Fish keep dying!

malas_reefer

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Help! Fish keep dying. Can’t seem to keep them alive for more than 2-3 weeks! Boxer shrimp, coral, snails, and a hermit! All living through it fine… then i’l wake up in morning and the boxer shrimp has a dead corpse in it’s pincers! Been through a lot now, at my witts end but determined to get to problem… tank been running for just under a year…. Been through 4x clowns, cordinal, strawberry basset, bannana wrasee, a blenny! All keep snuffing it!
could high phosphate be killing them?
where would the phosphate be coming from?
Just got a water test and started dosing reef essential phosphate remover tonight (hopefully sorts the problem)
… don’t dose anything else and do a weekly water change with a bit cleaning of rock with a toothbrush etc…. See image for parimiters.

0A777CFC-F7A0-42C6-9936-AC8961259C9B.jpeg
 

Fish Think Pink

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Help! Fish keep dying. Can’t seem to keep them alive for more than 2-3 weeks! Boxer shrimp, coral, snails, and a hermit! All living through it fine… then i’l wake up in morning and the boxer shrimp has a dead corpse in it’s pincers! Been through a lot now, at my witts end but determined to get to problem… tank been running for just under a year…. Been through 4x clowns, cordinal, strawberry basset, bannana wrasee, a blenny! All keep snuffing it!
could high phosphate be killing them?
where would the phosphate be coming from?
Just got a water test and started dosing reef essential phosphate remover tonight (hopefully sorts the problem)
… don’t dose anything else and do a weekly water change with a bit cleaning of rock with a toothbrush etc…. See image for parimiters.

0A777CFC-F7A0-42C6-9936-AC8961259C9B.jpeg
sorry for your losses - know you must be feeling terrible but hang in there

what is your salinity? temperature?

filtration methods?
 

Uncle99

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In a year old tank, ammonia would show correctly at zero and yours is .2, not enough to kill IMM, but should be zero.
Phosphate at .7 is high IMM, but again kill, nope.

You could have a parasite infection, that kills fish only, all else not affected.

Any other behavioral changes before death?
 
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malas_reefer

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In a year old tank, ammonia would show correctly at zero and yours is .2, not enough to kill IMM, but should be zero.
Phosphate at .7 is high IMM, but again kill, nope.

You could have a parasite infection, that kills fish only, all else not affected.

Any other behavioral changes before death?
Sometimes start going about the bottom of tank, last clown was like it was looking for food… then woke up was dead then the bannana wrasse looked like it was like struggling to breath
 

Uncle99

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Sometimes start going about the bottom of tank, last clown was like it was looking for food… then woke up was dead then the bannana wrasse looked like it was like struggling to breath
Oh, struggling to breath, that might indicate ammonia in the waters.
Do a 50% water change ASAP, keep temp same.
Retest ammonia level.
Increase water movement.
Again, when fish die, regularly, you may have a parasite.
 
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malas_reefer

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Oh, struggling to breath, that might indicate ammonia in the waters.
Do a 50% water change ASAP, keep temp same.
Retest ammonia level.
Increase water movement.
Again, when fish die, regularly, you may have a parasite.
Ok thank you, i tried to reduce feeding a bit to lower amonia but still can’t get that zero…. Would it be something in media basket? How often should the filter media be changed? Never?
 

Fish Think Pink

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Oh, struggling to breath, that might indicate ammonia in the waters.
Do a 50% water change ASAP, keep temp same.
Retest ammonia level.
Increase water movement.
Again, when fish die, regularly, you may have a parasite.
Not ruling anything out yet, but still no clear cause - like suggestion of water change - when in doubt, water change

crazy question: what is depth of sand? When doing water changes, do you stir sand? wondering anerobic bacteria

decaying materials/food/waste(poo) causes ammonia. I change my filter socks every couple days - put on pegs, rinse them off using jet hose setting, air dry, then put back in sock rotation (I have spare sock pairs).

If you aren't ever cleaning your filter media, then that may be root cause so please advise cleaning schedule
 
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malas_reefer

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Not ruling anything out yet, but still no clear cause - like suggestion of water change - when in doubt, water change

crazy question: what is depth of sand? When doing water changes, do you stir sand? wondering anerobic bacteria

decaying materials/food/waste(poo) causes ammonia. I change my filter socks every couple days - put on pegs, rinse them off using jet hose setting, air dry, then put back in sock rotation (I have spare sock pairs).

If you aren't ever cleaning your filter media, then that may be root cause so please advise cleaning schedule
Sand about 20-30mm yes normally give it a little shuffle about so it cleans it up a bit and doesn’t look dirty… water change once a week 10-20% filter floss about twice a week. Thats all. Clean the glass etc.
 
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