plz help me!!! everythings dieing...

[bigjoncoop]

hey fellaz

so i just got my order from live aquria.com. when i received it i noticed my serpent star didn't look good. so i dripped acclimated my entire order and took my time. well my star fish didn't make it. i also ordered a few different types of snails, hermits, sea urchin, coral banded shrimp, porcelain crab, and a couple snapping shrimp. i got my order Thursday morning. on Friday i noticed my snails, hermits, sea urchin weren't doing well. there were "alive" but not really moving. so i called live aquria and they refunded me a bunch of money. but now Ive noticed they are pretty much dead. the only thing that's alive is: coral banded shrimp, porcelain crab, bumble bee snails, and 1 or 2 hermits!!! everything else seems to be dead. live aquria told me that sometimes during the hottest part of the year they lose some items in shipping.

my water test show in good.
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 30 a lil high but should caz everything to die
salinity - 1.022
temp - 73 - 76
alkalinity- 250
ph - 8.4
i use ro water and instant ocean salt
so wats going on?
besides the star fish that was dead everything else was doing great the first day. they were all over the tank doing there thing. but slowly but shorely they started "dieing"

is there something i should check my water for that im not?
the tank is new. cycled for a month

plz help

 

[Civicdemon]

How much time did you take to acclimate ???

Its could just have ben the temp swings durring shipping.

Also 30ppm nitrates is kinda high you should try to get them below 10 , do some water changes to bring it down maybe 5 gl or so ever 3 days untill it goes down.

Your temps seem to be a bit low you might want to bump it uo to about 77 to 80 f.

Also salinity is a tad low for fish only you should have it betwen 1.023 and 1.025 the higher end would be best for corals also.

On another note if you plan on doing corals you might want to switch salts to something a bit better.

 

[chichimom79]

Nitrates are too high, especially to be adding inverts. Salinity is a little low. Aim for between 1.024 and 1.026. Temp should be between 77-80 and steady wherever it is. So I am guessing it's a mix of those three things. Do water changes until you're under 5 nitrates. And do the salinity change gradually over several days. Good luck :)

 

[bigjoncoop]

hey fellaz

thanks for ur input

everywhere i look i get different info on water parameters.

do u realy think that having my water temp a lil low and nitrates a tad high would kill my stuff?

i just talked to live aquria again and they just gave me a full refund. im going to use that money to get a heater and a better test kit.

 

[fastrd400]

Yes, those numbers will kill your inverts. Normal reef tanks run between 77-80 degrees as stated above. Get the trats down, amd your salinity up and tbings should turn around for you.

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

Inverts are extremely sensitive to changes in Salinity. How long did you drip them for? Also, once again, Inverts are very sensitive to high levels of nitrates and copper. While 30ppm of nitrates may not be very high for fish, it is for inverts. Like everyone else said, raise the temp to 78-80 (even 81 is okay, as long as it's stable), get the SG to .024-.026, and nitrates as close to 0 as you can. Best of luck, and sorry about your losses.

 

[ErinCahir]

I'd check for stray voltage and copper as well.