corals dying

[MinnFish]

Leslee, i'm only trying to help. The reason i asked for what city or county, was to check out your water quality report. I'm no predator or jerk. We are a nice group of people, trying to help each other. Sometimes, we need info to further assist you. Anywho, call your local water dept. and ask for the latest water quality report. You will be amazed, what you might find. Hope i could help in so way.

 

[tmz]

Likely suspects:

Salinity change. If your new water is not matched to the old your isontonic organisms(those with and internal sg equal to the water around them) will experience a suden change in their body chemistry.Fish can osmoregulate and cope with changes in sg but invertebrates can't.

Non ro water,hard to say what's going into your tank.

Fresh unaged(6 hours or so minimum) saltwater. Salt mixes have many elements, some of which need time to to dissovle fully.

Bad batch of salt mix

Whatever it is you are adding with the alt mix.

Recomend: Use ro/di water . Add only the salt mix. Let it age overnight with a power head or aisotne in the container. Check sg vs tank water carefully before adding.

 

[leslee5050]

Thank you to everyone for your help. I am checking into an ro/di. Also, the one thing I hadn't been doing is matching the salinity from the new water to my tank water. Otherwise, I had been buffering, letting it run overnight with powerhead, keeping temp up. It makes me afraid to do a water change, as when I do, i lose something else.

 

[tmz]

Temperature and slainity are two of the most important things to keep relatively constant. Good luck

 

[keithcrmr]

definatly NEVER EVER use tap water!!! one of the worst things you could do for corals...although fish are much more forgiving when it comes to water quality coral will show when they are unhappy. tap water contains a great variety of things that you are not testing for.. i would imagine that your copper level is high and just a trace can ruin a tank for good! do you have any inverts? your best bet is investing in your own ro/di unit if funds are limited start with a ro unit and you can upgrade by adding a di stage for around $50 and 5 mins...buying ro/di from a lfs is also a decent option however in my esperience i have come to find that there water is not always perfect either because they go through so much water on a daily baisis that the absolout quality of it is not possible or theisable to track i hope this helps and good luck!

 

[tmz]

Regarding and ro/di unit. If you invest in one ,pick up a tds (total dissolved solids mete) as well. This will effectively tell you if your ro/di and membrane are functioning properly. I once had a pinched seal in the membrane; water ran right around it. Would not have know without the meter.