Urchin sick or not, and what caused it?

[Michaelis88]

I kept urchin for a week, and he was doing very well I my 5months old 26gallons tank. However, I putted a new stronger power head yesterday, it caused all my live stock react scared. Later on, I was doing a water change, I hit the urchin by mistake, and from that on, urchin start to not move and the spine are coming off these two days, but still pooping. Same night, my cardinal died, don't know why. But water test result everything is still fine.
Can any one tell me if it was 1. Power head overwhelming caused my urchin stressed?
2. Water change caused the water salinity raise and low that effect the live stock.
3.I hit the urchin, and he's hurt.
4. What caused my cardinal died? The poison fromthe urchin? Powerhead?
Waitif for answers , thx for anyone to reply!

 

[mr_X]

you can break off an urchins spines and they will grow back.
how are you doing water changes exactlly? why do you think the salinity was raised? a water change should not effect salinity at all.
what test kits are you using and what did you test for?

 

[Michaelis88]

you can break off an urchins spines and they will grow back.
how are you doing water changes exactlly? why do you think the salinity was raised? a water change should not effect salinity at all.
what test kits are you using and what did you test for?

well I usually put salted water in a bucket and the salinity of water is high for sure cuz I don't test it. I pull in a cup of water into the tank first then y filter would tell me the salinity, usually it will raise the salinity a little for sure then I just top up some tab water to lower it.
I don't have the test kit, I just bring it to the store and let them tell me, so I don't know the brand. They tested everything like salinity, ph kh, calcium , phosphate, ammonia... Everything was good except ammonia had a little, but they told me it's right after my cardinal died.
Should I use distilled water instead of tab water? Should I add ph kh buffer in the container before I purr them into tank? My urchin is still alive , but not really moving and spines are almost all gone. I don't think I'm going to keep him any longer...

 

[mr_X]

well your doing just about everything wrong. it's not surprising that things are dying. changes in salinity, or any parameters really, are very dangerous to your livestock especially your inverts. without knowing what's in your tap water, i can't say that it's part of the problem or not, but ammonia at any level is poison. think about the ammonia in the bottle that you clean the bathroom with- it's the same thing. imagine the effect pouring some of that in your tank every so often would have on your livestock.

no- you should not add a KH buffer before adding your water. you should go out and buy liquid test kits and a refractometer and test your water yourself. there is no way you can accurately add top off and get a correct salinity without a refractometer, or at least a swing arm hydrometer.
are you treating your tap water with prime or amquel before adding it to the aquarium? if not, you are most likely adding chlorine directly to the tank also- another poison.
fish generally live about 10-15 years or more. the cardinal did not die of old age.

 

[Scotty09]

Wow I fort I was learning u gotta test everything fella u can't just guess