PLEASE help! Everything is dying!

[RoughneckReefingWife]

125 gallon tank, Parms listed below.
Sunday my coral beauty died. We've had him for 3 months. He just sunk to the bottom and was in respiratory distress. No visible signs of illness, he had been eating and active in the hours prior. I checked water and nitrates were a high at 15, I did a 10 gallon change that night rechecked in the morning and all Parms were good.
Monday afternoon I noticed my elegance coral looked bad, I removed it, it was slimy, I disposed of it. I also noticed that all of the fish were at the bottom of the tank and all of the soft corals were closed up or retracted.
Later Monday afternoon my yellow tang died. Same process as the coral beauty.
Checked parms, all was good but still did a 50% WC that night.
All fish remained hidden in caves and nothing would eat, soft corals recovered and returned to normal.
Tuesday afternoon my blue hippo tang died (have had it 5 months) and now my mimic tang is on the bottom of the tank in respiratory distress.
The mimic tang is has been in our tank the longest at 6 months.
My LFS suggested I check for stray current. Volt meter reads 8 and drops a little each time a device is unplugged down to 0, nothing is causing a major jump in voltage.
At this point the only thing living is our clownfish pair (in tank 6 months) and our purple tang, the newest fish, in tank 3 weeks.
Please help me figure out what is going on!!!!!
Specs:
125 gallon 6 foot tank
No ammonia, phosphates or nitrates
Nitrates below 10ppm
Ph 8.2
Calcium 460ppm
Alkalinity 8 dkh
Salinity 26
Eshopps ADV 200 Sump with Eshopps X220 skimmer

 

[Crabs McJones]

So if i'm reading that correctly, you just added a purple tang 3 weeks ago? Was it quarantined before adding it to the display tank? Almost sounds like velvet with how quickly it took out everything.

 

[GHsaltie]

Some of the symptoms such as the heavy breathing and hiding in the caves sounds like velvet, however the corals closing up also makes me suspicious it’s somethting else. What kind of water flow/oxygen exchange do you have? As asked already was the purple tang quarantined and have any of the fish showed any symptoms such as flashing/scratching, any spots or dust like appearance, swimming into the flow of a pump/powerhead?

 

[Humblefish]

Could be velvet: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/

However, that wouldn't explain why the corals were looking bad. Any chance a household cleaner or bug spray made it's way into the water? Either way, I would run carbon.

 

[RoughneckReefingWife]

The purple tang as not QT corals are looking fine since first WC, blue hippo was swimming towards the powered and the purple tang is today showing a few spots.
I had never heard of velvet, I found this article after searching when the first poster mentioned velvet.
www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/
I will begin treatment immediately, right now I have my RO water aerating and coming up to temp. I only wish I had asked sooner.
This explains why my clownfish are fine. Should i treat them too? And what about the mimic tang on his way out? Can I save him?

 

[RoughneckReefingWife]

Scratch the question about the mimic tang....he's dead

 

[RoughneckReefingWife]

everything I am reading says to treat with Chloroquine phosphate but that it requires a prescription????

 

[Humblefish]

Best treatment protocol for velvet can be found here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/#post-2499437

1. 5 min freshwater dip: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/
2. Acriflavine or Formalin bath
3. Place every fish in quarantine, and treat with either copper or CP

If you can't find all the medications listed in the steps above, at least do the 5 min FW dip and put ALL FISH in the QT with copper.

Words above in blue contain detailed info for each treatment.

 

[DLHDesign]

I'm sorry for your losses. Good advice from the experts above.

Is your salinity normally at 26? 33-35 is what I would normally expect, but stability is often more important than a specific number. Just wondering if this dropped with a WC as it might explain what the trigger for this might be.

 

[Monkichi]

Oh no, so sorry if you had a velvet outbreak. It is very hard to save the fish that have started to show signs of distress. I had a devastating outbreak of it earlier this year and I QT fish, have for years. Only thing I can think of is it came in on some CUC I refreshed. Anecdotally I think there has been a lot of velvet outbreaks in the hobby this year. I don't have any real statistics, but seems a lot of us have been hit hard in 2017. Hang in there, save the strong, go fallow (use it as opportunity for improvement) and stay in the hobby. Then when you bounce back and start to rebuild your livestock QT everything including inverts. Best of luck, let us know how you do.

 

[LuckyPhil]

So sorry to hear your loss, again the importance of QTing anything wet.
I am adding a few pieces of coral to my tank and they are in a QT for 76 days because i don't want to put any of my tangs (especially my achilles tang) at risk.

 

[Coralfuture]

Sorry to hear about your losses; how are the corals looking now? Any improvement?

 

[GHsaltie]

blue hippo was swimming towards the powered

I'm assuming you meant powerhead here? Not that it needs repeating at this point since the fish have been diagnosed with velvet, but for future knowledge this is a surefire sign of velvet.

Is your salinity normally at 26? 33-35 is what I would normally expect, but stability is often more important than a specific number. Just wondering if this dropped with a WC as it might explain what the trigger for this might be.

I'm going to make another assumption, I like making assumptions apparently , that the OP was thinking 1.026 rather than 26ppt. Is this correct @RoughneckReefingWife?

 

[Monkichi]

How's it going? Hoping you still have some fish alive. Let us know.

 

[RoughneckReefingWife]

I'm assuming you meant powerhead here? Not that it needs repeating at this point since the fish have been diagnosed with velvet, but for future knowledge this is a surefire sign of velvet.



I'm going to make another assumption, I like making assumptions apparently , that the OP was thinking 1.026 rather than 26ppt. Is this correct @RoughneckReefingWife?

Yes sorry

 

[RoughneckReefingWife]

How's it going? Hoping you still have some fish alive. Let us know.

We have 3 that survived. 2 clownfish and the purple tang, all in QT right now

 

[Big G]

Sorry for your losses. Went through a similar event a few months ago. By the time you figure out what is going on, it's too late for most of the fish. Knowledge is good; experience makes us wish we had more.

 

[Radman73]

Sorry for your losses. Good grief, velvet seems to be almost common at this point in new fish. There are a bunch of good threads on how to prophylactically treat for velvet, ich, and other common maladies at the top of this forum. QT systems don't have to be elaborate or expensive to be effective. Good luck with your efforts to save the other fish! Sounds like you're on the right path.