adding fresh water every day

[bellorusha]

i'm loosing between 1-2 gallons of water every day. so for the last 2 weeks i'm adding 1-2 gallon of fresh (with conditioner) water every day.

my soft corals are shrank for 5-6 days now and i think they are dying.

do you think this is because of fresh water? can add fresh water or it has to be with salt?


thanks

 

[sinkingbeach]

You are suppose to add fresh water as the salt water evaporates during the day the salt remains in the tank. Are you using ro/di?

 

[bellorusha]

i'm using tap water, may be be becuase i add water every day? i used to add 5 gallons once a week

 

[afelder]

You should check your salinity. If you are losing more water than normal you may have a leak somewhere and may be adding too much fresh water. Any reading between 1.022 and 1.026 is ok outside those limits and things start to get a little stressed. Also depending on the coral; shriveling up for a while is not uncommon. My toadstool leather only opens up fully about 1 day a week, and it has been growing just fine. Also when was your last water change?

 

[bellorusha]

i'm doing water change every sunday, and this sunday i took half of the corals off to rearange liverocks. I know what you think, that is why, BUT most of corals shrank which i did not even touch (the other half).

the salinity was my first idea, i'm checking every day and it's 1.025

 

[Racing1]

You need to get RO/DI water or get some water at the store. It is probably the tap water...

 

[afelder]

Also check your temp. Living in SoCal I forgot that it gets cold there your heater might be on the fritz; either not turning on or staying on to long. Going to Ro/Di is certainly a good idea but depending on your tap water may not be necessary.
Good Luck

 

[Doug]

Have you always used tap water? Also, have you always used the water conditioner?

Also, it can take time for the corals to re-acclimate after the tank was disturbed when rearranged it.

What makes you think that they are dying? Do they look like they are melting or something?

 

[pink_floyd]

That is a lot of evaporation for a 75 gallon tank...

 

[BrentN]

Tap water and "conditioner", two unpopular words in this hobby.
The evap rate doesn't seem so bad, in fact, I understand that evaporation is a good thing as far as temp is concerned. I evap a little less than a gallon per day on my 55. I top off 2 or 3 times per week, roughly 2 gallons at a time.

 

[Mariner]

A couple of questions:
-- If you've had 9 months experience, how can you have just started replacing your evaporated water two weeks ago? What were doing before then?
-- How long have you had these corals?

FWIW, many soft corals release chemicals/toxins when disturbed. Moving one could easily cause several others to react negatively or shrivel up. One of the best ways to remove these toxins is to run fresh carbon.
HTH,
Mariner

 

[israelnajar]

Also moving live rock can cause some dieoff. Did you do a full blownout reaquascape or move turn a few rocks? Everytime I move rock I add stability jsut in case.

 

[bellorusha]

i moved 70% of my rocks, and the one who were left in the tank (30%) are shrank now.

"If you've had 9 months experience, how can you have just started replacing your evaporated water two weeks ago? What were doing before then?"

2 weeks ago i started sump (empty, just water moving through) so i have to add water almost every day (1gallon).

before i did not have to add it every day so i added every 7 days but 5 gallons.


"Everytime I move rock I add stability jsut in case"
what is stability?

 

[israelnajar]

http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Stability.html

 

[Mariner]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8702336#post8702336 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bellorusha
"If you've had 9 months experience, how can you have just started replacing your evaporated water two weeks ago? What were doing before then?"

2 weeks ago i started sump (empty, just water moving through) so i have to add water almost every day (1gallon).

before i did not have to add it every day so i added every 7 days but 5 gallons.

OK, that makes sense.
Adding top off every day should not cause problems in your tank -- it is much better than adding it once a week like you were doing. And, a gallon a day isn't that much for a tank the size of yours. I add about 1 gallon a day in my 75g.
I'd say that you're problems are very likely due to moving rock and corals. If it were me, I'd do a partial water change, run some extra carbon, and give it a few days.
HTH,
Mariner

 

[gillianandjoe]

I would be careful adding conditioned tap water everyday. Depending on the type of conditioner, it may have the slime coat replacer which is just adding more goop to your system. I assume that your freshwater additions are not aged tapwater since you are adding conditioner, does this mean you are also not checking the temperature when you add water? When I started, I did the same thing, and everything would shrink up. Good luck!

 

[bellorusha]

thank you guys.

here is prictures of my poor corals..

Toadstool Mushroom Leather Coral

brain

yellow leather

 

[msman825]

I would only do a water change once a month about 10-15% not every sunday. give them time to adjust, and leave them be. use ro water WITHOUT conditioner same salinity each time. your tank may not be stable changing water every week

 

[lux_06]

dudes are way to quick to blame what is popular, there are so many beautiful aquariums out there that have been established using tap water and conditioner, it may not be the best way to do it but it is not going to kill off stuff in your tank if the rest of your parameters are in check.

try and get some NSW and do a big 50% water change and then observe your corals over the next few days to try and rule out some variables.

 

[gillianandjoe]

I may have given the wrong impression with my post. I don't think conditioner is the devil, I'd try to stay away from the ones with slime coat replacers though. You're adding more dissolved organics to your tank. I may be wrong, but I would think that's bad. There are products without it. When my soft corals start to close, I usually move a powerhead to direct a little more flow toward them, and refresh my carbon.