Do you ever want to just give up?

[ASpec]

I mean think about this... you invest thousands of dollars into equipment, supplies, test kits. You spend countless hours trying to maintain the environment. You read and read until you can't see straight. And in the end what happens?

2 fish in less than 2 months have passed. The first 2 fish in your new tank, which you cycled for almost 2 full months before even thinking about introducing live stock.

I've really tried hard to do everything right. As bad as I wanted fish, I waited until the cycle was complete. I even added an extra 3 weeks to make good and sure.

The first fish to pass away was a yellow tang. So I decided let's go with a coral beauty next. Less than 3 weeks later he is now gone to.

The tang looked bad from the start. The coral beauty was great, until 3 days ago. He stopped eating, starting having a hard time swimming, would not come out from the rock. I came home today and he looked so bad I decided to "put him down". He could not even move, was barley breathing.

I've checked my water parameters over and over. I even tested twice on ocassion to verify my results. Amm: 0 -> Nitrite: 0 -> Nitrate: Under 5 -> PH 8.0 to 8.2 (depending on time of day the test is done) -> Temp: 79 F -> Salinity: 1.021

I had a huge Ammonia spike durning the cycle, followed by a Nitrite spike. Those leveled off after almost a full month. Then I waited another 3 weeks to make sure there was no other "spike".

Is there something I am overlooking? Something I am doing wrong? Was is just bad luck with these 2 fish. I don't want to harm any more fish and I don't want to continue spending money on livestock and equipment for nothing. Does anyone have any advice? Please?

[alarmguy66]

Sorry about the bad luck, but hopefully its just that, bad luck. My first three yellow tangs all dropped dead, 2 before even leaving qt. I had a trigger that was doing fine, made it through qt, lived 3 weeks in a well established tank, then stopped swimming one day, wouldnt eat the next, next day he is crab food. Sometimes the fish just dont make it. My suspicion is cyanide poisoning from capture, but thats a guess.

Best suggestion is to pick the hardiest of the fish you want to keep and get him in the tank at least a month. Just be careful he isnt the most agressive too.

I am assuming in all this your ph is ok. Ph poisoning can kill slowly like that too. PH, Salinity, Nitrates, ammonia, nitrites....these are your killers when they are off balance. Other things will be bad for corals or promote algae growth, but those things I listed are the things to eyeball.

One last thing. Proberly mixed saltwater with ro/di water should have the correct PH. Dont used additives and chemicals to try to make things "perfect". It will make things worse in the long run.

Best of luck.

[RMPD109]

After the cycle was complete you said you left the tank empty for 3 more weeks. Did you "feed" the tank or give it some other source of ammonia? Without this food for the bacteria it will die off and then your fish will start a cycle again. Your test results appear fine but did you chech when the fish showed signs of problems. You may want to have LFS check the water to be sure your test kit is good. HTH

[ASpec]

Yes, I did feed the tank after the cycle. Twice a week I dropped in flake food.

I also had the LFS test the water, same results as I got. They even tested my PH with there PH monitor.

I've always used distilled water as well. TDS has always read 0 as well.

I just wish I had an answer for what is causing this problem.

[quarryshark]

Sounds like there may be a general fish problem from this supplier. I know around here there is a different in animal quality from store to store. You may want to shop around and evaluate other LFS's in your are. I know its hard to believe, but it is true.
Hang in there, we have all had troubles from time to time.