Bad fish run?

[Dl0reef]

Hey guys, so I just wanted to talk about my bad luck with fish and wanted to ask for some help. So it all began back in July when I lost one of my first two clownfish to my nero 5 when I found him decapitated on the top of my tank. I than took his body and restarted up my qt tank and purchased my third clownfish as the other one is still alive in my tank. Along with the new clown I also purchased a royal gramma. First day of qt my gramma was eating, but my clown wasn't. 2 days pass and now the clown is eating and the gramma isn't and the next day the gramma is dead. I take the gramma out and now it's just the clown. The clown does amazing in qt and looks perfectly healthy. He decided to host a pvc pipe and would eat readily. He became my favorite fish. Last saturday I placed him in my dt and saw him swimming at the top of the tank with my other clownfish sideways. I assumed it was a normal behavior because I've seen videos of other fish doing it and my other clown has been eating readily for 6 months. The next day, I found the new clown dead trapped in my nero 5 fish guard. I was saddened deeply and removed his body. I turned off the nero 5 and saw the other clownfish swimming up and down the back of my tiny nuvo 20. Turns out a nero 5 at 14% is too strong my nano. Since last November 8th when my clownfish died the other hasn't eaten. I than went friday to purchase a tiny watchman goby. He ate fine friday night and saturday at 8 pm I tried to feed him and he didn't eat. Perfectly normal as he is still adjusting to quarantine. I go back at 10:30 and he is dead with no obvious reason for death as water conditions were fine. Today I went out and purchased a wheeler goby. The lfs worker went to grab him and he jumped out of the tank and landed on the floor. The worker put him in the bag and he's been real jittering since the car ride home and throughout the acclimation process. I tried to feed him today and he nearly had a heart attack when I put food in the tank and has swam everywhere. For someone keeping fish for the first time this has been extremely discouraging. I have lost 4 fish straight and the only one that has lived in my DT for some time hasn't been eating for like a week and I've been feeding him his usual rods food and began adding garlic. I purchased two coral frags Friday and they are doing great thankfully. I have had thoughts of quitting this hobby, but I'm going to keep trying. I've saved money up for three years for this and it has brought me more pain than happiness. Any ideas on why everything keeps dying in qt even with good water tests. The clown that died in my DT that was trapped in my fish guard had a gash on his body and I believe he perished due to stress of high flow as both my two previous clowns would just sit in the corner sideways. Have any of y'all had anything like this with fish just dying randomly on their own?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sounds like the clown has outlived all the others and may be aggressive??
What is your:
- ammonia
- nitrate
- ph
-salinity
- tank temperature

 

[Dl0reef]

Sounds like the clown has outlived all the others and may be aggressive??
What is your:
- ammonia
- nitrate
- ph
-salinity
- tank temperature

Ammonia: 0
Nitrate is high at around 20
ph in DT is 8.2-8.4 according to APi and 8.0 in QT
Salinity hasn't been checked in a while, so I'll be sure to check it, but I buy all my salt from my lfs and have an ATO in DT and top it off everyday in the QT Properly
Tank temp in DT: 77ish
QT temp: 75-76ish

 

[Cole.mormon]

Ill let you know right now. API test kits are trash. Toss it and get salient or red sea

 

[hds4216]

Yeah API cannot be trusted. There's a reason they're so cheap.

 

[Spieg]

Are you using RODI water for top off?