So, long story but i feel it needs to be in order to eliminate all possibilities, besides who doesn't love a fish story. I've been having a problem lately with livestock dying. Only fish though; Not coral, inverts, or macro algae. I've had multiple fish over the tanks two year life and sooner or later they all die seemingly overnight. None have lasted more than 5 months and some as little as 12 hours. With the exception of a purple dottyback which has been in the tank since I started it. I more recently learned that dottybacks are mass muderers and gave it its own micro tank. Relieved to think my problem had been solved. I bought a scopas tang and a yellow watchman goby to slowly start refilling the tank he too died in a matter of three days. The yellow watchman goby is, however, still alive so there's still a chance it was a freak incident with the scopas. I drip acclimate from a store that does not dose copper.
So now what I know; The tank is 90g with a 55 sump. My water is good. I use RO/DI from my home unit with an inline tds meter that read 0ppm. The tank auto tops off directly from the unit. The tank tests 0ppm on amonia, nitrite, and nitrate. The water is at 1.026 and stays 79 degrees. I have a large protein skimmer that pulls pretty dark skim every three days. A Fuge full of macro algae. and a normal 200 micro filter sock.
I have a handful of mixed corals in the tank that are doing quite well with the exception of some lack of growth from the harder corals. Snails and hermit crabs scoot around just fine. I have a purple reef lobster, very small, who is doing good. and an abalone who is very active.
Im really at my witts end trying to figure out what could be killing the fish in hours, days, or month yet isn't effecting anything else in my tank. I've assumed everything I can think of and eliminated it. I thought it might have been copper leaching somewhere, bought a test came back 0ppm. I thought it might have been ich, but everywhere said you'd see signs long before anything died and I didn't have any of them. Thought it was the dottyback, removed it. Anyone have any other ideas?
So now what I know; The tank is 90g with a 55 sump. My water is good. I use RO/DI from my home unit with an inline tds meter that read 0ppm. The tank auto tops off directly from the unit. The tank tests 0ppm on amonia, nitrite, and nitrate. The water is at 1.026 and stays 79 degrees. I have a large protein skimmer that pulls pretty dark skim every three days. A Fuge full of macro algae. and a normal 200 micro filter sock.
I have a handful of mixed corals in the tank that are doing quite well with the exception of some lack of growth from the harder corals. Snails and hermit crabs scoot around just fine. I have a purple reef lobster, very small, who is doing good. and an abalone who is very active.
Im really at my witts end trying to figure out what could be killing the fish in hours, days, or month yet isn't effecting anything else in my tank. I've assumed everything I can think of and eliminated it. I thought it might have been copper leaching somewhere, bought a test came back 0ppm. I thought it might have been ich, but everywhere said you'd see signs long before anything died and I didn't have any of them. Thought it was the dottyback, removed it. Anyone have any other ideas?
