No One with Gills Survives

[suchecki]

I established a new 125 Gallon tank in 2/03 with 125 lbs live rock, live sand, protein skimmer and wet dry. With the cultured live rock and sand, tank quickly cycled. Initial residents included Sand Sifting Star, Banded Shrimp, Cleaner Shrimp, TR Percula Clown, Y. Tang, Powder Blue and Royal Gramma. Fish were added over a two week period with no spike in ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. After only a few days in the tank, Powder Blue came down with ich. valiant effort of dips and tank treatment with invert safe Kent RxP with Poly OX lead to a gradual decline and kill of all fish. Established a quarantine tank and moved inverts in to allow a natural cycle of the ich to take place in main tank. Let tank go 4 weeks at 80-82 F with no one in tank. Began treatments with Kick-Ich prior to inverts being moved back in. Yellow Tang, Regal Tang, TR Percula, and Heniocus were added. Heniocus came down with Lymocystis and was quickly moved to QT with Copper. (Initially looked like ich, but spots grew) Regal died in tank and was removed. In the last 6 weeks, have added and within 5 days have lost 2 Flame Angels, 2 more Regal Tangs, 2 Coral Beauties, 2 royal grammas and a Tomato Clown. Have only added 2 fish at a time. In the middle of this I have added a purple tipped Anemone. 7 days ago added a 10 W. UV, rated at 200 GPD, have run 24/7. Purchased my last Regal Tang and Royal Gramma with UV unit, Flushed Regal this morning. Strange thing is that there is one piece of live rock that has a great cave in it. Problem is, if I see a fish in there, within 24 to 48 hours he is dead (this has happened with 6 of the 8 fish). Royal gramma was in there this morning. Wanted a fish tank, only inverts and a clown and Yellow Tang Survive. Water Tests Perfect, not only with test kits, but at 2 LFS, and a water lab. - dKh 9-11, pH 8.25, Nitrate and Ammonia Non-Detect, Nitrate at 10. Salinity 1.30, Temp constantly between 79.5 to 81.5 I have run the kick Ich 2x a week since before the re-introduction, - as a prevention device. No Plug, chemicals or cleaning products are used near the tank. I am sick of killing fish. If water was bad - why don't the inverts die, they thrive? Close to giving up.

 

[reefrunner69]

Salinity 1.30,

Salinity is measured in ppt and a good salinity is 35ppt @ 80-82*F. That looks like a Specific Gravity and it looks WAY high. A good SG would be 1.025 @ 80-82*F, I am hoping you transposed a couple of numbers while typing and you meant 1.030, still high IMO. How are you acclimating these fish? If you have a Q-tank, I would suggest that you go very slowly and quarantine all new fish (one at a time) for 3 weeks, treating for ick or other problems, if necessary. If treatment must be started...the fish must be treated for three weeks. Go slow, in 3 months you have lost 17 or 19 fish from my count. Time to take a step back and slow down, add no more than 1 fish per month, quarantining each.

 

[reefrunner69]

Oh yeah,

to AquariumAdvice.com!!

 

[loganj]

I agree with reefrunner about the salinity...1.030 is too high. What kind of water are you using in the tank? Distilled? RO/DI? Tap? Don't give up though. Patience is one of the keys to this hobby. It has often been said that nothing good happens fast in a reef tank...very true.

 

[suchecki]

Wrong on Salinity

Sorry -
I was wrong on what I have been reading. Use the plastic gauge with the range - and it is 1.022 which is around 30. This is in the "safe range" on the gauge - is this too low and could be causing the stress?

 

[suchecki]

Also - Purchased R.O. water from reputable LFS that tests and specializes in maintainance.

 

[fishfreek]

Purchased R.O. water from reputable LFS that tests and specializes in maintainance.

I never really was a fan of buying water. Kind of hard to make sure the membranes are replaced when they should be and so forth.

Maybe you could look at our June Membership drive as the prize is a 4stage RO/DI unit sent to your door FREE of charge.

 

[d9hp]

Hey aaron! I thought i told you not to tell anyone about that contest, that way I can win it! Just kidding. I wish everyone luck.