Fish Dying

[unshaven]

I have 2 35 gallon saltwater tanks. 

In my more established tank over a period of 3 weeks I had 2 Pajama Cardinals, a cleaner wrasse, and 2 firefish die.  They all had the same symptoms.  They would go a little pale, stop eating, then swim around like a rocket ignoring obstacles and bouncing around like a pinball.  Thie would shop them up good and more often than not they would nosedive into the gravel and get stuck under a rock.  They died soon after.   My large turbo snails dies too but not my small ones.  I managed to safe one of the cardinals soon after death and put it in the fridge to see if any worms or parasites were visible.  They were not.

Testing revealed nitrates, adn nitrites at 0, ammonia 0, dkh of 9.5, my calcium was very low but has since been corrected with Kaulwasser.

I did have a problem with bristleworms (since put into check with a arrowhead crab). 

Now my second tank has the same problem.  Since Friday I have lost 5 Chromis and am about to lose a Damsel. 

My inverts are not bothered, and a Yellow Clown goby has simply ignored the problem.

I am seriously considering terring both tanks down, building only one and downsizing out of frustration. 

Any thoughts?

[Dave and Diane]

Have you added any thing to the tank prior to this happening? anything at all, peice of coral, livestock?
Tried a new additive?
Did you tranfer anything from the orginal tank to the second tank?
Maybe a though to look back at just before this started.
possible to find a solution.

[ray]

Erratic swimming is usually a sign of some form of poisoning.

Ray

[unshaven]

I was thinking it might be poisoning too. 

But wouldn't that effect my inverts first? 

I have decided to gut the two tanks and change it to 1 35 gallon, and 1 14 gallon nano.  This will also let me deal with my bristle worm issue.

Thanks for the input.

[jeffd]

hi, have a look into the possibility of stray voltage in your tank.

[Hookup]

Erratic swimming is usually a sign of some form of poisoning.

Ray

This was my first guess as well.  In fact, I was expecting to find high ammonia in your tank... but you are reporting it at 0ppm...

Assuming your testing kits are accurate ones (not old or crappy, etc)

Stray volts is a good guess, but often fish will jump cause of that, and fire-fish are jumpers and I would have really expected stray volts to cause them to jump first and fast..

Temp would be possible, i guess... but IMO unlikely.

Did you paint recently? windex the tank and maybe spray some in there?

obviously something changed... hard part will be finding what.

[Tyler.L]

well dont add anything else to the tank till its figured out as to what the problem is....but thats alot of fish in the one "established" tank that has died.. between the both thats 10-11 fish....thats alot....maybe take the water somewhere to be tested by someone else to make sure...but it sounds like an ammonia problem like tim said that was the first thing i thought to see was ammonia through the roof.

So i say take a water sample some where to double check the results cause i have a feeling both nitrates and ammonia are high...also whats your salinity at?

[Rybren]

Are you using RO/DI water?  If not, perhaps there is something in your water supply that is causing the problem.  They may have done an extra heavy dose of chloramine or some other substance.  With all of the rain that we've been having, the bacterial count in the drinking supply may have been high and they really whacked the water with something to knock it down.  Might be worth heading out and buying a bunch of jugs of RO water and doing a massive water change.

On the other hand, I may be way out in left field. 

[unshaven]

Thanks for all the help.  I will retrace my steps and find the problem before I restock.

Honestly I have been mulling over jumping up to a larger tank or going down to only one tank and a nano.

I think I will step down.  At least until the wife and I buy a larger house.

[Tsukiyomi-sakura]

The basement is always a nice place if you want to go bigger.

[lost_at_sea]

Mad Cow?

[unshaven]

More like Swine.  They were little pigs!

Interesting note.  In my tanks I have found three survivors.  2 Damsels and 1 Chromis.

Tough little SOB's.

That and the hose I use to full my buckets from the wash basin I just noticed gets soap on it
after I do a laundry load.  I think that is the culprit and I am an idiot.

Lesson learned.

[Hookup]

that sucks, but it's good that the problem has been found...

[Dave and Diane]

Yes hopefully that was the cause of all your grief.

Start and hopefully no more bad things.

Best of luck.