Bad saltwater conditions?

[mini-reefer]

Im trying not to be vague here, but I am at a loss with what to do with my sickening fish. I have done nothing different to my reef at all. In the last week my two clowns, royal gramma and flame angel all are infested with ick. Every parameter I can test for is OK. My corals are all doing well and growing in the current situation, but my fish seem to get worse day by day. What possible additions could I have with this explanation?
SG: 1.024
Temp 80.7
pH: 8.3
Ammon: 0
Nitrates: <5
Nitrites: 0
Alk: 3.6 +
Calcium: 450
I did remove the restrictor from my RO/DI unit a few months ago because it was leaking, but it still functions the same. Im not sure if that effects the chlorine or any other output to be greater from the RO/DI unit , but its all I can come up with. I am at a complete loss. Any help will be appreciated.

 

[carrie1429]

The main factor that causes ich is stress, so maybe your fish may have gotten stressed out somehow. In a reef tank your fish are very hard to treat, about the only thing you can do is remove all the fish into a hospital tank and do hyposalinity (lowering the salinity level to kill the ich). Most medications say they are reef safe but really are not or they are not effective.

 

[beth]

Hmmm....What fish have you added to your tank within the last month?

 

[mini-reefer]

Nothing. I have added nothing to the tank and have removed nothing from the tank in at least 2 months. I have only done routine top-offs, Kalk dosing and water changes. Ive searched my memory for the most minute detail and have not been able to think of anything I have done differently.
When I got home from work today I did the normal top-off and found my poor Flame dead in the back of the tank. I looked him over really good and the only thing I could see was his fins were jagged and frayed. The gills and eyes looked normal.
This is so frustrating!

 

[jlem]

How long have you had your fish and what does their diet consist of.

 

[mini-reefer]

The Flame was the newest addition, which was about 2 months ago. The rest of the fish in my tank now I have had for more than a year. My two tangs are nearing two years with me.
Diet consists of a combination of seaweed select, frozen brine shrimp plus, frozen pygmy angel formula, frozen prime reef and frozen blood worms. Not all these at once, but a different combination of each, each time I feed them. All the fish eat very well every time I feed them. Thats the only good sign in all this.
I still am cluless as to my problem. I have left my halides off all week and just ran my actinic and 50/50 PC. I have also been thining down the salinity. I usually keep the SG at 1.025, but am working it down to 1.021 for a few days to see if it will help them. I did a 20% water change and am going to do another smaller water change tomorrow.
I know there is not much info to go off of, but like I said before, I have done nothing different to cause any amount of stress.

 

[mini-reefer]

Heres one of the last pictures with them all healthy.

 

[jlem]

You didn't mention Garlic. I know that it is not a cure all, but it does help boost the immune system of fish. I soak my seaweed daily in garlic juice.

 

[beth]

Don't fool around with lowering the salinity in the reef tank, that would be pointless. You can not treat the fish in a reef tank. This type of thing happens rarely, but sometimes it does. Have you added anything to the tank recently besides the fish? LR, LS, etc?
In any case, it is possible that Cryptocaryon tomonts remained embedded in you angel for an extended period and has now infected your tank. Likewise tomonts could come in on LR or even coral or substrate.
What ever happened or how it happened, you only have 2 viable treatments courses, and neither can be done in your reef tank. Hypo or copper. You will need to treat within a hospital tank. If this is absolutely impossible, you can try feeding your fish garlic soaked food and/or adding a biological cleaner--cleaner fish or shrimp.

 

[clarkiiboi]

did remove the restrictor from my RO/DI unit a few months ago because it was leaking, but it still functions the same
No one addressed this and I have no good knowledge of the RO/DI units, but could this be a problem, maybe it isn't functioning the same and this has changed the water paramaters.
Just a thought.

 

[mini-reefer]

I doubt it makes much difference. The unit still produces about the same amount of water as before in an equal time frame. But just in case I have been adding Fritz dechrlorinator to all water for the tank.
I lost another fish today. I got home from work and found the male clown dead. Its just really strange because my Tangs and Bangaii are barely affected by whatever ever it is. They have hardly any signs of whatever the rest of the fish have got. Just a few ich spots on each of them.
Im about ready to go fishless and just expand to corals only.