No fish live in my aquarium. Running out of ideas.

[JamesJR]

Been in the hobby a long time but have never had any issues like I've been having these past few months. Maybe I am not seeing something. Any new fish I add die within about 12 hours. Posting in the new to the hobby forum because it seems to get the most responses. Any response is welcome.

The take on my aquarium.
Downgraded to a 20 gallon tank last year. Everything was going okay with this tank until this summer. Apart from some minor hair algae I was getting good growth in my sps and had no problems keeping clownfish, pygmy angels and some lps corals. Then I had an AC outage in mid july and lost all my fish. My LPS all made it as did a few sps, ricordeas and a maxima clam.

I moved at the end of July, bought a clownfish and let my tank lay low for a while. The only things I have done to my tank are: biweekly water changes at about 10%, feed my remaining corals some diced shrimp a couple times a week and added 2 part calcium and alkalinity. I was dosing microbacter 7 at half the dose and twice a week until recently. My corals steadily improved and the clownfish seemed just fine and alert.

I left town for a weekend about 6 weeks ago and the clownfish died. On three occasions I have tried adding a hardy fish and they all die within about 12 hours of being in my tank. I drip acclimate the fish, usually for about an hour and dim the lights a little bit. They act fine for a while and then the coloration darkens, they start to breath a little heavier, start to hide and then I wake up and find them dead. No sign of stress in my corals or inverts.

I've tested for ammonia and it has come up zero every time. I run a protein skimmer and have a decent turnover rate. I have added fresh carbon and always done bi-weekly water changes.

I am about at my wits end here. As I really am baffled as to why my tank can't even keep a damselfish or a chromis alive for even one day. In 15 years of fish keeping I didn't think it was possible for a damsel to die so easily but I guess I don't know everything.

Someone throw me a bone here, please.

thank you

[rayn]

First off the top of my head, voltage in the water?

[SPotter]

What are your other levels? Nitrates? Alk? Nitrites? How old is your ammonia test kit?

[sedor]

If there is voltage in the water you should be able to feel a slight tingle when you place your hand in the tank.

[JamesJR]

Originally Posted by sedor

If there is voltage in the water you should be able to feel a slight tingle when you place your hand in the tank.

I have never felt any shocks before although I have thought of it as a possibility. I have a voltmeter at home and I will see what I get. Should I get a grounding probe?

[JamesJR]

My ammonia test is less than a year old. My nitrates have barely shown up in the medium range on the salifert kit so lately I haven't bothered testing in the low range.I never test nitrite but I will pull out my kit when I get home. my alkalinity has been around 7.7-8.0 the last few times I've tested.

[Rockys_Pride]

Originally Posted by sedor

If there is voltage in the water you should be able to feel a slight tingle when you place your hand in the tank.

if you have thick skin then you prob won't feel it, if you have a open cut that's another story. What could be adding voltage to the water, a pump that lost its seal maybe? I had a non sealed pump, but I could def feel the shock. Have you noticed something with a powerhead or heater?

[JoeRonda]

It could'nt hurt to buy one. Drs FosterandSmith sell the Titanium Grounding Probe for $15.19 and it's high quality too, I got one on my last order.

[Agu]

Obvious question, are there any signs of disease, parasites or physical attack ? Some diseases like velvet are really hard to detect so your fish may look fine and still be infected. (But usually it takes more than 12 hrs.)

If there isn't evidence of physical damage it can only be water chemistry or acclimation (for the latest arrivals).

Obvious things that come to mind are low oxygen levels or pH shock. The corals wouldn't show the effects because they've acclimated to the conditions in the tank.

Where are you getting your water change water? Is it possible it's contaminated in some way? You might consider running polyfilter in your tank in an attempt to remove unknown contaminants.


Finally, I haven't bought a fish for a few years, but I've never acclimated for over ten or 15 minutes. The only exception was if the pH or salinity were way different and that would only add 5 more minutes.

Just throwing out some ideas .....

[JamesJR]

I use RO water. I am not running my DI unit currently as I need to change out the media and don't really have any super delicate corals that need the extra purity.

I have bought fish from different sources that I have had luck with in the past. I am pretty sure it is something with my tank. Nothing to bully them in the tank. Their bodies just look very pale and washed out when I find them dead.

I have really been leaning towards low oxygen levels in the tank too that is why I stopped adding the microbacter because I was starting to think that my tank was having low oxygen levels because of it. I have a HOB filter that I run carbon with that pulls 300 gph, a hydor korallia 2 and a modified bak-pak skimmer. I am thinking of getting a test kit but have never used an oxygen test kit. Anyone ever use them?

[Agu]

I thought about the microbacter too, but then remembered you had discontinued it's use. Might just take a while for your tank to reestablish equilibrium.

I'd get the DI unit replenished. The 2% to 5% that gets through an RO may be your problem. If it's bacteria/mold that's getting through (or growing on the RO filter) that could cause low oxygen. At least eliminate it as a potential cause.

I'm not a big fan of using carbon (or other media) unless there's a proven need. I trust you're pre rinsing it?

[JamesJR]

Yes. I am using BRS carbon and using it in a media bag. I plan on building a sump and getting a better skimmer and proper media reactors in the next couple of months but that is not a huge priority for my tank in the short term.

I stopped using microbacter about 2 weeks ago. It definitely seemed to help my tank after the move as my corals started looking better within a few days but I always worried about it causing low oxygen levels.

[streak]

Is there any trama on your dead fish? puncher wounds? slash marks? bash marks? Theres a mean *** shrimp i read about its even got is own fourm i believe that can take out fish much bigger than it is. Mantis shrimp?? maybe even a serpent star?? Are you overdosing your newts maybe? General questions... Ever since i put a chaeto ball in my nano all my cyno just seemed to dissapear almost as fast as it showed up made for some nasty skimmate though.