Lost a turbo snail and fan worm in two days

[neeker4]

I bought them both last Wednesday and when I got home from a baseball game saturday night, the fan worm had some weird white substance all over it and it was no longer coming out. I went to move it and green "stuff" started leaking out of the tube. The turbo snail moved around the tank for the first few days but I found it on the bottom of the tank up side down not moving or suctioning to the wallls or rock when I picked him up. I don't know my water readings off the top of my head, but will post them later. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

 

[neeker4]

Ok so here are my readings as of 5 minutes ago...
Salinaty- 1.032
NO2- 0
NO3- 0
Ammonium- 0
pH- 7.8-8.0 (look close to both)
Temp was at 82 but I dropped the heater to 78...
Any idea whats going on folks? Everything else in the tank is doing well. Fish are swiming around and eating happily. They aren't breathing heavy or showing any signs of stress that I know of. Cleaner shrimp, emerald crab and blue leg hermits are all doing well also. It is weird this happened at the same time.

 

[mlanda]

I don't know but your salinity is high, I have mine at 1.020 and my turbo snails are fine, at other places I have find informations and they said to maintain the salinity at 1.026. More higher your salinity more risks of having diseases (this is why I maintain mine at 20).

 

[neeker4]

Yeah, I did a 1G water change and put in 1G of RO/DI fresh. I will be checking the salinity when I get home and hopefully that helps. As far as everything else, I am quite confussed how my nitrates are at 0 still. This tank has been up now for almost a year and I thought I should have some trates. Is this a bad reading or is it ok?

 

[mlanda]

One step at the time, first, you just need to pay closer attention to the salinity, you have do that water change slowly, with that you will not shock your live stock. For the readings I think are OK, did you have more fishes, or are plan to have more fishes? you can try to add 1 little fish and re verify your reading in a week.

 

[neeker4]

I currently have a flame angel, two true percs, one white/black perc, and 1 chromis. I do my 10% PWC every week, so this reading was a shock to me(I checked it 5 times to be sure it was correct). I have been buying my salt water from my local fish store but I will be checking it now before adding it to my tank. I figured 1G change a day untill it is down to about 024-025 will be fine and then I will be doing my weekly PWC Friday after work. I think this should help out. I am also currently assembling a 15G sump/refugium that should be operational in the next week or two. Hopefully the addition of 10-15 gallons will help stabalize the water parameters a bit.

 

[mlanda]

You have a good stock (I don't know your tank size) but it seems like that weekly water change help you a lot in having those readings.
Try to change the PWC every 2 weeks and see the results.
Even you can change it once in a month, also see the results.

 

[joy13]

How are you checking your salinity? Do you top off your tank with RO water bought from the LFS? I know a silly question but I have been sold saltwater for RO water.

 

[neeker4]

First of all, my tank is 29G. I have been doing weekly water changes for the past 3 months or so because my HOB refugium/skimmer decided to crack and I had to go out and get a crappy HOB filter for the time being, and I was having a really bad cyano outbreak. I have been saving up for the 15G sump/refugium for the past couple of months and finally have almost everything that I need, save the actual aquarium with the baffels and all.
@Joy13- I have a hydrometer for the time being. I know, I know, I need a refractometer, but that went to the back burner when the HOB refugium broke. When I top off water, I use RO/DI water I get out of the machine outside of the local grocerie store. I have been recently using the pre-mixed water from my LFS because one of my powerheads died and I had to use my mixer powerhead for the tank.

 

[neeker4]

So i got home today and found a small starfish on a new piece of rock i just purchased. The rock has green start polyps on it that havent opened up yet. I had them real high in the tank and move them down in the hopes that this will help. Changed another gallon of salt water for ro/di fresh. Will be checking salinity via refractometer tomorrow.

 

[mlanda]

If I was you, I will verify first my salinity before to take the decision to add / remove water, if you can buy a refractometer it will be better (look into eBay).

 

[neeker4]

Mlanda, I know I need a refractometer. I am saving for one of those now that I have all of the supplies I need for my refugium I have recently purchased. On another note, I have my salinity down to .024 so the PWCs have done their intended job.

 

[mlanda]

Perfect!!! That sound better..... I insist into the refractometer because it is a basic thing, at eBay you can have a decent one from our sister republic of china like for 20 dlls, my friend when you have those 20 bugs just do it.......