Lost foxface , lost clown. After water change?

[Rory's Reef]

TBH, I sill doubt it was the water. After that water has been sitting for several days, you'll get some evaporation and with the small amount you probably had you're likely to get a high salinity reading. Mixing you're own however is never a bad idea. I used to get it from my LFS because I live in an apartment and thought it would be too much to make my own. I got an aquatic life 4 stage twist in RODI and was able to fit it under my sink easily. I believe the 3 stages are $110 and 4 stage is $125 for a 100GPD.

 

[Cflip]

Sorry to hear about your fish. I lost a bunch myself. If you like great customer service and a real person you can always talk water and fish to James at the filterguys. Helped me out when LFS couldn't.

 

[Areseebee]

Ok. Tested tank water, salinity fine. I did 6 seperate tests on the leftover salt water from lfs..... all high, over line. never NEVER TRUST store without testing water before adding. That water killed my poor foxface... now, how hard is it to make my own salt water, ? Since most of u do it? Thanku. Ill never go there again.

How high was it? I honestly would be very surprised if this was the answer.

 

[MmmmBalf]

Sorry for you losses. I also recently experienced the loss of a Foxface without explanation, so I know what you're going through. I doubt it was the salinity of the added water. You only added 5 gallons and said that when you tested the tank water after the death it was still at your preferred level of 1.022. If you added that 5g & it was high - lets say 1.030 - the resulting water would be around 1.023, a tolerable increase for fish. And it would still test at that salinity when you tested later.

The only thing I can suggest is don't rush out to replace your lost fish (a lesson I learnt the hard way ). Wait & watch. I wouldn't add anything to the system for 4 - 6 weeks (not including water changes). Observe the other fish closely over that time. You haven't eliminated disease as a possible cause.

 

[wish]

Oh just another info to keep in mind is some hand lotion is another cause that could kill fish in 24hrs.
Make sure you wash your hands before playing with the fish tank.

 

[5altkreep]

Unless you find a deal on a quality RODI system, you'll probably want to budget about double that. But having the ability to make your own top off and saltwater as needed is invaluable.
BRS, Spectrapure, Buckeye Hydro are all quality units. Im sure there are others as well. When i started i tried a $100 RO unit. When i upgraded to a quality RODI my tank did a 180, and is in MUCH better shape.
As with most of the equipment in this hobby: Buy it right or buy it twice!

 

[Areseebee]

Unless you find a deal on a quality RODI system, you'll probably want to budget about double that. But having the ability to make your own top off and saltwater as needed is invaluable.
BRS, Spectrapure, Buckeye Hydro are all quality units. Im sure there are others as well. When i started i tried a $100 RO unit. When i upgraded to a quality RODI my tank did a 180, and is in MUCH better shape.
As with most of the equipment in this hobby: Buy it right or buy it twice!

Alternatively, you can usually get a nice used unit on the forums for 100$.

 

[gryphon]

Ok, if the water all tests fine, all zero's, and 8.2 ph,salinity 1.021/1.022 and all fish visually look good, how could i determine if theres a disease other than seeing it or a fish behaving sickly? Are there other disease water tests? Or do i just chalk up the loss and monitor the remaining fish for 4 weeks? Im sorry, im being paranoid. The loss bugs me more than my kids..as i was doing everything right. Thnx

 

[wish]

I say leave everything alone for a month and see what happens.
Yeah there is no disease kit to test so just watch the fish. Do you have any snails?
If so how are they doing? Keep an eye for them too if they die they can release a lot ammonia very quickly.

 

[Rory's Reef]

Unless you find a deal on a quality RODI system, you'll probably want to budget about double that. But having the ability to make your own top off and saltwater as needed is invaluable.
BRS, Spectrapure, Buckeye Hydro are all quality units. Im sure there are others as well. When i started i tried a $100 RO unit. When i upgraded to a quality RODI my tank did a 180, and is in MUCH better shape.
As with most of the equipment in this hobby: Buy it right or buy it twice!

I'm not sure how you can back a blanket statement like this. Not all $100 units will be of the same quality. Plus it sounds like your $100 unit was only an RO unit, whereas the 4 stage I suggested is an RODI unit and comes closer to the OP's budget.

I think a fair assessment would be if you spend the money on an RODI unit that has proven to be good you can be more certain that you're getting quality water.

@gryphon If you want to be certain you're getting quality water without wasting money on an unnecessary unit I would recommend talking to you LFS about the tapwater quality in your area and what unit would best fit your location.

 

[tenstars11]

Just lost my fox face after 2 weeks, after small water change, normal electrolytes in tank, I think he was not eating as well as I thought, I fed him algae twice a week along with brine and blood worms which he did eat. Sometimes you just don't know. He had great color, was social and eating but yesterday morning found him dead. Sucks lol