Changing Water causes fishes to die.

[vinccc2009]

I have a 6 footer tank with a 4 footer sump.

I regularly change my water once eveyr month.

I will change the whole of my sump tank water and wash my skmmier cup

However, whenever i change my water, some of my fishes will get fin burn and ich.

Some will survive however, those new intro fishes, though they have been eating and in my tank well, will sometime not able to pull through after few days of WC.

Can any expert advise me?

1) Is it that I change too much water at once?

2) should i change to twice half sump tank amount?

3) what are the precautions to take; what are the parameter to check?

[gargamelron]

Change water in whole sump?

Thought its suppose to do it in the display tank

Parameter also play a part

[ReDDeviLs]

can you list down what you have in your sump?

e.g filter medias, skimmer, carbon etc.

likely that when you do a water change you killed off the bacteria that is needed to stabilized the tank therefore causes the problem.

[sunny03]

I have a 6 footer tank with a 4 footer sump.

I regularly change my water once eveyr month.

I will change the whole of my sump tank water and wash my skmmier cup

However, whenever i change my water, some of my fishes will get fin burn and ich.

Some will survive however, those new intro fishes, though they have been eating and in my tank well, will sometime not able to pull through after few days of WC.

Can any expert advise me?

1) Is it that I change too much water at once?

2) should i change to twice half sump tank amount?

3) what are the precautions to take; what are the parameter to check?

let me guess are you using Saltwater that you brought from LFS ?

[vinccc2009]

Yes. I will buy 6-7 pails of nsw each time.

My sump only have bacteria king, skimmer n a phosphate removal.

[vinccc2009]

Ya..nitrate removal media too.

My tank already a yr +. Now no3 remain high even though each WC. My main tank has about 1 inch sand.

[CFOh]

Minimize stir the sump filter media or sand bed. Cheers..

[onizukaa]

Honestly, if this happens, refrain from buying NSW from that LFS, because the water might not be that "cleaned".

For this case, try not to change anymore water for time being with NSW and buy salt mix (DnD / reasea e.t.c) and mix with water and add de-chlorine), 1 week change 1 pail and add bacteria.

dont add anymore fishes for time being to let those remaining fishes stabilise, hope this helps!

[vinccc2009]

Minimize stir the sump filter media or sand bed. Cheers..

Normally I don't stir the sand bed. As for the sump, I just suck all dirt.

[vinccc2009]

Honestly, if this happens, refrain from buying NSW from that LFS, because the water might not be that "cleaned".

For this case, try not to change anymore water for time being with NSW and buy salt mix (DnD / reasea e.t.c) and mix with water and add de-chlorine), 1 week change 1 pail and add bacteria.

dont add anymore fishes for time being to let those remaining fishes stabilise, hope this helps!

Normally those fishes with me for more than 1 yr got no problem. The problems are those with my for less than a month but more than 2-3 weeks .

[sunny03]

Normally those fishes with me for more than 1 yr got no problem. The problems are those with my for less than a month but more than 2-3 weeks .

I guess those more then a year are used to the LFS water.Or those new fishes are still not use to the water

Change to using Salt Mix for now and try to change water a pail a week and not 6-7 pail at a go

[vinccc2009]

I guess those more then a year are used to the LFS water.Or those new fishes are still not use to the water

Change to using Salt Mix for now and try to change water a pail a week and not 6-7 pail at a go

Do I have to use DI water?

U state anti chlorine...u mean use normal tap water with anti chlorine n mix with salt.

[onizukaa]

yes, you can fill up a pail of tap water, add in salt, add in anti chlorine, if you dont know how much salt to add, add bit by bit and measure 1 hour interval (to let salt dissolve) but best is to mix the salt already leave 2-3 days full dissolved and chlorine to disapper then change the water.

[sunny03]

you can use either one...

DI resin have the impurities removes from the water... Which means the water is much cleanner then tap water... You can read up more regarding DI or RO water...

[onizukaa]

dont really need to use DI water as it wont cause issue to the fishes but tap water will cause algae to grow faster compared to DI water

[vinccc2009]

Ya. I got red slime once when using tap water but I didn't anti chlorine it.

I got 3 stages of DI but it will take a while to fill up a pail.

1 pail roughly how much kg of salt?

[vinccc2009]

However, is changing a full 4ft sump water per month advisable?

Or 1 pail every week? Enu for a 6footer?

[ReDDeviLs]

from my experience.. the older the tank is the lesser amount of water change needed. as water parameters are more stable and we are actually doing water change to replace missing trace elements that we do not test for.

roughly 5% of the tank vol.

we are talking about the similar amount of livestock and filtre system etc.

every water change kills bacteria. therefore if you change 100% of your sump the bacteria will die off.

try reducing the amount of water change. esp from your sump. perhaps 50% of it or lesser. monitor the livestocks and like bros advise. best not to increase livestock and let them be stable first.

considering if your sump is a 4x1.5x1.5ft is alot of water involved.

[vinccc2009]

Ok. Will take all bros advises.

What are the things needed to check when it is time to change more n to dose more?

[ReDDeviLs]

test the usual parameters,

watch your fishes and corals behavior and appearance.

they usually show signs.

[vinccc2009]

Yes. But that will be too late as I will hv trouble catching those shown sign fishes.

[FuEl]

Fin burn usually due to ammonia. If you have not been adding buffer you could have low pH issues, ammonia is not so harmful at low pH as as it shifts towards ammonium. Once change water pH goes up and the ammonia becomes more harmful, causing your fin burn & ich issues. Best to get a pH meter to confirm.

[vinccc2009]

Thanks. We are getting somewhere.

So I should measure the ph before WC. N measure again after change n dose up or down depending.

[yeo99]

I encountered a few times when I change water in the pico tank, I found that there is a spike in nitrite after water change, the fishes suddenly breathing very fast after 40% water change. Check on your nitrite level after water change to see whether there is a spike. it is one of the reasons. For nitrite, there is no quick solution in the market to solve.

For ammonia, check your ammonia level after water change, if it is high, I sugguest use Kent marine Pro-Ammonia Detox. It can help to reduce the ammonia very quickly.

[Jameshong]

If suspect NO2,NO3, Ammonia spike after water change...using this..