I think my tank is crashing and I don't know why

On Weds we had a salinity spike which killed our 2 cleaner shrimp and a blood red. Also claimed a sebay anemone on Fri (I believe also due to wednesday's spike) I got it down to 1.022 and it's been holding steady there since weds night. I know this is a little low but it hasn't been long enough to get it up much gradually, today we did get it to 1.023 but I don't want it to spike again. What I don't understand is why things are being effected that were not in the tank at the time of the spike. Once we had it steady we added two mandarins (male and female) they were very healthy looking all day and at dinner time tonight (around 6:30pm eastern, it's now 2am) and now the female looks all tore up and pale, she was even eating brine shrimp earlier, I don't understand. We did add 2 emerald crabs today, will they attack mandarins? I do have a sebay clown in there, but she is only agressive to the other clown (they are juvenile and I'm trying to get them to pair). I have the Ocean Master and the Reef master test kits, I ran every test in both kits before putting the new fish in on friday and they were all perfect according to the test directions. We pulled the anemone out before it actually died and disintegrated plus I ran an amonia test and a ph test today and both were perfect. I'm so frustrated and lost right now, I'm tired of losing these wonderfull living things. I also think the pistol shrimp I added at the same time may have died last night. Is this all still from the salinity spike? Even though the things I'm losing were added after it was stable? Please help

 

check expiration on your test kit and look for stray voltage and you listed perfect can you put down what the actual readings were

also what size tank/how much LR/bio balls?/tap or RO? etc

 

also do you have some prime just in case?

 

noob question how do you get a salinity spike? is it from evaporation and improper top offs? just wondering

 

@Nanomano, we were advised by our aquarium supplier to do a water change 3 seperate times in the same week. Until that they had only given good advice. Because of the frequency of changes, we did not think to do top off's that week as the water was always full. In short, we F'ed up bad.

@Brunoboarder244, we have a 29 gallon biocube, I don't know what LR is?, the tank has bioballs, I top off with tap, My aquarium guy says he's never had a prob with tap in our area. Exp on test kit is feb 2014. Ph 8.2, Nitrate 10, Nitrite 0.2,amonia 0.0, Alkalinity 4.5, Calcium 500 (I had just added it before I ran this test cuz I didn't notice the fish till after.) My phosphates are high at 1.0, but I was told not to really worry about that? Salinity was at 1.023 at around 8pm, it had gone up to 1.026 by 2am when I noticed the fish so I topped off with tap and it is now back to 1.022. You mentioned having prime, is that the same thing as stress-zyme? If not, what is it? We have only been doing this for about 4 months, so far this is our only mess up, but it's been a painful one. If there were stray voltage, would I have been zapped when I put my hand in the water? How do I check that? Honestly, she really looks like she's been attacked by something, the other mandarin is fine and so is everything else that's still in there.

 

I don't think your tank is crashing, but the constant salinity swings could certainly force the issue. You really need to gain control- i.e., I top off my 29g every day, even though it only takes 1 quart. 1.024 - 1.026 is ideal for corals and inverts, 1.022 is ok for fish-only, but most importantly it needs to remain stable.

Tap water is another no-no. There could be 1000 impurities in there that won't affect your tank right away, but in a year, or it might even take 5, they can build up to lethal levels.

LR=Live Rock. For the sake of discussion, any rock in your tank once it has cycled is considered "live" as it will be populated with nitrifying bacteria.

Personally, I would never recommend using Prime in the DT. Prime removes ammonia, which is ok for the bag water when acclimating new purchases if you think ammonia is a problem, but in the DT it can starve your bio-filter and cause your tank to go through a deep re-cycle.

If your mandarin appears to have been attacked, she most likely was. Any hungry crustacean can become an opportunistic predator.

Hope this helps.

 

Definitely get an RODI. It's well worth the cost if you're serious about keeping a reef for a long time.

At 4 months, your tank probably doesn't have a big enough pod population(or probably isn't even big enough to sustain one) for the Mandarins to feed on. Brine shrimp provides very little nutrients.

 

Thanks so much Mr. Bill. I guess I kinda freaked out a little prematurely. I've jut lost so many things in the last week I'm a little on edge. She looks much much better this morning. I was trying to gently bump the salinity a little because of your suggestions on my last thread, I was worried because of how quickly it went up to 1.026 and I was going to bed & didn't want a spike during the night. I don't think I'm going to attempt that again (I only added the water the emeralds came in, since we buy our water premixed from the aquarium shop). I'll just try to balance t out on my next water change. Should I start using RO water for this too? I would then need to mix my own and am not very confident about that considering my xperiences during the last week. I greatly appreciate all your help, you've been a life-saver...litterally!

 

@ Mr. Ace, what's an RODI? Is that a type of hatchery or something? These are my favorite fish so I will do what ever it takes to get and keep them healthy. I've been adding two bottles of live copepods every other day since I got the mandarins, and had added one bottle every week for about a month prior. Any thoughts? That's a really beautiful dog in your photo, by the way.

 

i keep my tank at 1.025 inverts suffer at 1.022 and if your salt reading is a little off like reading 1.022 and you salt is actually 1.021 thats not an insert safe salt reading . i noticed your alk is also very low it should be a reading of 7 to 11 in there is the recommended alk levels. this could also be causing problems.
as far as using prime i agree with mr bill, i don't recommend it. get a live bacteria of some sort this will help with ammonia and nitrites, ( try bacter7 by brightwells, this is easy to find) you shouldn't have any nitrite readings, it says a cycle happened. maybe from those water changes, to many at once is not a good idea.
NEVER add any of the water fish or inverts are sent home with you in to your tank. the premixed water from the shop is not the same as the water thats in there tanks... their tank water could have something in it. premixed is freshly mixed and has not been in their tanks.
. also every time you when doing a water change test the new salt water . and test your tanks salt level. just because its pre mixed from the store doesn't mean its a correct salt level.
learn to test every thing yourself, this will save you tons of head aches