I think I made a water change mistake

CoralN00b

CoralN00b

New member
So last night I was changing my rockscape and doing light maintenance on my tank.

I kicked up a ton of debris on my sand and this morning I realized that my cleaner shrimp, small crab and small tang were not doing well. I checked levels and my nitrates were through the roof. I freaked out and went to my LFS. They told me to use nitromax, and do a 50% water change so I did. Up until this point, I had been using tap water int he tank and I would mix the salt and conditioners (Prime).

Everything was happy and doing great for the past 9 months. Today my LFS said to use their RO water, so I did. My tang, cleaner shrimp and crab all passed away and now after using the RO water at 50% change and adding nitromax, all my coral is stressed. They all closed up, my nem is shrunken up too. Some of zoas are good still but some closed up.

Is this just stress from the big change?

Should I be using RO water still or stick to my old habits?

The temperature in the water dropped 5 degrees too. If that helps. I just don't want to lose anymore livestock and I'm really worried about my corals.
 
do you have a refractomoter or hydrometer? it sounds like salinity, but a fast 5 degree temprature change is probably just as bad. a big water change shouldn't do any of that by itself. You should be able to change 100% of your water without a problem if it is done correctly. Try to get some readings on your parameters and let us know. And just in case fishbeard is right, RO/DI is just really pure water. There isn't any salt in it unless the LFS was selling you premixed RO (they usually have both). If you have the money and the space, you will save yourself tons of money and time by buying your own RODI from somewhere like bulkreefsupply. Good luck. Major crashes are a pretty standard part of the deal for most new folks. I crashed a tank by taking too much of the live rock out too fast once.
 
You should have one of us come by, whoever is close to u. Your tank is crashing. Its too slow to try to help you vis forum
 
A 9 month old tank with a sand bed is not a tank you want to go pulling rocks up and moving around without great care. I would get enough water for another 25% water change and spend the money on a refractormeter today mix the salt a d throw a heater in it to bring it to temp. If you have corals a reffactormeter is a priority IMO. Also call a fellow reefer and have him take what livestock you can get out corals included as coral addict pointed out your tank is crashing and you will most likely loss your stock. When you play around with established tank things go wrong g really fast it happens save what you can lesson learned hope you get this fixed if you were closer I'd help you.
 
Thanks for the reply guys. I really appreciate it.

Yes the water was premixed. I haven't looked into the RO system but I will.

I just recently learned about the professional refractometers and hydrometers.

The guy I bought this tank from taught me his ways and they seemed to work up until this change I made. He used strips to test everything. Nitrates and nitrites all went back down to the safe zone. PH and salinity are in the ideal zone, and ammonia is in the safe and ideal zone too. That's what confused me.

Now I do have metal halides and my temperature is almost back to normal. Also my zoas all opened up, my birds nest is turning green again and my torches are all opening up more. (I can see the color of the branches now when I could not earlier.)

Also, my remaining fish are all perfect. Swimming around like normal. Nothing like my yellow tang was.

The stuff I found online seems like too much change at once. Most people said their tank was fine after a few hours. I hope that is the case.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
I forgot to add that my sandbed is about an inch to an inch and a half thick.

I'll never make the mistake of major sand movement like that again.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
CoralN00b said:
So last night I was changing my rockscape and doing light maintenance on my tank.

I kicked up a ton of debris on my sand and this morning I realized that my cleaner shrimp, small crab and small tang were not doing well. I checked levels and my nitrates were through the roof. I freaked out and went to my LFS. They told me to use nitromax, and do a 50% water change so I did. Up until this point, I had been using tap water int he tank and I would mix the salt and conditioners (Prime).

Everything was happy and doing great for the past 9 months. Today my LFS said to use their RO water, so I did. My tang, cleaner shrimp and crab all passed away and now after using the RO water at 50% change and adding nitromax, all my coral is stressed. They all closed up, my nem is shrunken up too. Some of zoas are good still but some closed up.

Is this just stress from the big change?

Should I be using RO water still or stick to my old habits?

The temperature in the water dropped 5 degrees too. If that helps. I just don't want to lose anymore livestock and I'm really worried about my corals.
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Disturbing an established sand bed is the worst mistake ever ..

and after that yup temperature is the major culprit

no idea where you are located Michael, but i am located right opposite to unionstation in west loop and will be home around 6.30 today
i have prepared some 5 gallons of RODI saltwater yesterday and you can have it if you want .. i can also loan you a pump and heater( these you have to give me back though) seeing your tank is a nano cube .. this would suffice for 25% water change everyone is talking about ..

pm me if you wanna get water and i can give you my address, bring a bucket and you are good ..
 
I have made plenty of rockwork change in my tank because im not always satisfied after I see a nicer tank on the net lol. Sometime I pull out all or most of the rock to catch a fish thats a bully. However, none of those time have I lost any live stock. I also have atleast 2" sandbed. Besides the sandstorm everything is ok.

Fish are highly tolerated to nitrate. Even the cleaner shrimps are super hardy. Its probably the water you purchased ot temp change that is the cause. Then again most people have temp swing in thier tank which doesn't see to affect anything.

SG swing !
 
well looks like u caused a sh#t storm. my tank is ten years old and did same thing year ago with the rocks . my sand bed is two inches at least i did a 50 percent water change and let it be corals lost color but only lost one coral. but with the temp swing nitrate spike and water change conditions all changed . to me to many changes at one time . any way get nitrates under control and be patient for corals to color back up or have some one hold em til u tank stabiles out . u can throw prime in tank to make nitrates non toxic to fish . as for ro its always a good thing to use some people have good luck with tap water some dont depends on u water supply. oh also haveing sand bed i stir up my sand bed completely once a week to get it all in water column so i dont have those issues as much obviously will still have some under the rocks but it helps alot specially since my sand bed is 10 yrs old
 
Sorry you went through that. Do you happen to know what the specific gravity (SG), or salinity, was measuring in your tank before the water change? How about the SG of the RO mixture that the LFS gave you? If so, what instrument(s) did you use to make each measurement? Eg your hydrometer, the LFS hydrometer/refractometer. I've been told that a change bigger than 1/1000 is too much, but that's probably only if you want to be really safe. Anyway, you should probably adjust any RO mix the LFS gives you to match your tanks SG (and temp). Also, hydrometer are prone to having a bubble stick to the swing arm and totally mess up your measurement.

With a 50% change and a 5 degree net change in temperature, the new water was probably about 10 degrees F colder than the tank water. I think that temperature plays a role in the SG measurement so as the new added water was warmed up the SG changed, but I don't know if this is a large change. I may try this one day to see.

Also PH of the two water systems may have been very different.

Additionally, you may have hit a pocket that released Amonia, or Hydrogen Sulfide. If you have certain corals, not sure which but perhaps zoas or palys, that release toxins when stressed.
 
Thanks for the info guys. It looks like I may have shocked my coral with all the change. The zoas are all back to normal already, my fish have been perfect this entire time, aside from the original one that passed. My Kenya trees are back to normal almost. Just my frogspawn, torch and candy cane are still recovering slowly but I do see progression.

Rookie mistake. I never would have thought before this that shifting the sand too much would lead to this. Now, it makes 100% sense and I learned from it.

Sorry I didn't have my levels immediately before. I learned a lot from this and with all your help that responded. I'll never do this again.

I have questions though.......

Aside from a sand sifting star, a diamond goby and some nassarius snails...... how would I clean the sand bed without messing it up like this again? Do I use one of those siphons?

Also, what is a good product to check all my levels? Is there a good test kit or equipment everyone uses and can recommend?

And last, do you guys think I should continue with the RO water for changes now or go back to my old method of tap water and conditioners?



Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
I just use a turkey baster once a week and blow the sand around it all tumbles the poop and stuff gers in water column and filter does the rest sand stays nice and white works for me
 
CoralN00b said:
Aside from a sand sifting star, a diamond goby and some nassarius snails......

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
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+1 on the Diamond watchman goby. They add dynamic to the tank! Throw him in the tank and he will keep your sand sparkling. Don't worry about the 2" sandbed. He will make a deep spot for himself. Your tank will be cloudy for a bit while he's catching up on overdue cleaning, but that will go away quick enough. Just keep an eye on low lying corals during the initial period and use a turkey baster to clean the sand off. Once it's clean, he will eat what you offer. The sand sifting star will eventually starve to death.
 
The sand sifting star will eventually starve to death.
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This i what i keep hearing but have had one for years at least 4. Hes tripled in size although i dont think he does a very good job keeping sand clean. I did get a second one on a trade its alive still too doing good .to me i love star fish but not very good cleaners i just like how they look. Oh i picked cool nasarius snails from underwater world gotta get pic awsome looking shells thought they were dead havent seen in while but found em going through sand yesterday .
 
madjoe said:
This i what i keep hearing but have had one for years at least 4. Hes tripled in size although i dont think he does a very good job keeping sand clean. I did get a second one on a trade its alive still too doing good .to me i love star fish but not very good cleaners i just like how they look. Oh i picked cool nasarius snails from underwater world gotta get pic awsome looking shells thought they were dead havent seen in while but found em going through sand yesterday .
Click to expand...

Your sand bed is like 19ft deep, they have plenty to eat! :) I was thinking about going to underwater worlds after I get off work today. Never know what they will have in stock.
 
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