All fish DEAD!!! except 3 stripe damsel, is he the culprit?

[BrandenG]

My 32g biocube has been running for about 2 months now. water parameters are all solid and somewhat stable. ALK 10.5, Nitrate <2 , Nitrite 0, salinity 1.025, Phosphate <.1, Ammonia 0, water temp 78. the Zoas I have do not look great, hammer coral will not extend and flow like it should, mushrooms are not looking great at all either. my inverts are doing fine and have only lost one peppermint shrimp to this point. I believe this may be a lighting issue from the stock LED's on the biocube but again I am not sure. The main issue is that my fish have all died over the span of about 10 days and showed no sign of parasite or disease. I added two more fish once the damsel was the only survivor and next day the royal gramma was dead followed by a bicolor angel a day later. they do seem to show signs of labored breathing and lay on the bottom before dying. I added an air stone thinking oxygen was a problem, this did nothing. Any and all ideas or help is greatly appreciated!!!!!

 

[Deep]

Do you use ro-DI water ? Do you run carbon ? How do you measure salinity? Does not sound like its due to the damsels. Laboured breathing could indicate velvet disease. Did you QT the fish?

 

[jskoms]

The lights are fine, I ran mine stock for the first three months and corals were all doing just fine.

 

[LegendaryCG]

My 32g biocube has been running for about 2 months now. water parameters are all solid and somewhat stable. ALK 10.5, Nitrate <2 , Nitrite 0, salinity 1.025, Phosphate <.1, Ammonia 0, water temp 78. the Zoas I have do not look great, hammer coral will not extend and flow like it should, mushrooms are not looking great at all either. my inverts are doing fine and have only lost one peppermint shrimp to this point. I believe this may be a lighting issue from the stock LED's on the biocube but again I am not sure. The main issue is that my fish have all died over the span of about 10 days and showed no sign of parasite or disease. I added two more fish once the damsel was the only survivor and next day the royal gramma was dead followed by a bicolor angel a day later. they do seem to show signs of labored breathing and lay on the bottom before dying. I added an air stone thinking oxygen was a problem, this did nothing. Any and all ideas or help is greatly appreciated!!!!!

3 stripe damsels are among the most aggressive. He probably did kill at least one of them. Once one fish dies if not addressed it can cascade as ammonia levels spike, but I wouldn’t put it past a 3 stripe to kill every fish in a bio cube.

 

[albano]

If you’re going to try adding another fish, I’d remove or confine the damsel first, so that you can rule out that possibility.

 

[BrandenG]

Do you use ro-DI water ? Do you run carbon ? How do you measure salinity? Does not sound like its due to the damsels. Laboured breathing could indicate velvet disease. Did you QT the fish?

I use distilled water from the grocery store. I use red sea salt. i have a refractometer to measure salinity that i calibrate before i test with the distilled water. i did not QT the fish because but i watched them for 2 weeks at my LFS before purchasing and they seemed healthy.

 

[BrandenG]

I use distilled water from the grocery store. I use red sea salt. i have a refractometer to measure salinity that i calibrate before i test with the distilled water. i did not QT the fish because but i watched them for 2 weeks at my LFS before purchasing and they seemed healthy.

for filtration i have a coralife protein skimmer V.2, i use carbon, seachem purigen, and eggcrate foam from fluval, the blue stuff. i have recently added a bag of seachem product in filtration to elimanate hard metals that may be present.

 

[LegendaryCG]

I use distilled water from the grocery store. I use red sea salt. i have a refractometer to measure salinity that i calibrate before i test with the distilled water. i did not QT the fish because but i watched them for 2 weeks at my LFS before purchasing and they seemed healthy

Distilled is basicslly equivalent to RODI. some folks will argue something other but they are simply wrong.

 

[Deep]

I use distilled water from the grocery store. I use red sea salt. i have a refractometer to measure salinity that i calibrate before i test with the distilled water. i did not QT the fish because but i watched them for 2 weeks at my LFS before purchasing and they seemed healthy.

Which red sea salt ? The pro or the blue bucket ? if it is the pro, it mixes at around 12 for 1.026 SG. If it is the blue bucket, it mixes around 8.5.
Just wondering how you end up with 10.5 DKH with red sea salt at 1.025 ?

 

[blasterman]

Distilled is more reliable than R/O when bought from commercial sources because its a fixed process. Its the best choice if you buy water from grocery stores, etc.

3 stripes are nasty to other small fish, but if he's killing your fish they will show a lot of damage with torn fins and bite marks. A bi color should be able to handle a 3 stripe though. I think there's a water chemistry issue here.

 

[BrandenG]

Which red sea salt ? The pro or the blue bucket ? if it is the pro, it mixes at around 12 for 1.026 SG. If it is the blue bucket, it mixes around 8.5.
Just wondering how you end up with 10.5 DKH with red sea salt at 1.025 ?

i am using the pro red sea salt. i was dosing a little kalkwasser and i am guessing that is why my alk is at 10.5

 

[BrandenG]

Distilled is more reliable than R/O when bought from commercial sources because its a fixed process. Its the best choice if you buy water from grocery stores, etc.

3 stripes are nasty to other small fish, but if he's killing your fish they will show a lot of damage with torn fins and bite marks. A bi color should be able to handle a 3 stripe though. I think there's a water chemistry issue here.

thank you for your response. i just may be missing something with the chemistry of the water, i am not sure tho what it could be.

 

[Deyan]

I use distilled water from the grocery store. I use red sea salt. i have a refractometer to measure salinity that i calibrate before i test with the distilled water. i did not QT the fish because but i watched them for 2 weeks at my LFS before purchasing and they seemed healthy.

The shop run chemicals and different salinity to prevent outbreaks - chemicals that cannot be in a reef setting! I hope you also don’t add the fish with the water from the shop? It could have copper! Just stuff people new to the hobby oversee.. cheers and good luck!