Tank Crashed

[Pufferpunk]

What SG are they at? You should never let yourself run out of salt. Always start saving for more, before you are out. DFS is having a sale on shipping & with the Ebates bear, shipping would be pretty much free, on a bucket.

[Jivenjune]

What SG are they at? You should never let yourself run out of salt. Always start saving for more, before you are out. DFS is having a sale on shipping & with the Ebates bear, shipping would be pretty much free, on a bucket.

The salinity is at 1.016. It takes quite a bit of salt to jump it up. I shouldn't let myself run out of salt, but it sucks to be paid only monthly while trying to keep a high-end brackish tank up to par in regards to water parameters. Crashes happen I guess; mine was unexpected. I didn't expect to have to do a couple of 50 percent water changes in such a short amount of time. I don't know why I feel I have to justify this? Like I said, I'm trying my best. Almost every cent I earn goes to my fish. I only work 10 hours a week and get paid monthly due to limitations with my job. I'm a college student--this is the best I can do for them right now. Life would clearly be more convenient if money was more readily available.

[LilGreenPuffer]

I work the same hours as you, minimum wage, monthly paycheck, in college. I've learned to be prepared for unexpected events. I keep extra RO water (for emergency water changes for my halfmoon betta) and dechlorinator (dropped the bottle once and it broke) on hand, plus frozen food in case I run out of live and the store forgot to order some or I can't get a ride.

I would suggest keeping a few dollars out of each paycheck in a jar for an emergency fund.

Having said that, you sure do have more expensive upkeep, you're a newbie with fish budgeting, and you're doing way more than I could do for my poor dead GSPs in college. I know it's hard to struggle with money for their maintenance, and I think you're doing pretty darned good.

[Jivenjune]

I work the same hours as you, minimum wage, monthly paycheck, in college. I've learned to be prepared for unexpected events. I keep extra RO water (for emergency water changes for my halfmoon betta) and dechlorinator (dropped the bottle once and it broke) on hand, plus frozen food in case I run out of live and the store forgot to order some or I can't get a ride.

I would suggest keeping a few dollars out of each paycheck in a jar for an emergency fund.

Having said that, you sure do have more expensive upkeep, you're a newbie with fish budgeting, and you're doing way more than I could do for my poor dead GSPs in college. I know it's hard to struggle with money for their maintenance, and I think you're doing pretty darned good.

Thanks.

I borrowed some money from a relative, and I was able to get a 50 gallon bag worth of Instant Ocean and my second bottle of Prime for the week. I'll buy more on Tuesday when I get paid, but as most of us are aware, marine salt isn't cheap.

I've moved them from their 5 gallon bucket to a 20 gallon spare sump that that I've used to quarantine sick fish. I've stuck in some media filter in there, and their water parameters are fine for now. This is temporary, and I'll keep monitoring their water parameters.

I've stuck in some more media from my original tank in there, and they're swimming actively; however, they're not eating at all. This is probably just due to stress of being moved around and around for a whole day.

The water parameters in my 60 tank are as follow: 0 ammonia, (nitrites climbed from .25 to 5.0+) and nitrates are still below 20 (color is really difficult to determine the exact digits).

There are no living inhabitants inside the 60 gallon. There's still some fish poop around the tank, so it's at least feeding the bacteria. There's always some poop no matter how much I siphon and scoop.

This bag of salt needs to last me for a little since pay isn't until Tuesday. Well, I need it to last me no matter what since budgeting is tough. I can technically do a near 100 percent change in my 60 gallon tank, but is this even advisable? If I don't do a water change, won't the tank cycle itself as long as ammonia is constantly being fed to the bacteria? If I add pure ammonia, would this help the growth of the bacteria? Nothing in my 60 gallon is being harmed at the moment. The filter is on in addition to a spare heater I was given.

I went to a LFS, and someone told me that I wasn't suppose to raise the salinity by more than .002 per every other week. Is this true? I've been raising it by .002 per week, and I thought I was being pretty precise with the amount of salt I was adding. Could this be what might have caused my crash?

Anyway, thanks for all the advice here at TPF. Was a bit stressful yesterday so my apologies to anyone who I might have taken it out on.

[Pufferpunk]

I do not believe that fish poop is doing anything to keep that bioload fed enough to support your puffers. Add ammonia.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Yep, I was gonna say the same thing. Try adding 2ppm ammonia daily, or else add the same amount of food that you feed them daily.

[Jivenjune]

Well, I decided to dismantle my tank. I did a 90 percent water change, and my nitrites went to undetectable levels. About 12 hours later, it shot back up to 5.0+ (the max I can measure is 5 with my test kit). I couldn't afford to keep doing water changes with a 60 gallon with so much salt, so I decided to dismantle my 60 gallon and just start fresh at full marine. For some odd reason, there is a odd whitish residue that has been clinging to the window of my tank. I stuck all the media filter in a 25 gallon tub with my puffers. They took a few nibbles of some krill earlier today. It was all I could get them to eat. I'll probably be purchasing some live rock tomorrow since I finally got paid.

Wish me luck

[Pufferpunk]

What are you using for substrate & how much? Do you plan on curing the rock in the main tank?

[Jivenjune]

What are you using for substrate & how much? Do you plan on curing the rock in the main tank?

I'm using fairly fine crushed aragonite. It's not quite sand, but it's extremely light and soft. It's some Petco brand, but it's the only aragonite I'm willing to use. Quality stuff IMO. I actually wanna get a few more bags of it, but again, by tomorrow my funds will be zero since all my money is going straight to my fish (and the money I borrowed to buy equipment for them).

I'm amazed that I paid five dollars for these fish and spent some exuberant amount far exceeding their cost in equipment.

I'm not sure if too much curing will be necessary. We have a lot of sellers of live rock--one particular store sells rubble/small Fiji pieces contained in tanks with his actual fish, so I'm fairly confident these have been cured in advanced. Is it still necessary to double cure?

[Pufferpunk]

As soon as the LR hits air, some die off happens. It is always a good idea when adding large amounts of rock, to leave alone with a powerhead for at least a few days & do some water tests.

[Jivenjune]

As soon as the LR hits air, some die off happens. It is always a good idea when adding large amounts of rock, to leave alone with a powerhead for at least a few days & do some water tests.

What if I can get them to bag the live rock in the water?

[Pufferpunk]

LR weighs a ton--imagine adding water to that! Most stores should wrap it with wet newspaper, which helps.

[J-P]

LR weighs a ton--imagine adding water to that! Most stores should wrap it with wet newspaper, which helps.

Can you not take a cooler with you for your purchase?

I was planning on that for my Live Rock... just dump some water and the rock into a pic-nick cooler and off you go.

[Pufferpunk]

Sure, for small amounts of rock.