sea aquarium help...anyone got one?

[spish]

3 months ago we inherited a sea aquarium, and things went great for the first 6 weeks....but then on week 7 there seemed to be a problem and the salt level was way too high...on advice from another forum we eased back the amount of salt we used in the water changes to bring the level down over the next few weeks. now 6 weeks later the salt level is still too high and this morning we cale downto be met with the most godawful of smells.......it seems our 'kenya trees' in the tank that had been looking terrible this past week had died and rotted, and basically disintergrated polluting the water. oh my what a stink.

also im guessing my ZOA's are all dead, they've been tightly closed for weeks and now have a film like covering over them. we lost an 'angel' last week, but my clowns and crabs are still good.

ithink my tank has crashed and i dont know where to go from here

 

[watchdogps]

What are kenya trees and zoa's? I used to work in aquarium stores and have never heard these terms, but I'm guessing a zoa is an anemone and a kenya tree is a soft coral?

 

[FireTigeris]

There are companies that fix things like that here, can you all around?

Can you do the water change for the dead stuff and then take a water sample to petsmart/petco/pet supermarket?

 

[bagendhens]

remove everything that is dead or looks to be dying...
you can try to save dyeing items by putting them in a hospital tank, they may not survivie but at least in a hopsital tank they wont effect the tank paremeters and you can start trying to save the tank.

if your salinity is too high add fresh none salt water (dechlorinated obviously) to bring the salinity down to safe levels, do it little by little, you want to balance it out not crash it.
once you get a steady salinity level test everything else, amonia ect to see if your dealing with any other major issues.
check your water daily, and do regular small water changes.
perosnally id mix the salt water BEFORE adding it to your tank and check the salinity of each top up batch of water before adding it to the tank...this way you can better control the salt content.

youll need to remove any decaying matter as it occurs so check the tank throughly frequently.

dont add anythign new to the tank untill it has stablized and stayed that way for at least a month.

salty tanks can be tough and tetchy, especially smaller salt tanks (i always wanted a nanno, but after doing my homework i realized that anything under 55 gallons tends to require DAILY upkeep and can be a very delicate system due to size.
good luck and keep us updated.

 

[hollyclyff]

When your water evaporates how are you bringing the level back up? You should top off with fresh water each day to keep the water at the same level. When the water evaporates it leaves the salt behind so if you are either not topping off or are topping off with salt water, that would be why your salt levels are going up too high. I have an automatic system in my tank that pumps fresh water from a bucket into the tank when the water level drops. Before I got the top off system I was pouring up to 1/2 gallon of fresh water in the tank each day to maintain the level. I would highly recommend an auto top off system in a saltwater tank since it really helps to keep the salinity stable.

 

[bagendhens]

good point holly...
if your adding salt water at every water change your going to mass overdo your salt levels...
top offs should be fresh water unless your salinity is low.

 

[spish]

hi...we topped off daily with freshly made RO water...No salt added, we only added salt to the RO at a weekly water change but it seems our conversion rates were slightly off and we'd added a bit too much salt every change, which built up over the weeks causing problems
ive signed up to a nice looking reef forum and have been given some fabby advice which i started trying yesterday and already see some results...i shall update shortlywith some before and after pics. thanks everyone for the replies

)))))

 

[watchdogps]

spish - you didnt answer my question about what is a zoa and a kenya tree. If they are what i think they are, then part of the problem is that they shouldnt be in a new tank. Three weeks is very new for a reef tank.

 

[hollyclyff]

Zoas (or zoanthids) and kenya trees are both corals. They're both considered easy corals, good for beginners.

 

[onthespot]

Topping off with freshly made RO water is your problem. Stop immediately. You are adding salt to the tank every time you do it. Real Ocean salt mix is for when you do water changes. Top off with distilled water for best results in between water changes. Sorry your tank crashed. Hopefully you can salvage some of what is left. Less is more in a salt water aquarium, much easier to keep running. I had a 20 gallon for years, and it did great. Even had a large anemone split into two!