Rookie mistake

[artiewylde]

I feel awful...I have been cycling my tank for almost 4 months now and thought I was ready for fish. Bought a really cool pair of clowns and both died. I suspect it was because of high salt levels....I have been topping off with SALT water and not fresh rodi. I was noticing the levels rising as the water circulated....I wish the person at the store would have asked me more instead of just handing me the fish. I know its just fish but I just feel awful. I'm going to be extra careful now and read more into it before fish. Just wanted to share.

 

[SexyRob]

live and learn, sorry for your loss.

 

[Jeff4777]

Yep top off with fresh water. Salt doesn't evaporate. Check your salinity. 4 months is more than enough time to cycled especially if you have LR

 

[artiewylde]

now I know....try again in a couple of weeks

 

[Member No. 1]

We all need to start somewhere. If you plan on getting into this hobby for the long run, my advise is start early with some good habits. One of which is learning how to check your water parameters, and to do it on a regular bases.
You will learn a lot, have a better understanding of water chemistry, and this will help to avoid bigger problems down the line.
Hang in there, you will be fine.

 

[Marchillo]

I wouldn't be too hard on the fish store on this one. The lfs can't assume that someone doesn't know not to top off with fresh RODI versus saltwater. And I'm not knocking you either. I believe my very first top off was also with saltwater. I'd blame the lfs if they told you it's ok to buy a powder blue tang for a 40g tank or to cycle a tank with a chromis.

Read through the stickies of getting started. There's a lot to know but once you know it things aren't that difficult. Don't beat yourself up over it.

 

[Sapelo]

So the next question is: do you know the salinity of your water and do you know what it is suppose to be?
You will need to make your salinity (hopefully in a quarantine tank) match the salinity of the water inhabited by any fish you purchase. If they are at 1.021 then you need to put them into water that is the same.
How are you measuring salinity now and going forward?
You should also be testing phosphates,ammonia, nitrates and nitrites.

 

[RayAllen3422]

Mistakes will happen. Everytime I am taking another step I re-read the stickies and search for threads about it. You will find this clarifies things and hopefully will save you some heart break. Good luck with the tank.

 

[philly_rfa]

I am new as well, i am sure i will be joining you and sharing some similar newbie goof ups in near future... As everyone said, live and learn...

 

[Pigpen17]

I feel your pain. My introduction to this site was from really messing things up with my first fish.

To avoid rookie mistake #2, after you have your tank parameters correct, start reading about setting up a quarantine tank for your new fish.

 

[jayball]

Do you have a set of tests and a refractometer or hydrometer? The salinity is the cornerstone of all the other levels and if you have been bumping that up for four months I have no idea where your alk would be.

 

[A.Astore]

That is a good point just made, because salt often has other aspects needed in a marine tank you may want to take a sample to the LFS and ask them to test everything to see where the other markers are. Yes, water changes and fresh water top offs will lower them slowly but it would be good to note so you are also watching those.

Do you have something to measure salinity as well as other levels that are critical for having fish survive? I would get in the habit of checking them regularly.

It is easy to make mistakes in the hobby but one of the best ways to learn is usually to mess it up once. It is only a major issue when you mess it up again because you didn't learn from the mistake the first time.

 

[rkrimple]

Total bummer, sorry for the loss. I am new to the hobby and was a bit uncertain about top offs as well. Awaiting my tank delivery still and slowly setting up my RODI station and QT tank. We learn a lot from our mistakes, at least this happened early on and not further down the road. Good luck moving forward.

 

[thelawnwrangler]

I feel awful...I have been cycling my tank for almost 4 months now and thought I was ready for fish. Bought a really cool pair of clowns and both died. I suspect it was because of high salt levels....I have been topping off with SALT water and not fresh rodi. I was noticing the levels rising as the water circulated....I wish the person at the store would have asked me more instead of just handing me the fish. I know its just fish but I just feel awful. I'm going to be extra careful now and read more into it before fish. Just wanted to share.

you have the right attitude about taking your responsibilities to these animals serious. Mistakes happen learn and go forward. No need to beat yourself up now. I have a beginner book you can have - it is a 3-4 hour read. PM and I can mail it to you.

I found it useful and I am ready to share it to the next person.

 

[Sk8r]

There's always a mistake to be made, no matter how advanced you get. What you try gets more complex, but there are always hitches. So sorry for the rough start. A good checklist to go over before starting out is the red-arrow sticky atop this forum. Check your procedures and understandings against that. Any time you hit an !uh-oh! while reading you've just saved yourself a mistake without the grief of it.

 

[artiewylde]

I do have a test kit and hydrometer, after spending a few hours , I got the salinity to 1.021...it was 1.026 after the fish died. I also wasnt filling it all the way so the reading was lower. Also got the Alkalinity at about 7 and calcium and magnesium is right at what the instructions recommend. Im going to test every other day for a couple of weeks , then try fish again. Thanks to everyone that replied.

 

[Kentech5]

1.026 is OK for fish normally. I keep my tank at 1.025. Did you acclimate the fish? I know a lot of stores keep salinity closer to 1.021

 

[artiewylde]

I drip acclimated util the water doubled in bag. I also had a wave maker set pretty high...maybe stressed them? They were very small. Dont know what else it would be. For now its just rock and sand. All I have in the sump is chemi pure and a little poly fil. Temp is 80

 

[Member No. 1]

How big is your tank?

You state that your tank has been cycling for 4 months. Over this course of time, did you check ammonia and nitrites and see them rise and fall as the tanks biological filter got established? If you didn't test, no way to be sure the tank did cycle and maybe it couldn't handle the two fish you put in.
Just because the tank has been running for 4 months, doesn't mean it has cycled and can support a fish load. Check to see what your ammonia and nitrite levels are. Both should be zero. When you add the next fish, monitor them to see if they rise. If they do, then your tank hasn't cycled.
As to salinity, for fish only, 1.021 is fine, but low. If you plan on down the road to keep corals, you will want it 1.025 -1.026.
So all said and done, I'm leaning toward the tank not finished cycling and a rise in ammonia that did the fish in, and not the salinity of 1.026 you said you had
Hang in there, keep us posted. You will win this battle.

 

[artiewylde]

I thought it already went through that....definitely had an ammonia spike and now at zero, I need to get a nitrate kit tonight and check that. Btw, I'm in Swansea, we're neighbors.