why is my tank a death trap??

[honda2sk]

i got live rock, cycled in my tank for 2 months now, ran tests, no ammonia, no nitrite. all fish die with 72 hrs. never had a fish die on me ever before this tank. what could be possible reasons?

[flyyyguy]

Do you have corals??

What are the rest of your water parameters??

Are you buying the fish all from the same place and if so...where??

[Husky_1]

Any custom work done? GE Silicon II? make sure SG, PH, etc are in check.

[honda2sk]

no corals. tank is brand new. put live rock in tank 2 months ago and let it cure/cycle ever since. put in four different fish over the past few weeks after I qt'ed them. they were perfect in the QT, acclimated to display and they die in a day or two.

salifert tests on ammonia and nitrite read zero
ph is 8.3
sg is 1.025

no silcon, just the primer and cement used for the plumbing but that was done a long time ago.

any clues?

[flyyyguy]

not enough info to really tell...i would still ask if all the fish are coming from the same source, and If I were in yoru situation, i would go find an inexpensive coral, throw it in there and see if it dies too.

If it does, you very well may have some contaminate that you would never even dream of testing for and you may need to toss the rock and sand and start over. Where did you get the rock and sand??

I am by no means saying that is the case, but go get some zoanthids, or even a head or two of something more fragile like a euphyllia of some kind assuming you have the lighting for it and see what happens.

Is there any life on the rock you can see??

[SlowCobra]

RODI water or tapwater? My tap water is absolutely toxic to anything that goes in the tank. I had the same exact issue prior to purchasing my RODI. In fact I even posted an "I hate my tank and it feels the same about me" thread when it was happening.

[flyyyguy]

Yeah...i 'spose the ro/di question should have came sooner than later..... :)

[honda2sk]

fish were from 3 different sources. water used was half new salt water (RODI of course) and half water from my other tank when I did water changes.

tank will be aggressive fish so dont want corals.

[flyyyguy]

well then ...with that being said, throw a coral in there ANYWAY. That will at least isolate that whatever is killing your fish will kill anything you put in the tank, and isnt a fish specific disease.

you never answered if there is any noticable life on the rocks

[honda2sk]

no life on rocks that i can see. but the lights have been off for the entire curing time (2 months). i saw a hitchhiker crab or two once but they are either good hiders or dead.

[Husky_1]

I think snails are always a good indicator as well....I am sure there is a local reefer that will give you some Xenia....that stuff is like the ultimate water test kit :)

[OliverM3]

Did you buy the tank new?
I wonder if they used some sort of cleaner on the tank that's still lingering.
Are you running carbon to remove any chemicals that could have been used in the tank?
Air freshener sprays or pledge will kill the fish.

What type of fish anyway? a clown or damsel can pretty much swim in a toliet and be happy :)

[SlowCobra]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10749814#post10749814 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by OliverM3


What type of fish anyway? a clown or damsel can pretty much swim in a toliet and be happy :)

I killed 2 clowns and 5 damsels in my tank of death. That thought pattern is out the window. :lol:

[OliverM3]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10750285#post10750285 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SlowCobra
I killed 2 clowns and 5 damsels in my tank of death. That thought pattern is out the window. :lol:

wow that's pretty bad. I still have my tomato's from my first salt water tank. Well my little sister does now she used them to cycle her first tank a couple years ago.

They went through hell. I didn't know to rinse the crushed coral.
I don't think I could see anything in the tank for a month :)

[xtm]

Do you hear snapping or clicking at night? (Mantis)

How is your acclimation procedure? Do you quarantine your livestock before releasing them to the display? -btw, this will isolate most of your problems.......if your fish do well in quarantine and it dies in the display, then at least it's safe to assume that you are getting healthy livestock to begin with.... IMO