Fish keep on dying. Need help .

[Arnaldo24]

Hi MR i need help.
I had a well establish fowlr before Sandy. And i was also trying to introduce a few softies to the tank. I lost power for 5 days and all but 1 of my 24 fish die.
As soon as i got the power back on i did a half percent water change and let it run for 2 weeks with only d damsel that survived and 1 or 2 frags
After a few weeks i test my water and everything looked normal again. I try more frags (softies) and they are beautiful no problems. But every fish i introduce dies.
Dnt know what else to do.
I have every equipment possible i dose 2 part everyday, run a phosban reactor, uv sterilizer, great flow including an mp40, ai sol blue. 72 bow tank with a LOT of live rock.
A member and good friend suggested that maybe my live sand still have some toxics accumulated when i lost power and all the dead fish.
Should i change the live sand??? Change all the water and kind of restart?? Would i hurt my corals? Any help would be greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance

 

[marrone]

A couple of things, what fish are you putting in the tank and how long before they die? Also, what are they dying from from, symptoms and such.

 

[Arnaldo24]

The last 2 i introduce were a Kole tang and a Naso tang. Separately!! They both were inside the rock all the time. Never really swing not even when i feed them. The Kole tang was picking at the rocks. But the Naso nothing.
I have gotten them from different stores thinking it mayb that.
No signs of ich or any other disease Or sign of been beat by another fish, not that i have many or aggressive. All i have is a damsel that survived, and a sand sifting goby.

 

[Arnaldo24]

The kole tang lasted 2 weeks without ever eating anythin i feed them (mysis, pellets, seaweed, flakes,). The Naso lasted 5 days. Before that i had a juvenile orange shoulder and he lasted only 2 days. They never swim only between the rocks and i just found them floating or stock at my mp40

 

[Flushtown Reefer]

what exactly are you testing for? it might be 02 depletion. Do you have film floating around? Lots of algae?

 

[Arnaldo24]

I test alk, mg, cal, no2, no3, ph I guess thats why all my corals are just fine. And about the o2 depletion is what my friend also suggested.
Dont know how to test that tho??

 

[Arnaldo24]

Also very lil algae. I guess pretty normal. Nothing u can see whit out a magnifying glass. Nothing floating around either.

 

[Flushtown Reefer]

They have test kits for it.. I doubt it's phosphates since you say you don't have much algae. You haven't tested for ammonia but I doubt it's that cause the corals would die too. I dunno. Hopefully one of the more experienced reefers read this post and have some ideas for you

 

[Arnaldo24]

Thanks i appreciate ur help. I do test for ammonia but is also undetectable. I will check the o2. With u is 2 people suggesting. So is worth the test.

 

[marrone]

If it was lack on oxygen the fish would have died pretty fast and that things like shirmps, pods and snails would have died pretty fast too. if you had a lack of oxygen you would see the snails in your tank climbing to the top of the tank. Then again an additional power head wouldn't hurt.

It's very possible that you still have pockets of dead toxic stuff in the tank. I would do a couple of water changes and try and siphon out all the junk in the tank, including anything that maybe under rocks. Then run carbon and polypads, I would also clean out your skimmer and let it works for a while. Then again add a fish that is very hardy, as Kole and Naso tangs can be hard to keep, Kole don't always eat and Naso have been known to die fairly quickly for no reason.

 

[piranhapat]

What makes you think it's your tank? Did you see these fishes eating before you bought them. Did you test your salinity and then salinity the fish was in. Before you introduce the fish in your tank. You should QT your fish for a few weeks so no signs of disease and see if they are eating. Your tank should be fine if corals are living.

 

[Arnaldo24]

Thats whats weird about it. All my corals are doing just fine. I dnt have a QT tank never had 1 i been doing the dripping aclimation. But like i said i had a very succesful fowlr before sandy. Thats why i think it should be some kind of toxic in d tank. Maybe i didnt remove all the dead fish and snails and shrimps.

 

[Arnaldo24]

And like i stated before i got the fish from diferent well know stores thinking it maybe that but no. What would u guys do if anyone have or had this problem??? Im even thinking about remove everythi and change the sand with a new one, scrub the rocks in ro saltwater, rinse the equipment and kind of restart the whole tank. Would that be good ??? Would i hurt any corals???

 

[TopCat]

I would be interested to know since any new fish I add to my tank dies also. I currently have 1 Snowflake, 2 B&W Occ, and 2 Chromis in my 90g tank. These five are very healthy and eats everything. I added Naso and Blue Powder tang and they both died in about a week. I waited about 2-4 weeks and added 2 True Percs, the bigger one died within 5 days. The smaller one is currently QT'ed with hypo-salinity treatment (salinity at 1.009)

Unlike yours, my fishes had ich. The bigger Perc had ich, but after the ich went away, he developed the Clownfish disease and died within a couply days. It's been over a week since QT and he's still not eating. The other 5 fishes in the tank are still healthy. I just stopped adding fishes in the DT for now. I would really love to get some more fishes but afraid they'll just die again.

 

[Flushtown Reefer]

Topcat. You gotta wait till the ich in your DT dies off.. Keep the fish you already have in there healthy and don't introduce anything for a minimum of 8 weeks and always QT fish for at least 8 weeks. You can go out a buy fish now just QT them and by the time they are ready your tank will have no ich.

 

[jcdeng]

leave the tank fishless for 8 weeks should rid of parasites if any. I think your tank might be going through a mini cycle or something cuz after Sandy and dead fish, ammonia spike, then it will take the tank a while to go through the cycle again.

Your corals survived maybe because they are very hardy, you don't have any sps in there right? cuz if you do and they are doing fine then it has to be bacteria that only affects fish.

You might want to run chemipure and/or carbon in the tank. Check for any equipment rust, and take some water to a reputable LFS to have them test the water.

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

I'm interested to see what the result is , good luck bro

 

[piranhapat]

You have some kind of parasite that killing your fish. Run tank without fish and do frequent water change. Wait about at least 10 weeks before adding fish. Starting over would be option but ick can still be in live rock.

 

[Arnaldo24]

How about replacing the sand.??? Would that be a good idea??

 

[Dre]

How thick is the sand bed?