[Ok, long post time, I apologize in advance.
My 24g just has some live rock, 4 (3 now) hermits, several snails, and a Candy Cane frag.
I'm not feeding anything to this tank yet, the water seems pretty nutrient rich as I have some algae problems (setup is less than a month old still).
Anyhoo, last Friday I noticed my hermits were not doing so hot, they were just sitting there half in and half out of their shells, not eating all the time like I was used to seeing them do, so I was kind of freaked, and took some water into Exotic Aquatics to get tested. They got 0's just like I had on ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates (I really wanted a pH test, but they ended up spilling some of the water, so missed that test).
But when they threw some water in their refractometer, my SG read 1.030! I told them my little deep 6 meter read 1.025, and they said "Well, the bad news is these things are usually off, but the good news is they are usually CONSISTANTLY off". Ramin told me to do a 10% water change with fresh RO/DI water, and if it didn't read 1.020, change some more the following day.
I did as he suggested, and on the first change got 1.020 on my meter (presumably 1.025) and watched for a day. My hermits condition did not improve by the following day, so I decided to do another 10% change (this time with salt mixed water). But before I got the water out/in, one of the crabs abandoned his shell (I didn't know he was dead then, couldn't find him).
I got the water changed, made sure my SG didn't jump, and my crabs still looked bad. I found the missing crab, dead as well.
So this morning I scooped up some more water, and took it with me to work, it sat in the car all day, then after work, I dropped by EA again for another test. I had convinced myself that my pH was low, and the fresh water change had probably made it worse.
I got in there and they started doing tests, my pH seemed ok, Calcium was on the low side, but ok, and then the shocker. My ammonia was reading 2.0! Sheesh! I had not really seen any ammonia at all in my tank after the first day or two, so I was shocked! No wonder my crabs were looking poorly, right?
He actually did the ammonia test on 3 different vials of water I had brought in, and each one showed an unhealthy amount, not a consistent amount, but all of them were >0 (nitrites and nitrates were both 0). The good news is that my SG was "perfect".
So I came home preparing to do another water change (a big one this time) and still disbelieving that my ammonia could be so bad, I tested it again... I read 0 ammonia 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates... And to top it all off, my crabs are all back to their roaming around and feeding activities. (Also, the candy cane frag is opening and looking fine this whole time).
I have so many pods that it looks like it is flurrying snow in my tank most of the time (since there is not much predation happening with one small frag and no fish). Could leaving these water samples in the car all day cause a misreading like this? I don't think my tests are bad, they have been consistent with the shop's every other time I took water in (although I have only ever taken it in on the weekend, straight from the tank before).
I'm able to accept something was probably wrong with my water to caused the apparent stress to all and eventual death of one of my little hermits, but my tests show all is well, and they seem to be doing fine when I got home from work.
Could this bad reading have been caused somehow by letting the water sit in the car?]
My 24g just has some live rock, 4 (3 now) hermits, several snails, and a Candy Cane frag.
I'm not feeding anything to this tank yet, the water seems pretty nutrient rich as I have some algae problems (setup is less than a month old still).
Anyhoo, last Friday I noticed my hermits were not doing so hot, they were just sitting there half in and half out of their shells, not eating all the time like I was used to seeing them do, so I was kind of freaked, and took some water into Exotic Aquatics to get tested. They got 0's just like I had on ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates (I really wanted a pH test, but they ended up spilling some of the water, so missed that test).
But when they threw some water in their refractometer, my SG read 1.030! I told them my little deep 6 meter read 1.025, and they said "Well, the bad news is these things are usually off, but the good news is they are usually CONSISTANTLY off". Ramin told me to do a 10% water change with fresh RO/DI water, and if it didn't read 1.020, change some more the following day.
I did as he suggested, and on the first change got 1.020 on my meter (presumably 1.025) and watched for a day. My hermits condition did not improve by the following day, so I decided to do another 10% change (this time with salt mixed water). But before I got the water out/in, one of the crabs abandoned his shell (I didn't know he was dead then, couldn't find him).
I got the water changed, made sure my SG didn't jump, and my crabs still looked bad. I found the missing crab, dead as well.
So this morning I scooped up some more water, and took it with me to work, it sat in the car all day, then after work, I dropped by EA again for another test. I had convinced myself that my pH was low, and the fresh water change had probably made it worse.
I got in there and they started doing tests, my pH seemed ok, Calcium was on the low side, but ok, and then the shocker. My ammonia was reading 2.0! Sheesh! I had not really seen any ammonia at all in my tank after the first day or two, so I was shocked! No wonder my crabs were looking poorly, right?
He actually did the ammonia test on 3 different vials of water I had brought in, and each one showed an unhealthy amount, not a consistent amount, but all of them were >0 (nitrites and nitrates were both 0). The good news is that my SG was "perfect".
So I came home preparing to do another water change (a big one this time) and still disbelieving that my ammonia could be so bad, I tested it again... I read 0 ammonia 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates... And to top it all off, my crabs are all back to their roaming around and feeding activities. (Also, the candy cane frag is opening and looking fine this whole time).
I have so many pods that it looks like it is flurrying snow in my tank most of the time (since there is not much predation happening with one small frag and no fish). Could leaving these water samples in the car all day cause a misreading like this? I don't think my tests are bad, they have been consistent with the shop's every other time I took water in (although I have only ever taken it in on the weekend, straight from the tank before).
I'm able to accept something was probably wrong with my water to caused the apparent stress to all and eventual death of one of my little hermits, but my tests show all is well, and they seem to be doing fine when I got home from work.
Could this bad reading have been caused somehow by letting the water sit in the car?]
