Okay, so this past week I had a colt coral (a newly added guy) who wasn't looking so hot. I did a water change about a week ago as well. My levels I think were all okay.
Backup, here's what I have in my tank...I had, for a while, a star, clown, blenny. Then I added a lemonpeel angel, three green chromies, and a spotted puffer. I had my tank up and running for a couple months when I added these last guys.
Today I realized my little puffer was kinda lying on a rock. Then he would go up and float at the top of the tank, seeming to get air. I decided to test the levels (all the other fish seemed to be fine), and found that my nitrites and nitrates were zero, my salinity .025, and pH was fine. However, my ammonia was almost at 1.0. So, I took emoergency action and did about a 40% water change to see if I could bring the ammonia down and save my puffer..
My ammonia level is down to about .25, and everyone seems happy but that little puffer...he is still floating at the top, kind of tipped a little by the protein skimmer. I am also worried becuase my salinity somehow dropped to about .018 after the water change, I am not sure how that happened. Is this going to hurt these guys (it is 1am and I also ran out of salt so I have no way to bring this up until tomorrow morning). I know that sudden drops in salinity can hurt the marine life, so I am concerned.
Any advice about the puffer? Should I still do another water change tomorrow to continue to bring the ammonia down? Any help with this would be great.
Thanks....
Mary
Backup, here's what I have in my tank...I had, for a while, a star, clown, blenny. Then I added a lemonpeel angel, three green chromies, and a spotted puffer. I had my tank up and running for a couple months when I added these last guys.
Today I realized my little puffer was kinda lying on a rock. Then he would go up and float at the top of the tank, seeming to get air. I decided to test the levels (all the other fish seemed to be fine), and found that my nitrites and nitrates were zero, my salinity .025, and pH was fine. However, my ammonia was almost at 1.0. So, I took emoergency action and did about a 40% water change to see if I could bring the ammonia down and save my puffer..
My ammonia level is down to about .25, and everyone seems happy but that little puffer...he is still floating at the top, kind of tipped a little by the protein skimmer. I am also worried becuase my salinity somehow dropped to about .018 after the water change, I am not sure how that happened. Is this going to hurt these guys (it is 1am and I also ran out of salt so I have no way to bring this up until tomorrow morning). I know that sudden drops in salinity can hurt the marine life, so I am concerned.
Any advice about the puffer? Should I still do another water change tomorrow to continue to bring the ammonia down? Any help with this would be great.
Thanks....
Mary