I need your help please!

[Grumpy Bass]

Hello all, I am in need of your help…. I am having very serious problems with my FISH dying in my reef tank. Here’s what happened over the past month; (As this is a reef tank I posted here instead of the Fish only section, hope that's OK).

20 days ago: I noticed white spots on one of my Pink Spot Anthias and also on my Powder Brown Tang (never seen this before), both in great health up to that point.. The same day I received a special order Flame Angel and put it in the tank, with hesitation because my quarantine tank was not running, I was hoping it would be OK as the other fish in the system didn’t show any signs of problems. Test water quality, except nitrates, everything seems ok.

18 days ago: The white spots are now really bad on the Anthias and Tang… sh#%, it’s on the new Flame Angel now too. These are my favorite fish in the system so this really sucks. I tried to do a fresh water dip on the Tang because I read numerous articles saying this was one way to knock off the bugs “if†it were Ich. I also started an organic Ich solution in the tank. Within 3 hours the Tank was dead…. I raised the tank temp from 78 to 80, this too I read is suggested if the problem is Ich. I also attempted to lower the salinity but didn't complete this because the literature says Ich is also caused by stress so I opted not to stress the fish more changing the salinity level. Water quality remains consistent.

16 days ago: The Anthias is gone… no fricking clue where it disappeared to, I tore everything apart looking to no avail… I guess it was crab and shrimp food.

13 days ago: The Flame Angle is gone… found the carcass the next day. Three fish now dead and gone. Everyone else in the tank look great, no signs of white spots (Ich?) or anything wrong. Water quality remains consistent.

10 days ago: Stopped the organic Ich treatment and completed a 60 gallon water change. Everybody seems healthy and happy!

7 days ago: My second Anthias is gone.. Just like the first one, it’s just completely gone nowhere to be found. This fish did not show any signs of problems prior to it disappearing.

Yesterday: Out of left field again, my perfect Yellow Tang started acting “slowâ€, looks healthy but appears to be moving slow.

Today: My beautiful Yellow Tang has died. This fish shows no sighs of white spots (Ich?), it’s got great body shape, not the lanky skinny types that you see at the LFS.. I’m completely baffled and beside myself and I don’t know what to do. Full water quality testing, results are shown below.

Over the past 20 days: I have lost 2 large Pink Spot Anthias, 1 large Powder Brown Tang, 1 large Flame Angel, 1 large Yellow Tang. Screw the money lost.. I’m very sad I’ve lost my favorite fish and don’t want to lose anymore.

Here’s my tank info;
155 Gallon w/40 Gallon Sump - 195 Gallon TSV
300 lbs live rock
Tank is 1.5 Years Old
Dual system pumps with sump filtration and large Skimmer 1900 gph flow rate
Wavemaster with dual 1450 gph heads

Water Quality
Temp: 79.1
Salinity: 1.026
DKH: 11.5 (I run it high, 10-12)
pH: 8.3
Calcium: 455
Mag: 1160
Phosphate: .15
Nitrides: 0
Nitrates: 20 (it’s always been high, can’t get it down no matter what I do)
Silicate: 0
Iodine: 0 (difficult to measure accurately, I dose Kent Marine TECH 1 1x/mo)
Ammonia : 0
Strontium: ? (I have a test kit but have not ever run it, I’m a scientist but this is a bi#*%)
　
I have more fish in the tank and I’m sick to my stomach losing the five already and really need help, I’m at a complete loss as to what to do.

Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Grumpy
　

 

[_Alex_]

I used marine no ick treatment and it worked great, and cleaner shrimp. the Shrimp helped a lot to clean the ick off of them. But it sounds like something stressed them to cause the ick if you hadnt added any thing new before flame angel.

I would not add anymore fish and start treating for ick.

 

[Sasquatch]

ugg for sure, stop all medication, run lots of carbon and change it out in 3 days,get your temperature up to around 80, water changes,water changes, water changes, who knows whats going on in there but sick fish stress healthy fish, fresh water dips for the suffering fish if you can catch them, if they can't be caught you will have to try with lights out, please research fresh water dips beforehand as you will have to adjust ph to match, sorry I can't extend much hope to you but you may well lose them all, if that happens leave the tank empty of fish for at least 10 weeks and quarantine/treat your new arrivals, sad for you mate but s@#T happens

 

[condor]

just let it be.........IMO all you can really do is wait it out and shorten your photo period, good luck

and ich has a 2 week live cycle so i would wait 3-4 to be safe

 

[Speg]

I would totally agree with not adding anymore fish for a while. You could have had drop offs due to ammonia built up from the dying fish that you didn't find...this ammonia would probably start killing off other fish...although, it could have been ich too.

The thing you mentioned about lowering the salinity to fight ich: That would probably be hyposalinity treatment. This wouldn't be something you'd do in your display tank, but rather something you did in a special quarantine tank. The object is to reduce the salinity way down over a period of days. This will kill ich and if done correctly and to each fish before adding into the display, it can basically make the whole tank ich-free.

The freshwater dip is a method that is basically only a crap shoot and a short-term remedy that isn't really going to eliminate a full infestation of ich.
The cleaner fish/shrimp are hit and miss and I wouldn't suggest buying a cleaner shrimp (and never a cleaner fish) only as a treatment for ich. They can be a neat little ich-prevention tool if they do decide to clean fish.

Some fish aren't as likely to get ich as others (clownfish, lionfish) and some are very likely to get it (puffers!).

Good luck!

 

[akabryanhall]

Hey Grumpy, I don't really have anything to add, I know how painful it can be to lose fish, especially when you think you may have done something wrong to cause it. You had no choice other than not getting the angel in the first place, but what are the chances of ich in the first place? I'm sorry again, not sure what the photoperiod would have to do with the ich outbreak. May just have to let it take it's course, whatever has not died has a strong defense against it. so if there was a silver lining...