Hermit crabs dying despite good water quality?

[L.ost]

I brought some blue leg hermits home for my 55 gallon tank 6 days ago, The tank was cycled and the water quality tested completely fine (0PPM Ammonia and nitrite and 10PPM nitrate) I noticed after the 1st day they were in the tank they almost went tonic and didn't move and later I noticed that a few had died. I moved them over to my 10 gallon quarantine tank which I had just filled with freshly mixed R/O saltwater and they started doing completely fine in there so I figured that whatever the issue was it could be solved with a big water change. I've done a 100% water change on the 55 gallon and... Whatever the issue is it's still there. I tried putting two crabs back in just to see if the issue had been resolved and within an hour they started standing still and not moving at all again just like they had done before the water change. I've just put them back in the quarantine tank for now until I can figure out what's going on. I'm going to take a sample of water in to my LFS tomorrow since I'm off work but if anyone could have any clue what's going on please let me know because I'm so lost and frustrated right now. I'm new to saltwater and this is just sorely discouraging. I'm honestly thinking if I can't figure this out I'll just go back to keeping freshwater because I've never in a million years had an issue like this before.

 

[ryanjohn1]

Temperature?
Stray electric In tank
Salinity?
How oxygenated

 

[j.falk]

Has copper been used in the tank?

 

[L.ost]

Has copper been used in the tank?

Copper has not been used in the tank, no

 

[j.falk]

Copper has not been used in the tank, no

Do you have any other inverts in the tank or were the hermits the first that you had added?

 

[L.ost]

Temperature?
Stray electric In tank
Salinity?
How oxygenated

Temp is 78, salinity is 33PPT, I'm not sure about oxygenation but it shouldn't be low. I asked somewhere else and somebody also suspected stray electricity so I've unplugged my equipment and am gonna see again in a bit if the same thing still happens.

 

[j.falk]

Check inside any power heads / water pumps to see if they are rusty inside.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

can you post a tank pic?

Do you have powerheads in the tank? Is the water surface turbulent?

 

[L.ost]

Do you have any other inverts in the tank or were the hermits the first that you had added?

Hermits are the first I've added. They're actually the only livestock I've added so far.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

What fish do you have? Is it possible that the fish you have may be dangerous to hermits?

 

[L.ost]

What fish do you have? Is it possible that the fish you have may be dangerous to hermits?

No fish yet, the hermit crabs are the first livestock I've added to the tank.

 

[j.falk]

There's got to be something simple going on here. If I had to guess I would say your tank probably isn't done cycling yet. API Test Kits = Garbage. Throw them away and go buy some good test kits. Good test kits are cheaper than constantly losing livestock in the long run. Don't put your hermits back in until you've figured out exactly what is going on.

 

[L.ost]

There's got to be something simple going on here. If I had to guess I would say your tank probably isn't done cycling yet. API Test Kits = Garbage. Throw them away and go buy some good test kits. Good test kits are cheaper than constantly losing livestock in the long run. Don't put your hermits back in until you've figured out exactly what is going on.

Any test kits in particular you recommend? I hadn't ever heard of API test kits being no good until this started happening.

 

[j.falk]

I've always used Salifert. Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are your basic starter kits when beginning a saltwater aquarium and going through the cycle. They average roughly $15.00 per kits.