help? please

[clownfish]

I had a delay on food so I used the clams you buy at the market I got them all they were out of water for a few hours and then I decided to put them is this morning I nodiced the water was murcy but I dident have time to cheak it out well when I got home the water was realymurcky itl be a few days till I get RO water what should I do? I have 2 gallons of water thats all I dont want to risk copper to the water but I dont want the water to kill it.

 

[Nancy]

Clownfish,

The clams must have been already dead - clams cause a lot of problems in tanks and you have to be very careful with them. Frozen shrimp that you thaw out when you need it is a much better choice.

Take out the clams and change the water using in the two gallons of salt water that you have - I've assumed that you've already made up the salt water. (You should always have salt water on hand for emergencies.) Tell your parents that you have an emergency and drive somewhere that has distilled water - most grocery stores do, usually in one gallon containers. Get distilled water to make up a lot more salt water. I don't remember the size of your tank, but if you have a 30 gallon, I'd get 10 gallons of distilled. Make up this water, mix with a pump. You shouldn't put it in immediately - it has to mix for at least a few hours.

In the meantime, change whatever carbon you have in your filtration and I assume you're using your protein skimmer.

Any other suggestions from other Tonmo members?

Nancy

 

[Jean]

Remove the clams!!! I think Nancy has covered everything we would do!

j

 

[corw314]

Major spike in ammonia I would venture to guess. Hope all goes well!

Carol

 

[cthulhu77]

Yeah, the 30% water change and the new carbon should help...there aren't any medications or additives you can use for clearing up fouled water like that. You will probably need to do another water change in a few days, so buy plenty of water !
I like to keep a 30 gallon trash can (plastic) with about 20 gallons of water in it mixed up at all times...for emergencies like this one...you might want to follow that rule.

best,
greg

 

[DocFrye]

Commit to your responsibilities and go buy some RO water immediately.

 

[Nancy]

This is a good time to stress again that ceph keepers must be prepared for emergencies. This means always keeping salt water on hand in case you need to do a water change. If you keep only the RO/DI water on hand, you'll have to wait for the salt to thoroughly mix (never use salt water immediately after you've mixed it).

Nancy

 

[DocFrye]

So it has been a goodly amount of time without a response. What did you finally do, Clownfish?