Help with Water Quality (Rapid Fish Death)

[Doglips56]

PS - he is actually a “she” reefer. I know we are rare breeds!

I’m also a ‘she” but am mostly referred to with male pronouns lol. Really difficult to know the gender of a screen name! Dog lips is actually a nickname my husband used to have so I stole it lol. I’m not sensitive and I get the sense you aren’t either but I did have a little laugh when I read. I sincerely hope you figure out what’s going on soon. It’s really frustrating I’m sure.

 

[Doglips56]

Last thing, I think you implied you bought them locally, but if you bought online it can be lethal to drip acclimate. Ammonia toxicity increases with ph- when you open the bag the ph will rapidly rise. When you drop acclimate, the fish is in the high ammonia for even longer.

Really glad you brought this up. First time I ever ordered fish online we killed them with drip acclimation. The instructions that came with them said to drip acclimate! We have QT tank so could’ve just temp acclimated and thrown them in but didn’t know any better.

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

I regularly buy fish from an LFS that keeps their salinity far below mine. I’ve always drip acclimated over about an hour or so (they actually recommen faster) and haven’t had any fish/invert death in over 2 years. How do you even do a multi day acclimation? I have a QT tank but keep salinity close to what my DT is. Just curious. Thanks

I mean you would have to match your QT salinity to that of the LFS and then just replace the QT water with higher salinity water. There are calculators that will help you calculate how to do this but according to Jay's article on hyposalinity treatment, "It is vital to understand that marine fish can handle a reduction in salinity very well, but the return to normal salinity at the end of the treatment must be done much more slowly. The general recommendation is to return the fish to normal salinity over five days, in at least ten increments. Smaller fish seem more stressed by a rise in salinity than do larger fish. This is likely due to vastly different surface to volume ratios between large and small fish."

If you haven't had issues, it might be that the salinity is not large enough difference to affect your fish or they are not as sensitive to the change. The acclimation process is more than just adjusting for salinity and there might be another reason more quick acclimation might be recommended. For example, Biota recommends only temperature acclimation because of the additives they add to the water for shipment and they likely do not have large differences in salinity.

I'm definitely not the expert on this though, I just thought I would provide a perspective from a similar scenario seen in treating humans with large salt/water imbalances.

 

[Doglips56]

I mean you would have to match your QT salinity to that of the LFS and then just replace the QT water with higher salinity water. There are calculators that will help you calculate how to do this but according to Jay's article on hyposalinity treatment, "It is vital to understand that marine fish can handle a reduction in salinity very well, but the return to normal salinity at the end of the treatment must be done much more slowly. The general recommendation is to return the fish to normal salinity over five days, in at least ten increments. Smaller fish seem more stressed by a rise in salinity than do larger fish. This is likely due to vastly different surface to volume ratios between large and small fish."

If you haven't had issues, it might be that the salinity is not large enough difference to affect your fish or they are not as sensitive to the change. The acclimation process is more than just adjusting for salinity and there might be another reason more quick acclimation might be recommended. For example, Biota recommends only temperature acclimation because of the additives they add to the water for shipment and they likely do not have large differences in salinity.

I'm definitely not the expert on this though, I just thought I would provide a perspective from a similar scenario seen in treating humans with large salt/water imbalances.

Thank you! I will definitely keep this in mind as we had a 125 but I was extremely ill and couldn’t keep up with it. We ended up converting our previous non copper coral QT 40B as a DT because my husband couldn’t part with his anemones. I’m finally getting better so we will soon be upgrading to a 110 and will keep the 40B as a fish QT or maybe I’ll just go back to the little 13 g I had for fish. That would be easier to change salinity due to lower water volume. I love all the great info here. Learn something new almost every time I log on

 

[InTentsReef]

I got the results from my RO ICP test back. This is what we have. @Randy Holmes-Farley, does this move you or alter your suspicion on the salt being the problem?

In the midst of another 100% W/C but this time with a brand new batch of Tropic Marin Bio-Actif salt. No suspect mix! If the mollies continue to hold up, I think it'll be time to try adding a coral frag and see if we've resolved the problem?

Element	Analysis Value	Element Health
B ( Boron )	14.03 µg/l
K( Potassium )	0.10 µg/l
S(Sulphur)	< LOD
Sr( Strontium )	10.52 µg/l
Ca( Calcium )	< LOD
Mg( Magnesium)	< LOD
Ba( Barium)	3.23 µg/l
Co( Cobalt)	< LOD
Cr( Chromium)	< LOD
Cu( Copper)	< LOD
Fe( Iron)	< LOD
Ni( Nickel)	< LOD
Se( Selenium)	< LOD
Si( Silicon)	1347.60 µg/l
Zn( Zinc )	2.05 µg/l
P( Phosphorus )	101.28 µg/l
PO4 (Phosphate)	0.31 mg/l
Ag( Silver )	< LOD
AI( Aluminium )	< LOD
Cd( Cadmium )	< LOD
Hg( Mercury )	< LOD
Pb( Lead )	< LOD
Tl (Thallium)	< LOD
Bi ( Bismuth )	< LOD

 

[Lasse]

I´ll think that the problems with your deaths probably is solved but this last RO water test once again rise the question about your ICP test. I asked because if the last (your saltwater test) should be trustly - your Si levels from the RO should be like this. At least the 4:th stage (DI) does not work and if the P concentrations is right - not the membrane in itself either.

Sincerely Lasse