Inverts Keep Dying

danenelsen · Jul 11, 2023

Hello,

I've tried inverts a couple of times and every time I get one it dies within 24 hours. I've tried a Conch, a Starfish, Zombie Snails, and a Mexican Turbo Snail. All have died almost instantaneously. Parameters are:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 3
Phosphate: .15
Salinity: 35
pH: 7.7
Magnesium: 1335
Calcium: 440
Alkalinity: 10.5

Any ideas? I also measured voltage in the tank, there was four volts total.

KrisReef · Jul 11, 2023

Temperature? (It's hot in texas!

)

Did you ever have copper in the tank?

Otherwise, "instant" death- is hard to imagine what is going on in this tank.

lopez052308 · Jul 11, 2023

what is your water source?

To(meany)Tang · Jul 11, 2023

Maybe some type of chemical or toxin? Any chemical used around the house? Any corals you own or sea cucumbers that carry toxins?

danenelsen · Jul 11, 2023

KrisReef said:
Temperature? (It's hot in texas! )

Did you ever have copper in the tank?

Otherwise, "instant" death- is hard to imagine what is going on in this tank.

The tank is kept at 77 degrees, so I don't think it could be that, I don't test for copper though, so I should probably check that...

danenelsen · Jul 11, 2023

lopez052308 said:
what is your water source?

I make my own saltwater using Fritz Blue Box, for Freshwater, I have an RODI system.

TokenReefer · Jul 11, 2023

What're you using to check salinity? Calibrated recently?

danenelsen · Jul 11, 2023

TokenReefer said:
What're you using to check salinity? Calibrated recently?

Milwaukee Digital Refractometer.

TokenReefer · Jul 11, 2023

danenelsen said:
Milwaukee Digital Refractometer.

Calibrated?

danenelsen · Jul 11, 2023

TokenReefer said:
Calibrated?

Not recently

dangles · Jul 11, 2023

Do you acclimate or just drop them in? I've heard inverts can be sensitive to rapid changes.

nothing_fancy · Jul 11, 2023

How long has the system been up and do you check for copper? As far as stray voltage, that is concerning do you have fish? I would look into this and try to troubleshoot where its coming from, not in regards so much to the inverts but just for your system overall.

danenelsen · Jul 11, 2023

dangles said:
Do you acclimate or just drop them in? I've heard inverts can be sensitive to rapid changes.

I acclimated them as long as I did the fish.

danenelsen · Jul 11, 2023

nothing_fancy said:
How long has the system been up and do you check for copper? As far as stray voltage, that is concerning do you have fish? I would look into this and try to troubleshoot where its coming from, not in regards so much to the inverts but just for your system overall.

The system has been up for 9 months now, and I do not check for copper. I do have fish and I already looked deeper into the voltage problem, there was 1 volt for the heater, 1 for the wave maker, one for the ATO, and one from the return pump.

nothing_fancy · Jul 11, 2023

danenelsen said:
The system has been up for 9 months now, and I do not check for copper. I do have fish and I already looked deeper into the voltage problem, there was 1 volt for the heater, 1 for the wave maker, one for the ATO, and one from the return pump.

If you haven't, do an ATI test to see if you have a heavy metals issue. I don't think you should be getting stray volts from each of those things readable on your meter. I would think it would be more likely that there is one thing that is giving you stray voltage, not every single item contributing. Maybe try another meter

TokenReefer · Jul 11, 2023

danenelsen said:
Not recently

All I know is that actual parameter values can vary drastically when Sal is off. And going off just what was posted I believe high mg can have negative affects on some inverts. Just a thought/theory... Good luck!

danenelsen · Jul 11, 2023

TokenReefer said:
All I know is that actual parameter values can vary drastically when Sal is off. And going off just what was posted I believe high mg can have negative affects on some inverts. Just a thought/theory... Good luck!

Thanks, a lot! I'll see about calibrating the refractometer.

RFGuy_KCCO · Jul 11, 2023

danenelsen said:
Thanks, a lot! I'll see about calibrating the refractometer.

As an example of the need for calibration, I recently learned my lesson about calibrating my Milwaukee. I hadn't calibrated it in about three months and had been foolishly trusting it anyway. After my tank started looking "off", I decided to break out my TM Hydrometer and check salinity, only to find it was at 1.023, instead of the 1.026-1.027 shown by my Milwaukee. I calibrated the Milwaukee and it then read the same as the hydrometer.

Bottom line: fail to calibrate your Milwaukee regularly at your own peril. It only takes two minutes to do with some RODI. Don't risk incorrectly measuring something so vital to the health of your tank and its inhabitants.

danenelsen · Jul 12, 2023

RFGuy_KCCO said:
As an example of the need for calibration, I recently learned my lesson about calibrating my Milwaukee. I hadn't calibrated it in about three months and had been foolishly trusting it anyway. After my tank started looking "off", I decided to break out my TM Hydrometer and check salinity, only to find it was at 1.023, instead of the 1.026-1.027 shown by my Milwaukee. I calibrated the Milwaukee and it then read the same as the hydrometer.

Bottom line: fail to calibrate your Milwaukee regularly at your own peril. It only takes two minutes to do with some RODI. Don't risk incorrectly measuring something so vital to the health of your tank and its inhabitants.

Thanks for the info. Can you tell me more about how to calibrate one?