Cannot Keep A Fish Alive. Please Help

[blender]

I have a 55 gal tank with a skimmer, undergravel filter, above water filter, and lots of barnacle decor. I had a successful tank setup for about a year and a half then I moved. Here is what has happened since:
Oct 1 - the tank is filled up and a couple days later a damsel is added.
Nov 30 - brown and a little red algea (or whatever) has grown on the barnacles and I added a purple dottyback, 5 snails and 5 blue leg crabs.
Dec 10 - Fish were doing great but the damsel got aggressive and chewed off the dottybacks fin and he died. I traded in the damsel in and got a perc clown.
Dec 12 - Perc clown dies with no signs of stress. I buy another purple dottyback.
Dec 15 - Purple dottyback dies with no signs of stress the previous days. I buy a coral bueaty
Dec 19 - Coral Buaty got ich right away and hung on till today. I bye two perc clowns.
Dec 24 - Both perc clowns found dead in the morning. No signs of stress in the days before.
Dec 31 - I go back to the hardy damsels. I buy 3 of em.
Jan 4 - All the damsels have died. Two get ich and one looked fine and the next day was dead.
My crabs and snails have all survived and are doing well. Only green algea grows in the tank now (I think that is a sign of good water). All the water levels have been checked time and time again by me and two different fish shops. Everything checks out. I keep the temp at 78 and salt at 1.022. The fish have been purchased from three different places. Any clue on what the heck is going on. I ready to give up on my hobbie and and fish murdering.....

 

[broomer5]

Are you using tap water ?
If so are you using a dechlorinator of some kind ?
Are you acclimating the fish slowly when you add them ?

 

[trigahappynigerog]

test your water and then post your results...

 

[blender]

I use RO water from the store.

 

[broomer5]

Hmmmmmm
More info about you current set up then ...
Substrate ?
Where did you get these barnacle decorations ?
What brand of saltwater mix you using ?
Give us a detail of you set up.
The barnacles sound a little odd to me at the moment, and as TRIGAHAPPYNIGERog mentioned - post your water quality tests.

 

[fshhub]

i agree with the water parameters, but from what i can see, you've got ich, probably contracted by the move,
the best thing you could do, if your h2o quality is good, is wait one month for the ich to die off, it can live 4 weeks without a host, but after that will die, and then it should be safe to add fish again
HTH and good luck

 

[mrmarie]

i agree, thees something fish sounding about those barnacles caus everything else sounds perfect. ( no pun intended sorry)

 

[blender]

After the first death I was very strict about he acclimation process. I followed the advice on this site for all but the first two fish. Substrate is cruched coral. All the barnacles were in my tank before I moved and there were no problems. I got them at various pet stores and boiled them before they went into the tank. I use red reef salt??? Red reef is part of the lable at least. I don't know exaclty what all the water test result numbers are but they were right where they were supposed to be and that was verifed by a couple pet stores. I don't understand why the crabs and snails are doing fine but the fish all die. I was wondring if there is some kind of sneaky disease that would kill the fish and not the inverts.

 

[blender]

fshhub. A couple of the fish did get white spots and some did not. Can a fish die of ick without the spots?

 

[blender]

Thanks Mr. Tang. At most only a day or two went by without a fish in the tank. The Coral Bueaty and two of the damsels had white spots for about a day or two then passed. The rest of them looked completly healthy and eating one day. The next morning they were dead. Could that be Amyloodinium?

 

[wrigley11]

blender... quick question about the setup... when you moved did you clean the inside of the tank or anything else that does in the tank with any kind of cleaner?
If you did you could have something in the water. If I was you I would say screw it... drain the tank, change the gravel / get rid of the under gravel filter and start things over.
If you don't want to do that I would remove the crab and snails and medicate the heck out of the tank.
The second may be the better...

 

[wrigley11]

Forgot.. i know this is a stupid question and don't think I'm picking on you... but what is the salinity on the tank and is your salinity tester working...
Now that I thought about this I knew someone from a lfs that had the same problme you are having. No one could figure it out until they checked the salinity. The persons salinity tester was faulty and it was around 1.005 or so.... It was high enough to keep the snails and crab alive but everything else died quickly.
Check this out,,,,

 

[ebeckels]

why do you think crabs and snails would stay alive at 1.005 ???

 

[fishgod]

Actually the average worldwide salinity of ocean water is around 1.025! And Like Eb said crabs or gastropods wouldn't survive at 1.005!

 

[new2saltwater]

Hi, im quoting my first reply from my very first post similar to yours " stop putting fish into the "death tank" youve had a set up before so just slow things down a bit. An empty tank looks pretty dull but a tank full of dead fish doesnt look all that attractive either. Id drain it, refill with tested RO
water ( I say tested cause Ive recently had a bad Cynobacteria outbreak due to some bad RO water) why not cycle it with some dead shrimp 1st then try 1 fish at a time say about a month apart instead of having 1 fish die then sacraficing 2 more the next day. Id also look around at some other Fish stores and have water tested by all of them. Just my .02 cents from a guy that 7 months ago couldnt keep a Clown alive for more than 8 hours. Good luck to you.

 

[blender]

Thanks for all the responses. When I restarted the tank I cleaned the glass with water and a paper towel so I don't think that is the problem. The saltinity is at 1.022. I guess it is possible that my tester is faulty but I don't think so. Like Mr. Tang said the fish stores test that. I think the salt is red sea. I need to get more testing kits. I usually just looked at the colors matching that's why I don't know the exact numbers. I do have carbon in my overhanging filter. I think I remember it being Fluval brand. It's a white box with black writing and design with a red stripe. If that is a cheap kind then maybe... The spots on the fish that got em seemed to be spread all over the body. I didn't examine close enough to know if they were a light sprinkle or well rounded.
I am planning introducing a damsel to the tank in six weeks. I know you guys said four but I rather go an extra two weeks to make sure. If the same thing happens I will have to drain and fill. So while I'm waiting this six weeks do the snails and crabs need any food dropped in? I don't have lr but there is green stuff (algea) growing on my barnacles and substrate. Is that enough food for them?
Thanks again for all your reply's

 

[peasly1]

have you ever added copper..? it would get rid of alot of disease w/ right amount, but to much would wipe out an entire tank quickly..just trying all options..

 

[blender]

I would try copper but as far as I know that would kill the snails and crabs. I plan on getting shrimp later on too.

 

[blender]

Anyone else have comments on VonKlyff's remarks about UG filter and skimmer with no live rock?

 

[von_rahvin]

if he added copper this would not have killed the fish but would have killed the snails. I would drain the tank and start over. Slowly is boring but, having happy fish is much more fun!! good luck