# Please tell me what i did...



## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

So i went to the local fish shop to pick up some turbo snails. I got two..

My bf was with me and wanted a new fish... I didnt want to get any fish stock as of yet but i thought it may be okay. So he picked out a small fire fish.

I brought the lil guy home, and added aquarium water to his bag over a 20 min period.

I fed him a bit of baby brine shrimp since i didnt have much else atm. (was gunna get proper food today)

I did a water change today with some store bought RO water. 
I changed out about 20 percent and replaced with new mixed water.

I couldnt find the lil guy all day afterwards and finally went searching. He was gasping for air, seemed to be stuck at the bottom quite upset.

I did some tests and this is what i got
Temp: 76
ammonia .2o
nitrites in the safe range.

So.. of course i freaked out and did a small 10% water change with some left over sea mix i had. 
The little guy died within 30 seconds.

What did i do wrong... please be blunt. I am compleatly torn up about loosing him. 
of course i've been bawling over this lil guy... ~_~;


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Ciddian said:


> So i went to the local fish shop to pick up some turbo snails. I got two..
> 
> My bf was with me and wanted a new fish... I didnt want to get any fish stock as of yet but i thought it may be okay. So he picked out a small fire fish.
> 
> ...


As far as I know Firefish are not the hardiest of all salt water fish- though my S/W knowledge is really limited right now. There's no real 'safe' range for nitrites, any amount is dangerous. It should read zero (though there's of course always traces of stuff, it shouldnt be enough to show up on your test)

also any amount of ammonia as you know is very dangerous. More so at higher pH levels.

Im pretty sure a 30% water change is pretty big for a little tank like that when its salt water... My guess is that it was a combo of going into a tank that wasn't cycled all the way, temperature shifts and pH/salinity shifts (albeit minor maybe) from the water change. I think it was just too much for one day.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Mhmm.. i talked with my bf today about it cause of course i kept rambling about it.. LoL

I pick d...all of the above. :S

I think i will leave it to get more established, throw a bigger filter on it.. (was thinking a canisiter but i was unsure of what filtering material to use.. 

Thanks pablo


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

I would imagine that you'd only need a mechanical filter if so desired and dictated by your setup- AFAIK with enough live rock and current a little tank like that doesn't need biomedia per say...


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Sorry about your loss Ciddian .

Firefish can be tricky and not one to tolerate NH3 at all. New salt water (NSW) will produce a small amount of NH3 as part of the reaction of dissolving and interacting w/other ions dissolving. Also, if the RO water hasn't been aerated when you make NSW w/little agitation, then you are looking at low O2 as well. In your nano, it can be a problem.

I would recommend setting up a bucket of NSW w/heater and air pump (or PH) and use it as an "aged" reserve for NSW.

HTH

PS: Where did you get the firefish from?


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Definatly in the works wilson. Gunna pick up a Mix bucket from rona, heater and Powerhead on the weekend. Run everything through the lil hole in the lid so i dont get any spray 

I got the lil guy from NAFB.. I am too embarrased to tell him ~_~!

I dropped your name and asked about the gobies.. All sold out  But he said to come back next week which i will


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Let me know when you'll be going and I'll try meet you there.

To add to the aged SW, before you use it, aerate the heck out of the water at least 5mins before you use it.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

will do 

I'll prolly go sat if you are free


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Since your tank has featherdusters I thought I'd post this here-

Is it possible to do a tank with just featherdusters? And some fish?

http://coralsphere.com/photos/featherduster.jpg

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/caribbean/bahamas/images/featherduster.jpg

I think that would look really cool.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

I honestly would love too...  I did wanna play with some mushrooms and poylops.. But i -really- like the dusters.

All i could find atm was brown/white and pink/white. 
NAFB's has a light blue one... I am very jealous. lol


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

I like blue too. Cool worms.


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