How do I get the salt levels of my tank up?

Question

I have already added new salt water into the tank, i did a water change, all of the Ph's of the tank are perfect, but my fish still died, what did i do wrong..

Answer 1

Read, read, read. Honestly it's the best thing to do at this point. Google some pages about starting a saltwater aquarium and you will no doubt find what you did wrong. It's really impossible to tell you without a lot more information.

MM

Answer 2

First off how old is your tank? Has it been cycled? 6 weeks of running with no fish in it is the minimum for a salt tank start up. Any fish but damsels at that point will die.

How much water did you take out of the tank? You only need to remove 20-25% no more in a salt tank.

Salt water tanks are not run on the same principals as a fresh tank. They NEED to cycle. at the 6 week stage your tank is forming healthy bacteria. But not enough to support tangs, triggers etc. Damsels, black mollies or guppies only. Even if your water quality is perfect no inverts or high end fish. The bacteria colony is still forming and will continue to do so. At the 6 month stage it is mature (not done maturing but mature enough to house higher end fish)

Even adding mollies to attempt to do a fish cycling process is a mute point.

When adding water back to your tank for a water change you need to dissolve the salt in a clean bucket first Use your hydrometer and test the specific gravety in your tank. It should be around 1.022-1.025 depending on your fish. If the salt is higher mix your salt in your buckets to below 1.022 to compensate for the concentrated salt. You do this because evaporation will concentrate the salt already in your tank.

DO NOT try to mix all the salt for your tank in one bucket. Be sure each bucket you mix has the same SG. Don't forget to add your dechlor. I use NovAqua+. You CANNOT use start right or stress coat.

You need to get a good salt water test kit which tests for ammonia, nitrates ph etc. PH is a factor but not the only one.
Also, are you running a protein skimmer and how often do you do your water changes?
Feel free to email me and I will try to help you further.

Answer 3

add more salt they should sale just salt. sometimes its just the shock of the change in the water that they cant handle or the temp. of the water. i always lose fish when i change the whole tank water. so i am trying to keep it clean without changing the whole tank, and so far its been awhile since ihave had to. i suck the junk off the bottom and just add some new water and i do that once a year now. works pretty well for me.

Answer 4

What kind of salts mix did you add?

Also, new tanks do not have the microbial echo system to maintain the fish and good algae (salt water fish do not urinate as much... so ammonia levels are lower than normal.)

See if you can get a few gallons of filtered change water from a friend who is cleaning their tank.

Answer 5

If your fish died... There's probably something more than not enough salt. All the "Ph's" is a clear and obvious sign that you got into something you didn't do enough research for.

Answer 6

We need a lot more information to be able to tell you what might have gone wrong - what are your pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, salinity, temperature, tank size, length of time the tank's been set up, what type of fish, filtration system, etc.

Answer 7

If you go to the fish store tell them what happened. They should sell a thing that you fill with water. After a couple seconds it'll stop on the level and tell you it. Hope this helps!

Answer 8

i dont know that happened to my friend