Fish Dying but Coral Thriving

RRSlayton

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#1
Hello,

I am recently just getting back into the hobby and I have a Fluva 13.5 Gallon tank. I watched a bunch of videos and read tons of different post to try and re-educate myself again after being out of the hobby for over 5yrs. I have had the tank running for over a month. I used turbo start when beginning my tank and for my fish used when doing this was a banggai cardinalfish since I read they are very hardy. It looked fine and active around the tank, then two days later i found him in the morning dead. I figure I messed up some how and I am not going to add another fish until after make sure my parameters look good. I have been adding coral about a piece or two a week and all of the coral has been thriving. I have zoas, green star poly, frogspawn, duncan, and mushrooms. All of which have been growing and looking great this whole time with no issues my zoa and poly frags have more than tripled the amount of polyps. So for over two weeks my parameters have been:

Nitrates: < 10
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0
pH: 8.3
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78

I figure I should be okay purchasing another fish. I bought a twin spotted goby on Sunday. He seemed to be doing well ate when fed on Monday and Tuesday. Then woke up this morning and checked on the tank before heading into work and found him dead as well. I checked the water parameters before leaving to work and they all read the same no spike or parameter change. I am not sure what is going on with the tank since all the corals seem great and also I have not lost a snail or hermit crab either. Please let me know if any one has any suggestions or can point out something I am over looking. Also if there is any other info needed please let me know. I really appreciate it!
 

djrice69

SocaliReef M0DERAT0R IG Farmedfrags
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#2
Maybe buy fish from another supplier? Fish die from stress sometimes and how you acclimate them. Most fish are in hypo salinity conditions or lower Specific gravity. Did you plop and drop or drip acclimate?
 

RRSlayton

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#3
Yeah I will try that. My big concern is I do have a nebula clown on order from a different fish store it has just been crazy delayed coming from the breeder because of everything going on. I want to really make sure the clown doesnt have the same fate.

I first float them in the bag for 10+mins to temperature acclimate them to the tank. Then I drip acclimate them in a plastic bowl for around an hour before adding them to the tank. Then I wait a day to feed them.
 

Dipan00

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#5
Personally I feel like a lot of fish have or come in with disease and maybe im wrong but I have had the worst luck with fish when I dont do a QT. I QT everything or the better option wait for someone selling a fish I like on the forum that has already been established. Not trying to discourage you. Also if you dont have time for QT hit up @LAreefguy on this forum who gets fish and will monitor them and also QT if need be before selling them. You pay will pay extra for the service but the likely hood of survival goes up considerable and well worth it in my opinion.
 
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