akambience
07-22-2011, 01:14 PM
Hello All: I have a situation and I have spoken with a few in the community about, and I hope to start this thread for some input. We’ll start with my present tank prams and chemical history: 55G Closed loop, 18G Sump Octopus-110 Skimmer, Dual T-5HO(for sale) (http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?28202-T5HO-AquaticLife&highlight=), 75lb+ LR with a fine sandbed no deeper than 2 inches, and running a reactor with carbon.
1.025 SG
79F
0 ppm Ammonia
0 ppm Phosphate
0 ppm Nitrate
0 ppm Nitrite
480 ppm Calcium
7DKH
8.4 pH
I have four Blue/Green Chromis, an Ocellaris, two cleaner shrimp, and a moderate sized cleanup crew. A hand full of softie frags and two SPS frags.
This tank is about 7 weeks old after “the crash” [link is here] (http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?27592-NEED-RODI-TONIGHT-please-help&highlight=) and 7 months old before that.
I have always had low alk, I started lightly dosing with baked-baking soda long ago, but my alk wouldn’t stay above 8 for more than a week. I have had low alk even before “the crash”. Two weeks ago I tried dosing with Seachems Reef Builder but not with great results.
Within the past week I bought a Banggai Cardinalfish from a LFS. Six hours after he was introduced, he was swimming upside down and sideways before my cleaner shrimp and crabs got him. All of my other tank inhabitants are doing well and seemed fat and happy. Through thrice-weekly testing, I thought that all my tank parameters were within normal limits and stable, I took the fish back to the LFS along with a water sample. The LFS owner thinks that my pH is unstable and the cause of the death. He tested at 8.0 or 7.9, and prescribed Seachem Marine buffer. I came home and retested with my own kits and got 8.1-8.2. So I added to the buffer over the weekend and my pH came up to 8.3-8.4 AND my alk came up to 8 DKH. So went back three or so days later and got another Banggai. I spent 4+ hours in a heavily watched and tended to drip acclamation, tested bag water versus tank water every hour and assured all the parameters were slowly matched before introducing him into my tank all the while playing my favorite Beethoven concertos. And he seemed to be doing fine all evening. The next morning, I woke up to a half eaten skeleton. Still, all parameters are great and all other inhabitance look great.
My question is: I feel terrible having to act as Doctor Jack Kevorkian for fish; what am I doing wrong? Everything else in my tank seems to be doing fine and I have spent particular attention to tank parameters and the acclamation. Even if the PH was off, wouldn’t the drip acclamation prevent substantial harm to the fish? And I understand that the pH swings with the photo periods throughout the day, is a pH of 8.0 that bad? Is the pH the true culprit? Perhaps unhealthy fish; although all the fish look fine at the LFS? Perhaps rough handling from the wholesaler and this last move was enough to do them in?
I don’t like killing fish. At the very least, I’ll wait until I can find some local tank bread Banggais but is there something that I’m overlooking?
Thank you all for your input.
1.025 SG
79F
0 ppm Ammonia
0 ppm Phosphate
0 ppm Nitrate
0 ppm Nitrite
480 ppm Calcium
7DKH
8.4 pH
I have four Blue/Green Chromis, an Ocellaris, two cleaner shrimp, and a moderate sized cleanup crew. A hand full of softie frags and two SPS frags.
This tank is about 7 weeks old after “the crash” [link is here] (http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?27592-NEED-RODI-TONIGHT-please-help&highlight=) and 7 months old before that.
I have always had low alk, I started lightly dosing with baked-baking soda long ago, but my alk wouldn’t stay above 8 for more than a week. I have had low alk even before “the crash”. Two weeks ago I tried dosing with Seachems Reef Builder but not with great results.
Within the past week I bought a Banggai Cardinalfish from a LFS. Six hours after he was introduced, he was swimming upside down and sideways before my cleaner shrimp and crabs got him. All of my other tank inhabitants are doing well and seemed fat and happy. Through thrice-weekly testing, I thought that all my tank parameters were within normal limits and stable, I took the fish back to the LFS along with a water sample. The LFS owner thinks that my pH is unstable and the cause of the death. He tested at 8.0 or 7.9, and prescribed Seachem Marine buffer. I came home and retested with my own kits and got 8.1-8.2. So I added to the buffer over the weekend and my pH came up to 8.3-8.4 AND my alk came up to 8 DKH. So went back three or so days later and got another Banggai. I spent 4+ hours in a heavily watched and tended to drip acclamation, tested bag water versus tank water every hour and assured all the parameters were slowly matched before introducing him into my tank all the while playing my favorite Beethoven concertos. And he seemed to be doing fine all evening. The next morning, I woke up to a half eaten skeleton. Still, all parameters are great and all other inhabitance look great.
My question is: I feel terrible having to act as Doctor Jack Kevorkian for fish; what am I doing wrong? Everything else in my tank seems to be doing fine and I have spent particular attention to tank parameters and the acclamation. Even if the PH was off, wouldn’t the drip acclamation prevent substantial harm to the fish? And I understand that the pH swings with the photo periods throughout the day, is a pH of 8.0 that bad? Is the pH the true culprit? Perhaps unhealthy fish; although all the fish look fine at the LFS? Perhaps rough handling from the wholesaler and this last move was enough to do them in?
I don’t like killing fish. At the very least, I’ll wait until I can find some local tank bread Banggais but is there something that I’m overlooking?
Thank you all for your input.