Kim In a 46 gal tank losing a gobie, or two for that matter shouldn't effect a 2 yr old tank unless it is being overefed or over nutridosed with nutriunts and is on the edge of ammon spiking. ALWAYS do a check on each new bucket of salt to see what the parims are. You had better QUIT feeding for awhile, it doesn't sound like you have many fish that are coming out anyway. I doubt that it is the shrimps fault your fish are dying, it most likely is the rise in ammon. QUIT with all these shrimp wafers and nutrient additives.
I only feed every other day and small amounts even then. I did find one of my gobies tonight, it's dead. Not sure it got crushed in the rock fall or what, but it was alive for a short while, but I could tell it was on the way out. ::sigh:: I've only got four fish in the tank, a flasher wrasse, corrise wrasse, purple firefish and bi-color blenny. Anyway, I'll be testing everything tomorrow night to see where everything is. If I need to I'll do another water change, but it will hopefully be back to normal. Kim
I doubt your falling rock killed it as they can move fast. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, you need to daily check the ammon. levels and quit feeding if you have no quarunteen setup. Ammon. at .50 will kill most fish or make them quit eating. It is not to be taken casually, it needs to be dealt with now, do daily checks. If you have ammon. your openface brain and some others are going to be VERY UNHAPPY.
I just did the water change last night. I haven't checked my paramiters today since I'm usually out of the house before my lights come on and I know that can affect your PH reading. So, when I get home tonight I'll be checking them. It's possible that a gas bubble got disturbed in the sand bed while stuff was being rearranged. That would have definately killed him and everything else in the tank for that matter, if that's what happened. I understand that I'll need to step it up to get my tank back in line. I work two jobs, so I'm not home during the day most of the time. My lights come on around 1:30 and go off about 11:00 at night so I can enjoy my tank when I'm home. The messages from today are being sent from work. I don't dare ask my roomie or husband to do ANYTHING with my tank. They are COMPLETELY clueless as to how it is run. As for my fish eatting, that hasn't been a problem. They're all over it when the food hits the water. My hermits come out and my nassarri(sp) snails come out of the sand to take part in the feast. Kim
A gas bubble won't just up and kill your fish, in your tank it would take say half your tank to be a gas bubble to kill. I have had 6" deep sand beds and disturbed sulpher beds and had nothing happen, that is more of a wifes tale then anything to worry about. Check your ammon. level tonight.
You mention ALK and PH dosing are different....can you spek more about this? I was/am under the impression that if you control ALK then PH will remain in line. I havent checked PH in forever just ALK/DKH. Can you go further in detail?
6medic You can buy buffers that say to raise the alk. or the ph.. Either well effect the other. Alot of people get stressed out over their ph being below 8.4 and start dozing to raise it and then come to find out their alk is skyhigh. Any of the buffers well effect the other, how they are put together is a matter of which well be effected more, but BOTH well be effected, just one more then the other depending on their mixture. Go to the chem. forum and read the sticky at the beginning. click on the link and go down to the articles by RHF on his homemade 2 part recipes and read through. You well see that when using baking soda to dose for alk. that if you bake it, it well help raise ph., if you don't it doesn't have as much effect, BUT it still has an effect. Getting back to your question, just because your alk is at a good level, doesn't mean you ph is. A closed house in the winter time well usally lower the ph or if you have alot of kids and animals in a closed house, which in turn produces alot of CO2, that well lower the ph., Alot of people that run a calc. reactor also run a kalk reator to help keep the ph up as the CO2 used to melt the media in the reator well lower the ph. beyond where some like it to be. Go to the chem forum and read the link there, you well find alot of things that may spark your interest and RHF is very easy to read.
the more i read the more i get confused!! LOL Ill keep reading and maybe it will all come full circle
Yeh it canbe confusing. In your case, unless you are running a calc. reactor, or you have alot of CO2 production in a new air tight house you well be okay as you say with your alk levels being fine, your ph should be fine. I just wanted to point out that they are intertwined, but ph can vary depending on certain circumstances from alk levels. A ph inbetween 7.6 to 8.6 is fine. The ph well also fluctuate from the lights being off at night to when they have been on for an hour, that is why you should check the ph at roughly the same time of day each time you check it.
