Everything died!!

[aquaskilz]

HELP! My 60GAL Salt water has been up and running for over 2 months. It cycled and all my fish where happy. I added 1/2 Gal R/O water to my tank to top off because of evaporation and every thing died except 4 damsels and 2 clowns.

Took my tank water and R/O water to my LFS and everything tested in range. The guy stated that my TANK water had 0.3 ppm ammonia and R/O water was a little low but that shouldn't have killed your fish.
MY TDS meter read 0 on my R/O Filter.

This is the 4th time this happened to me and Im ready to give up and I lost hundreds of dollars of fish. PLEASE HELP!! I need to know why topping off water in my tank is killing my fish!!

WHAT DIED: 2 anthias
1 Scopas Tang
1 Hippo Tang
1 Mimic Tang
2 Chromis[/SIZE]

[MarAquatic]

A fully cycled tank should not have any ammonia. Ammonia is poison and will slowly kill your fish. It could be the ro caused the ammonia to spike up higher. And that is quite the bioload for a 2 month old tank. It's unfortunate that happened especially for the fish. I would say take it slow with the fish and add something like turbo start because if you have ammonia its still in cycle. Don't give up you got it

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[aquaskilz]

So why would Toping off with R/O create an ammonia spike? If this is the case, then my ammonia was 0 because it tested at very low at .03. I did use turbo start when I got my order from Algae Barn to get my refugium going.

[Member No. 1]

A. Just because a tank has cycled, it doesn't mean it can support a large bio load right away. IMHO, you have added to many fish to soon to a new tank.

B. A 60gal tank is to small for one tang, let along 3!

[Cin]

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️ See Above!!!

[ThePurple12]

I'd bet that the RO is completely unrelated. You do it every few days, right?

[aquaskilz]

This Is tricky but Im sure its R/O related because everything was going great until I added the water. Purple, for that matter I will have no choice but to assume the latter. @ Memeber1...I totally respect what you saying but ppl break rules all the time and are successful. I need to hear from ppl this happened to before and recently. I do respect your opinion but I would also like to hear other views. BTW I add the water maybe every 2-3weeks in a small amount.

[MarAquatic]

Originally Posted by aquaskilz

This Is tricky but Im sure its R/O related because everything was going great until I added the water. Purple, for that matter I will have no choice but to assume the latter. @ Memeber1...I totally respect what you saying but ppl break rules all the time and are successful. I need to hear from ppl this happened to before and recently. I do respect your opinion but I would also like to hear other views. BTW I add the water maybe every 2-3weeks in a small amount.

Imo if you want a tang go for it. But establish the tank more before you add them back. If you decide to do 3 add them together but after a month of having other fish

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[ROlympia]

One more to weigh in: ammonia, not RO, killed your fish.

[Diana A]

Originally Posted by Member No. 1

A. Just because a tank has cycled, it doesn't mean it can support a large bio load right away. IMHO, you have added to many fish to soon to a new tank.

B. A 60gal tank to to small for one tang, let along 3!

This is correct.

[taillonjohn]

Originally Posted by aquaskilz

BTW I add the water maybe every 2-3weeks in a small amount.

you might be changing the salinity too fast. I top off every day or two, but I live in dry environment with fast evaporation. Anyway, just an idea to consider

[Sk8r]

You need: your own test kits. Salifert is a good brand
A refractometer (salinity) Be sure of the salinity of new and older water.
An ATO (autotop unit) to keep your tank continually at the set salinity. JBS makes a decent simple one.

Plus a tank of around 50 gallons will not support tangs or anthias or any fish whose adult size exceeds 4". It is better used for blennies and gobies, maybe one dwarf angel or some basslets.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Originally Posted by Diana A

This is correct.

Absolutely.

[Duality]

Originally Posted by aquaskilz

This Is tricky but Im sure its R/O related because everything was going great until I added the water. Purple, for that matter I will have no choice but to assume the latter. @ Memeber1...I totally respect what you saying but ppl break rules all the time and are successful. I need to hear from ppl this happened to before and recently. I do respect your opinion but I would also like to hear other views. BTW I add the water maybe every 2-3weeks in a small amount.

Your the one spending hundreds of dollars on fish to be killed.
So I guess just keep killing fish with no responsibility right

[Timfish]

Originally Posted by aquaskilz

. . . @ Memeber1...I totally respect what you saying but ppl break rules all the time and are successful. . . .

Using this reasoning someone could argue it's safe to smoke, after all most lifetime smokers never get lung cancer.

Reef systems are very complex and there are very few absolutes. As you pointed out there are exceptions. However, thinking you can be successfull without understanding the complexities of how these ecosystems work and how an individual specimens behavior, fish, invert and coral, cumulatively effects the likely hood of success pretty much ensures a lot of unnecessary death and a waste of money.

[Anemone]

Originally Posted by aquaskilz

BTW I add the water maybe every 2-3weeks in a small amount.

I am very confused. You started by saying you added 1/2 gallon of RO water to your tank. Are you saying that you have only 1/2 gallon evaporation in a 60 gallon tank every 2-3 weeks?!? IMO, there's something wrong there. IME, you should be losing more like 1/2 gallon a day, unless your tank is sealed somehow (and if it is, I'd worry about oxygen levels being the source of your fish deaths).

Kevin

PS - with 13 fish, including three tangs, you are really, really pushing your bioload. Unless you have been keeping these types of fish for years (ie, you are a very advanced aquarist), your bioload is a recipe for disaster.

[gprdypoo04]

Case closed....

[neo1738]

Additionally make sure your water doesn't have chloramines, most RO don't really filter these properly and can lead to increased ammonia in the final product than you would think. If you do have chloramines you need different membrane add on.

[artachokie]

Have you been doing weekly water changes?

[laverda]

Originally Posted by aquaskilz

HELP! My 60GAL Salt water has been up and running for over 2 months. It cycled and all my fish where happy. I added 1/2 Gal R/O water to my tank to top off because of evaporation and every thing died except 4 damsels and 2 clowns.

Took my tank water and R/O water to my LFS and everything tested in range. The guy stated that my TANK water had 0.3 ppm ammonia and R/O water was a little low but that shouldn't have killed your fish.
MY TDS meter read 0 on my R/O Filter.

This is the 4th time this happened to me and Im ready to give up and I lost hundreds of dollars of fish. PLEASE HELP!! I need to know why topping off water in my tank is killing my fish!!

WHAT DIED: 2 anthias
1 Scopas Tang
1 Hippo Tang
1 Mimic Tang
2 Chromis[/SIZE]

You are going way to fast. You should not have had fish in your tank long enough to kill 4 batches. You need your ammonia to be zero to be safe for fish. Nitrites should also be zero. If both are not zero your not cycled yet. Once your cycled, that does not mean you can instantly add a high bio load to your system without issues.
It is possible your RO/DI contributed to the problem. Get a chlorine test kit to make sure your not getting chlorimines past your RO/DI. Chlorimine are a combination of chlorine and ammonia and very toxic to fish.

[ROlympia]

Dead horse.