My copper band butterfly obv died last night and i cant find his body anywhere, i do have a large clean up crew and i am assuming that they did there job but i don't understand why my ammonia is showing if the body was eaten. its a 75 gallon established reef tank and the corals and fish all look fine. i don't know what i should do. i am getting sick of test kits and refractometers i think they are all inaccurate and my patience is totally tested in this hobby right now because apparently my reef is at 1020 as well!! yet everything looks normal. makes absolutely no sense. sorry for the venting.
big problem
- Thread starter Jarrett
- Start date
- Location
- Long Island, NY
In a 75g established tank you shouldn't be showing ammonia from a single fish dying. I would suspect a faulty test kit.
i agree james, and i would love to do a water change but i don't even know what my actually **** salinity is at. i even bought the correct calibration fluid for the refractometer and it still gives me faulty readings. i am ready to just throw in the towel with this crap.
- Location
- Long Island, NY
How are you getting faulty readings after calibrating with the pinpoint solution? I know it can be frustrating, just hang in there. As long as fish and everything look ok I wouldn't worry about the ammonia reading.
well the only thing i worry about with the ammonia is i have a very low bio load i only have a hoevens wrasse, lyretail anthias, scooter blenny in the tank it has always been understocked for awhile now but the corals are open and fine. and as far as the salinity goes i am ready to go office space on this refractometer and **** it up. i did a 10 gallon water change yesterday and it was telling me the salinity was at 1025 i checked it this morning told me 1022 i re calibrated the refractometer then it told me 1020 and then i used my hydrometer which told me 1023 i am going nuts and i don't want to do another water change because if i don't know the true reading of the salinity i don't want to shock anything which i am very very surprised hasn't happened already. and i have mostly sps and i feel like if my salinity swing was as bad as it shows i wouldn't see any PE and i would think they would take hit from all of this but they all look normal.
and if my clean up crew took care of the butterfly then there would be nothing decaying in my tank so i am at a loss. and i designed my rock scape so i can see every part of my tank and there is no way that the butterflys body is anywhere in my tank it had to of been eaten.
- Location
- Staten Island, Brooklyn
I would trust the hydrometer more at this point, at least it gives you a rough idea what the salinity is at.
- Location
- Brooklyn
I think someone already suggested bringing it to a LFS to test it so you can verify readings. So... why arent you doing that?
Why not just buy another refrac if you dont trust that one? Use Redsea or Salifert tests, no API BS tests. This is a pretty simple issue once you get the new refrac, just do water changes. FIXED.
If this is so frustrating to you that you want to get out of the hobby, you must not have had a reef for very long, hah.
Why not just buy another refrac if you dont trust that one? Use Redsea or Salifert tests, no API BS tests. This is a pretty simple issue once you get the new refrac, just do water changes. FIXED.
If this is so frustrating to you that you want to get out of the hobby, you must not have had a reef for very long, hah.
- Location
- Long Island, NY
Jarrett if you ever want to verify your salinity you can stop by, I'm in Middle Island though.
What is the ammonia reading, I do not see it posted on the thread?
Contrary to some opinions, I have never had a decent sized dead fish get totally eaten by a CUC overnight, so likely he is still in the tank and producing the ammonia.
Also, when you are checking the salinity - are you using a refractometer that adjusts to the room/water temp? At what point are you reading the salinity - immediately after you put the water on the slide or a few minutes later?
Time does make a difference.
Did you calibrate it properly according to the instructions?
Contrary to some opinions, I have never had a decent sized dead fish get totally eaten by a CUC overnight, so likely he is still in the tank and producing the ammonia.
Also, when you are checking the salinity - are you using a refractometer that adjusts to the room/water temp? At what point are you reading the salinity - immediately after you put the water on the slide or a few minutes later?
Time does make a difference.
Did you calibrate it properly according to the instructions?
- Location
- Kings Park, NY
I have a new refractometer coming next week J if you want to borrow it. I'm a little closer to you.
thanks strgazr and kathy the ammonia reading was saying .25 on the api test kit but its saying 0 now, and i agree with what you said about a large fish but he wasn't that large he was about 2 1/2 inches and like i said i would deff notice him in the tank i can see everywhere in it the rock work is very open lol he had to of been eaten.
+1...unless you have an XXXL cleanup crew, I don't think it was gone overnight
Keep in mind that fish DO urinate..so there are times when you may get an ammonia reading before the bacteria consumes all of the ammonia.
The increase may have nothing to do wth the dead fish (unless he is caught UP under the rocks and you can't see him..obviously I have no idea what your aquascaping look like, but not everyone looks up when looking for a dead fish..lol)
The increase may have nothing to do wth the dead fish (unless he is caught UP under the rocks and you can't see him..obviously I have no idea what your aquascaping look like, but not everyone looks up when looking for a dead fish..lol)
- Location
- port jefferson sta, NY
maybee the copperband went carpet surfing..did you look behind the tank?
- Location
- Flushing NY 11355
Before you even find out the actual SG reading, as long as your new water reads same as the old water with the same meter, it should be good to change. However, if the meter really is way off then you will need to find out the correct reading for the long term though.
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