bristle worms dying

[afss]

I have had a tank set up for a while, It has been neglected for sure but the fish in it has been alive for over 3 years now. I noticed a while ago there didn't seem to be any invert life, no worms etc. I got a few bristles from a buddy and added them and they seem to be in the same location 24 hours later.

I have to assume nitrate,trite and amonnia are ok or the fish would not be doing well. I checked alk and ph and they are good.

What water parameters will kill inverts?

Thanks

 

[Elysia]

If you salinity has changed over time, your fish will get use to it, but it may kill off your invert life. That is what I would look at first.

 

[afss]

salinity is good, 1.025

 

[afss]

also have checked for stray voltage, there is a small amount, 0.4-0.7v so nothing to exciting.

would/could phosphates do this? I am thinking it could also be copper. Water top offs have been from a well. My own fault for not keeping the RO going but the tank was in limbo while i worked on home renos, money was tight blah blah blah so i am thinking it is something to do with the water source.

Ro has been rejuvinated, new bulbs in the halides, the red slime algae is retreating slowly and there is some green algae growing a bit in its place, skimmer has been cleaned out and is working well again.

 

[Elysia]

Are you sure that whatever you are testing your salinity with is correctly calibrated? Incorrect salinity is one of the few things that I know of that will kill a bristleworm in a tank that fish are living in, although I suppose copper could kill them.

 

[afss]

old method was by a swing arm that had been calibrated against a refractometer years ago and was getting 1.023. Got a refractometer for Christmas and calibrated the zero using RO water at 1ppm, with the tank water i get a reading of 1.025. not sure what is up.. i had thought all the coraline was dead but some of it is still alive as the red slime is retreating, not much of it, but some.

 

[Elysia]

There have been numerous threads of late that state that refractometers need to be calibrated w/ saltwater of a known ppt/specific gravity. That is why I asked.

 

[afss]

I was under the understanding that if you calibrated with water at 0ppm they were good?
No sudden water parameter changes have occured over the last few months, no water changes to speak of, only top offs

 

[afss]

checked phosphates - 0 and copper - 0, even doubled the mixing agent on the second test after the first minute just to see if i could get a reading and still nothing......
so now the question is,

What will cause pods and worms to disappear?

 

[afss]

you know the old saying about assuming.... well if you read my first post i assumed the nitrates were ok because fish were ok. i should know better than that but overlooked it/forgot it while i was inactive. I got to thinking last night that the fish could be ok and the inverts not if nitrate was high so i got a test kit today, its hard to tell for sure but its well above 75ppm either between the 50 and 100 or well over 100, depends on who you ask, either way its wayyyyy to high.... i'll post back when i get it down and get a few more test worms.