4 Fish Now dead with No signs

[ryanbringman]

I Recently Purchased 8 Fish for My 120 Gal aquarium. I have had no fish for 2 years and only a couple of eels. I quarantined my new arrivals for 2 weeks. everyone did well and started to eat. After putting my new fish into the tank they have slowly started to die off one by one. I have now lost 5 fish total. There are no physical signs of ailments or disease. I have tested the water parameters and everything reads normal. .20 Nitrates, 0 Amon., 0 Nitrites, PH 8.2, Temp 80, Sal .23. All of my parameters have been stable with no sudden adjustments. All of the fish have been eating when fed every other day. There is plenty of water flow in the tank as well. I am at a lost. I do not understand what is going on. I now only have 1 lionfish and two angelfish left. All three of course look healthy and are eating. Any help would be great! I should mention my live rock does have a bit of algae, due to a high level of phosphates. Everything I have read indicates that Phosphates cannot kill fish. I am currently waiting on a new reactor since the old bag method is not cutting it.

I run my own RO and Mix my own Saltwater. No trace elements found in the RO. Allow my salt to sit for 24-48 hours before doing a 20% weekly water change.

 

[eliramos]

Where did you get them from?

 

[ryanbringman]

liveaquaria

 

[eliramos]

Do they have anything in common damaged fins bloated looking. Anything at all?
I mean I could understand if there was a spike after adding 8 fish to a system who's bioload has only been two eels but if your saying there wasn't a spike that is strange?
I have however heard that phosphates can be really bad.

 

[ryanbringman]

No Spikes. Nitrates climbed from .15 to .25. Then I did a water change. To me that is not enough to do any real damage. Like I said there were no signs of anything. My powder Blue that I found dead this morning just ate last night. Did not seemed stressed at all. The only thing that is high in the tank are the phosphates.

Last year due to me being lazy my Nitrates and Phosphates got crazy. I moved and when I did started to turn my tank around. I believe the only reason why I have been fighting the Phosphate levels is due to the live rock that was sat in a high level of Nitrates and Phosphates for so long. Again I have gotten the Nitrates under control several months ago and still working on the Phosphates. I have read several forums and post and do not find where Phosphates affect fish. I do know they can kill corals.

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Any chance a foreign contaminant might have entered the tank that you couldn't test for, like a cleaning solution sprayed nearby?

 

[Mike in CT]

How old are your tests? That's a lot of bio load to add at once.. I'm still thinking ammonia. Might want to get new tests or have it checked at LFS. Also, is it possible ammonia was high in QT and you are feeling the after effects now?

 

[Humblefish]

How old are your tests? That's a lot of bio load to add at once.. I'm still thinking ammonia. Might want to get new tests or have it checked at LFS. Also, is it possible ammonia was high in QT and you are feeling the after effects now?

^^This. Can you please list the 8 fish you added and were they added to the DT all at once? Can you also give us more info on your QT (size, setup, what you did to monitor/control ammonia in there?)

FWIW; phosphates & nitrates can be detrimental to corals/inverts. However, these have little impact on fish unless they reach insanely high levels. Same holds true for nitrites. Enemy #1 for fish is AMMONIA. And that's all you really need to be testing for in QT. Even brief exposure to slight ammonia can burn their gills. Prolonged ammonia exposure can permanently damage a fish’s gills, liver and kidneys, usually resulting in death within a few days.

 

[GreatWhiteTang]

^^This. Can you please list the 8 fish you added and were they added to the DT all at once? Can you also give us more info on your QT (size, setup, what you did to monitor/control ammonia in there?)

FWIW; phosphates & nitrates can be detrimental to corals/inverts. However, these have little impact on fish unless they reach insanely high levels. Same holds true for nitrites. Enemy #1 for fish is AMMONIA. And that's all you really need to be testing for in QT. Even brief exposure to slight ammonia can burn their gills. Prolonged ammonia exposure can permanently damage a fish’s gills, liver and kidneys, usually resulting in death within a few days.

Yes agreed.. More info pls

 

[ryanbringman]

Yellow Angel, Flame Angel, Blue Tang, Powder Blue, Leopard Wrasse, 2 Dwarf Lionfish.

Fish were seperated into two 25 Gallon Coolers. Filtered. No heater. I live in Florida and natural water temp is 78. I tested the water every day for amonia. Did water changes every other day. All, but the wrasse lived in quaratine and ate. The remaining of my fish that died were in the DT. The QT had DT water in it so no weird changes. I did add all 7 fish at once. I am assuming this is where I may have gone wrong. Again, I did routine test on the dt after the fish were added. No weird spikes.

 

[Humblefish]

That's a pretty heavy bioload to add all at once. I think it's likely the ammonia spiked, if even briefly.

 

[racin2438]

Salinity. 23 <<

As in 1.023 or .23ppt.
Cuz 1.023 is close enough.

But .23 ppt, is not normal ppt reading is about 34.5ppt equals about 1.025.

What's the cal, alk, mag , ammonia.