Please help!!

[Madmax412]

Hi everyone, I bought an established nano from a shop and water parameters were not up to par- although the tank was healthy when I bought it in the shop. I have two oscelaris, a goby, an Arabian, a serpent star and an anemone.

The owner is old school... Kept his tank at room temp, the salinity in his water was low ( .19) after adding a decent amount of salt to bring it back up.

I added a heater to get it up to 78 and the fish went into shock. As well as the anemone. We're at 75.2 with 1.018.5 gravity right now and the anemone opened back up but the fish are still in shock. Almost lost a clown but he's swimming again, the Arabian looks terrible, my goby is in a death corner etc.

How do I get this tank back to par?

Thank you!!! Max

 

[monkeysee1]

Hi Max!
Did you add the salt directly to the tank? You should never do that.
Keep your water temperature at exactly 75 degrees.
Do a 25 percent water change with water water at exactly the same temperature but at the salinity where the tank was when you purchased it. Change your filter with a fresh, new one.
Feed lightly. Monitor carefully for nitrates, ammonia and nitrites.
Hope for the best.
Hope your fish will be okay. Keep us posted.

 

[Betaktical]

Be patient! Don't change anything drastically it could take months to get it to what we consider normal parameters. U said its healthy so everything in that tank is already acclimated. Also when u added the salt how much did u bring the salinity up at one time? Fish can really only handle a .002 upwards at a time.


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[Sk8r]

To raise salinity safely, top off evaporation with salt water until you reach proper level. And b) are you SURE of your salinity reading? If YOUR instrument is wrong and it was 1.024 all along, that could be a disaster.

 

[Madmax412]

Not looking too great this morning fellas.


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[Madmax412]

I also bought a second instrument to be sure. The first one was reading 1.016

 

[mcgyvr]

A slight change in temp and salinity is NOT going to crash a tank...

Are you monitoring for ammonia? The tank move could have caused a new cycle and the ammonia is killing everything..

 

[Madmax412]

I think I shocked them raising to 78. I didn't consider the fact that they were used to low temp/ salinity and that would put them into shock. I then dialed it back to those temps. Been adding salt slowly. I'm adding pro bacteria and stabilizing tablets to combat nitrates/ nitrites and ammonia.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

+1, anytime you're getting a reading way off of what it should, it warrants a double or triple check. Best is to check with a different test kit or refractometer to see if it's a measurement error of some sort.

Remember, nothing good ever happens fast in reefing. only bad things happen fast.

 

[Madmax412]

I bought a second instrument to be sure

 

[Madmax412]

The anemone blew back up at 73 so I'm going to set it back to that and try to save it 1st priority

 

[Madmax412]

Should I add salt water or let it ride?

 

[307charles]

I would leave it alone. And slowly bring everything back to speck over a couple months. Turn heater up one notch every week or two. Salt also one notch every week or two. And slowly let them acclimate to everything. You can go as low as 1.009 and fish will be fine. Temp I would try and raise to 75 or so for sure. Good luck. Hope all goes well!

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[mcgyvr]

You did not shock them with temp.... 73-78....Thats really nothing as far as a swing..
They can easily tolerate decent swings..
It just got cold here last week and my tank (which I don't run a heater on in the summer) got down to 68degF over the night... Next day I threw a heater on for the winter and temps were back up to 78F in 6 hours or less..
NOTHING was effected at all with a 10 degF delta..

something else is at play here..

Your confusing information isn't helping either..
Stated salinity low at .19? Is that 1.019?
Then you added a decent amount of salt to bring it back up and now is 1.018.5? Is that 1.0185? if so thats lower than 1.019?

Did you buy the tank with those inhabitants in it?
Did you add anything (new sand/rock)?
How long has it been since you moved the tank? 1hr? 1week?
stabilizing tablets? What is the ammonia reading now? How about nitrates/nitrites results?

If you want valid answers then you need to provide valid information...
"not up to par" isn't helping..

One thing I can say.. saltwater tanks need "stability"... Changes like you are doing (up..back down..back up) aren't helping at all..
NOTHING good happens fast in saltwater.. Nothing..

 

[Madmax412]

The salinity keeps fluctuating. I've added salt water and it jumps for .019 to now at .017. All the inhabitants were already in the tank however I switched the clown that was in it for two different clowns so I've added one fish. This is my third day of possession. I'm using sea lab no28 tablets with aqua forest bio S bacteria. I will test for ammonia/ nitrates- nitrites soon.

 

[hkgar]

How large is the tank? Establish a high water mark and mark it with a piece of tape or something on the side of the tank. Add RO/DI water every day to bring it back up to the mark. You can mix salt into the top off RO/DI water to SLOWLY bring the tank to about 1.024-1.026.. What are you using to measure salinity, hydrometer or refractometor? Hydrometers can be inconsistent and temp will affect the reading. I prefer to measure salinity with PPT and aim for 35

 

[Madmax412]

Nitrates around 5mg/l and ammonia .05 ppm

The Arabian is still breathing however the anemone is making a comeback! Water settled in around 74*F current salinity .018

Tank is a fluval 14g w/ marine land penguin hang on filter have some cheetah in the back might grab some LR/ more cheetah to throw in the unused chambers

Using the fluval sea gravity reader in the picture- bought two first one came in lower than what the new one is reading

 

[gone fishin]

that is a pretty small overall volume of water with IMO to many critters. With that volume of water even a small change can have drastic effects. I am assuming a fluval sea gravity reader is a swing arm hydrometer. Many factors can affect the reading for example bubbles on the arm, a stuck/sticky arm, if it is level.

 

[heathlindner25]

Nitrates around 5mg/l and ammonia .05 ppm

The Arabian is still breathing however the anemone is making a comeback! Water settled in around 74*F current salinity .018

Tank is a fluval 14g w/ marine land penguin hang on filter have some cheetah in the back might grab some LR/ more cheetah to throw in the unused chambers

Using the fluval sea gravity reader in the picture- bought two first one came in lower than what the new one is reading

The anemone will not make a come back with 1.018 salinity.

 

[Madmax412]

I guess the main questions I'm asking is what's the best way to bring the salinity back up? What likely caused the tank to crash based on the info I know/ have provided?