I am having no luck with my tank! I have a 10 gal with a good amount of live rock and crushed coral! A couple months ago I purchased a clown and it died before 24 hours! I left the tank cycle a week with wayer changes and made sure all parameters checked out before I went I got a peppermint shrimp...died within 24 hours! So I was frustrated and left the tank sit for over a month periodically giving water changes! Yesterday I decided to get another peppermint shrimp and today it was dead! All parameters check out I don't understand what is going on!
I need help really bad...
- Thread starter Dunnman39
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Oscar47f
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when you're cycling the tank do you let it sit or add ammonia in some way?? and where is the water coming from??? how do you acclimate your new additions and what tests kits do you use?
redfishbluefish
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Have you tested for ammonia. I'm sure the first two were from ammonia....tank not cycled. The last one could still be that the tank hasn't cycled.
Thanks everyone for wuick replies! I will post new parameters in the morning when I test again! However I do not drip acclimate because I keep my salinity around the same as my LFS. The tank technically is over a year old but I downgraded from a 55 to a 10! Used the same filter and live rock but different crushed coral! I successfully kept live stock in the 55! I did let the tank cycle again once I down sized..
redfishbluefish
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I find that surprising that your LFS has salinity the same as you. Every LFS in my area of the county run their tanks low (1.020 -021) while I'm at 1.026. That large a difference will "shock" a fish and potentially kill it if it's not drip acclimated.
If LFS salinity is so low which not nsw, i wonder how you can success raise the salinity from lfs to your tank salinity. raising 1.020 to 1.025 for invert is consider huge jump even it done over few hours and hard for inverts especially shrimp to survive.
Correct me if I am wrong.
Correct me if I am wrong.
4FordFamily
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Ok a couple observations:
1) Your tank isn't cycled yet because it's been too soon
2) Water changes before any livestock (or ammonia source) and even with these sources will actually slow your cycle. Save water changes for when ammonia is present.
It sounds like ammonia is your issue, are you testing with an ammonia test kit or the indabous test strips? They're inaccurate if it's the strips.
My favorite newbie ammonia test is the Seachem Ammonia Badge that shows you real time on the tank good for several months. Heck, I still use it on QT and new tanks.
1) Your tank isn't cycled yet because it's been too soon
2) Water changes before any livestock (or ammonia source) and even with these sources will actually slow your cycle. Save water changes for when ammonia is present.
It sounds like ammonia is your issue, are you testing with an ammonia test kit or the indabous test strips? They're inaccurate if it's the strips.
My favorite newbie ammonia test is the Seachem Ammonia Badge that shows you real time on the tank good for several months. Heck, I still use it on QT and new tanks.
tyler1503
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Great advice! However I wouldn't do water changes while ammonia is present. You want all that ammonia to help establish good bacteria. I would wait till ammonia and nitrite both read 0 for a few days in a row, then start water changes to bring nitrate down
4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
I've not seen a milky clear ammonia test kit before, did you check the date on that test kit?
The presence of nitrates means at least some cycling progress is being made
The presence of nitrates means at least some cycling progress is being made
all my LFS that I've bought fish, snails, crabs and shrimp from keep their salt at 1.020 i drip acclimate for an hour and never lost anything that fast...i have lost a hermit and snail within a week of adding it but thats it. matter of fact yesterday i received a shrimp that was backordered from liveaquaria and i wasn't expecting the shipment so soon, well i didn't have much time to acclimate, i floated the bag for 5 minutes then dumped 2 cups of tank water in the bag 3 minutes apart then threw the shrimp in 3 minutes after that and he's doing fine so far..liveaquaria keeps their salt at 1.020 and mine is 1.025-26
melypr1985
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I've seen it. We do these about 100 times a day at the store. You have to let them sit for a few minutes. we call it letting them "cook". If the ammonia or nitrite or nitrate are REALLY bad then they will register almost immediately.
Agree with the above replies, I also have never seen the white ammonia test result (I use the same test kit....it is somewhat cloudy but definitely shows the zero color).Plus your nitrate test is too low in tube (not that trates killed your fish)...it takes 20 total drops which will raise it significantly above the mark on the tube, which it is not even up to in the pic.......
