fish dying
 

Over the last week all of my fish have died in my tank. I do a 15% water change weekly and replace with RO/DI water. I have a 75 gallon tank, and had 2 clown fish (deceased) 2 cardinals (deceased) 4 damsels (3 deceased) 1 scooter bleeny (deceased), 1 fire fish (deceased) and one puffer.

The chemistry is as follows:
pH 8.4
PO4 0.25
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 20

I did upgrade to a bigger tank about 1 - 1.5 months ago. I had a 55 gallon and upgraded to this 75.
I don't see any signs of ick or anything else as far as I can see. They looked healthy and then one by one they are dying. this has been going on for about a week. The only thing different is I got a puffer and he looks healthy.
I also put a carbon filter and ammonia neutralizing filter in my sump.
any suggestions? Need help

Sorry but that Puffer ate the other fish! do you have dead bodies or just missing ???

Okay, I'd consider dosing some Prime or Amquel if it was on hand. What is the ammonia filter that's in there now? If it's rated for saltwater, it's probably fine, but I'd double-check that. The ammonia kit might be wrong, and that's a lot of animals to lose. Are there corals in the system? If there's nothing left to save, there's no need to dose Amquel. I'd also get a second opinion on the ammonia kit, if that's easy. Most often, a fish store will run a test for free.

Those numbers are all fine for fish, and I'd look elsewhere for the problem, assuming the ammonia second opinion comes out clean. In all honesty, that sounds like a disease. Did the deaths start fairly shortly after puffer was added? What was the timing?

The ammonia filter is Marineland Clinoptilolite zeolite ammonia neutralizing crystals that I placed in a filter bag. I just removed the ammonia filter because that may be the problem. I have 3 different ammonia test kits and all are indicating the same. There is not really a LFS nearby. I usually have to drive about 60 miles to get fish and order everything else off line. But the test kit I use is API. And yes the dealths did start about 2 weeks after the puffer was introduced.
I do have corals in the tank with an anemone. The corals are fairly new. had the anemone for a while now.
Honestly I think it is operator error. I am reading about the ammonia crystals now and, well with out calling my self a dumb &%# I think I did this.
Thanks for your help. If you have anymore suggestion I am open to them

Okay, then I'm going to guess that the original problem was disease, actually. Those zeolites won't work in saltwater, but they shouldn't cause any harm, I think. I will have to look a bit more carefully. I agree that removing them was a good idea.

Whats your SG? Is the apparatus you're checking it with accurate? There is something in the tank I would guess amd if it's not chemical it is some sort of biological or airborne in your home.


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did you QT the puffer??

no I did not QT the puffer, but I just found out that puffers give off a deadly toxin to other fish when stressed. did not know that. SG is 1.026 and I have two methods of checking SG and both read the same. thanks for the suggestions.

I'm going to guess that the puffer brought a disease or poisoned the tank. I didn't know that they'd give off such a toxin. Does the tank have a skimmer or activated carbon? Those are good methods to remove many toxins.

Yes I have a protein skimmer and I also have an activated carbon filter in the sump at the inlet.

Okay, I don't have any more suggestions. I'm sorry about your losses. :(

im going to guess the puffer brought in a disease too

[QUOTE=mastewar20;25353473]Over the last week all of my fish have died in my tank. I do a 15% water change weekly and replace with RO/DI water.

That's a 60% WC per mo. You said you replace it with RO/DI water? You mean RO/DI + salt correct?

Given that the SG is 1.026, I am sure that there was some salt added.