits low in the water column, same place gobies sit. If all your other parameters are right, I would get the ammonia right, then try again. They are really wonderful fish to watch. Mine has become my favorite in the tank. As for the API tests, its not that they are not accurate, it is that they can be difficult to accurately read. Hanna are expensive as heck, but soooooo worth the money. Salifert is not bad either, but Hanna is kind of fool proof. If you plan to stay in the hobby, I would invest in Hanna. Just get them one at a time.