FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Warning: Long post

So a little less than a week ago I did a water change in my Heavily planted 29g with RO water (first time using it). Everything seemed fine for a day or two except the fact that my usually active tiger barbs were hiding. I checked the water parameters, and everything seemed fine except that the pH was slightly higher than usual. The next day (yesterday) several of my plants began to "glass" a little bit. I attributed this to the lack of minerals in the RO water and added some ferts. Today, I get home from work, and there are leaves floating everywhere. One or two entire plants are completely translucent. I quickly check the water params again. Everything is fine except that the ammonia was at .5. Now this was alarming as it is, but what caught my attention more than the green color in the vial was the cloudiness of the mixture. I had seen this before when I tried using the kit on a brackish setup. So I took out my HYDROMETER, and you guessed it! The LFS had sold me RO SALTwater. The specific gravity in my tank was .008!! I did a 50% water change and added Bio-Spira to try to compensate for the lost bacteria.

So after a year of work getting the tank finally looking the way I want it to look, a simple error crashes the entire thing leaving me with a bunch of "twigs" everywhere. Oh well, back to the drawing board. All the fish seem fine (except one who has developed cloudy eyes) which is great because I can always grow the plants back but not the fish

Geez...I wouldn't buy any more water from them...sorry to hear about the problems, good luck pulling a full recovery from the situation...

PM/email/msg me if you have any questions/comments regarding me or my knowledge or if you want me to read a thread.

Ouch.

It's an understandable mistake by the LFS (after all, most people who buy RO water are probably looking to use it in their saltwater tank), but, still, that's rough.

Glad to hear the fish seem to have made it through, though.

Joe Potato

You're really unlucky, after all that work, a simple mistake & everything vanishes.........
Fortunatly the fish are fine & as you said, you can grow the plants again....
So good luck.


http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/s8xi5heh/my_photos
http://www.deathbydyeing.org/

Last edited by jasonpisani at 25-Apr-2005 16:56

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

I think that is one of Murphy's Laws isn't it? Once everything is how you want it, something goes stupidly wrong? Like it has been said at least the fish are fine, and you can regrow the plants...best of luck, heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle