advice please

[tommiegary]

Hey guy and gals,
Well I have a 55 gallon tank that been set up for about 9 months now. All water test have been good. All the sudden I had a outbreak of ich when I added last fish which was a purple tang. Well I had to take him and all other fish with signs out of tank. treated them and they be relocated to another tank at a friends. Well I had a pair of clowns in there and all the sudden I lost both clowns. Take that all water still testing ok. Well I let the tank be for about 3 weeks and did testing and all seemed good. I even took a water sample to store had them do every test they have no signs of nothing. Added 4 damsels last Friday and by Monday they had all died. I still have a coral banded shrimp and pistol shrimp in the tank with snails and crabs. I got a bit of aglae green fuzz growing on sand bed in front. Which I think is due to need or more emarlds one in there. I have coral in the tank and its doing wonderful.... its out better than when the fish were in there. (frog spawn, hammers, green stars, 2 anmenoes and all this is doing great. Anyone have any clues why I cant keep fish? thanks

 

[leebca]

You are only testing for those things we (aquarists) have test kits for. There are dozens of other components to saltwater AND there are a countless number of poisons and/or impurities that we can let get into our tanks.

First, after ALL fish were removed from the tank, it should have sat fishless for at least 8 weeks IF you indeed had an Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) outbreak.

Next, the introduction of fish that die mysteriously after that time indicates that the incoming fish brought a disease with it, or the water has a contaminant or poison in it.

The former case: quarantine all fish BEFORE they go into the display.

The latter case: Investigate possible sources of poison or contamination, including but not limited to: corroding metals, source water, something fell into the tank, sabotage by 'little hands' or an evil spouse , drips from covers/reflectors/lighting, source of electrical leakage, additives you put into the tank that you overdosed or shouldn't have put in, etc. Do massive water changes after you've eliminated the contamination.