fish keep dying

[wright824]

Mike- Your tank sounds just like mine. I am not going to add any more fish. I am just going to feed to keep the inverts alive (shrimp, crabs and snails and bta) I do have a goby that has been sticking round for a while now! It is a yellow watchman goby i don't think he is hurting any one. so far all i have is 2 greene chromis. I was told they are miled and would get along with any thing. I too had cycled with damsels i ended up having to get rid of them when they attacked the first bunch of fish is bought and haven't been able to keep anything since (fish wise)! I don't seem to have any algae break outs. the tank is pretty clean. I guess i will try to wait a month or so and give it another try and see what happens.
I have more live rock on order i am hoping that helps
also- a note on the beta thing. i was only using it as an example that here i am busting my butt over perfect conditons in this tank and this beta seems to just live with me neglecting it (his water is even green at times before i change it) and not taking any of the normal precautions with him..mydaughter would never forgive me if she had found out i had actually killed it on purpose. i couldn't do that.

 

[wright824]

Ok. since my orginal post, i have now the following in my tank:
40-44g corner tank
40-45 lbs of live fugi rock
5 pounds of tonga branch
40 lbs of live sand
1 heater (will be getting a second for back up in future)
whisper 3 filter (came with tank. I know i need a better filter )
coralife 65g skimmer
1 aqua clear 50 powerhead with filter-270gph
1 powersweep 228 power head with pre-filter -270gph
1 powersweep 226 powerhead with pre-filter 190 gph
2 individual light fixture both 18" perfecto T8 fluorscent one with ge
aquarays fresh and saltwater 9325K and one with a actinic
I have a coralife PC with a actinic and 10,000k with 2 blue lunar lights on the way. (picked it up for $100) I still want to upgrade to MH but i figured the PC is better than the fluorescent for now! and could't pass up on the price!
Fish and invert. stock:
2 cleaner shrimp
2 green chromis
5 scarlet crabs
3 turbo snails
6 nassarius snails
1 cerith smail
1 bubble tip anemone
2 ocellaris clowns
1 royal gamma
1 yellow watchman goby ( with personality! )
so far, so good. Have been doing by weekly water changes and trying to get my calcium level up. it is only at 350 right now. going to keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. Just added the clowns and royal gamma 2 days ago.
my salt is 1.025, ph 8.2, nitrites 0 nitrates 0, ammonia 0, phosphates 0. the only things i am working on now is the calcium and my KH seems high (18) but i am not sure if i am getting a correct reading or not. I really don't like the test kit i bought.
I would like to put in some soft corals and some mushrooms and polyps at some point but not hurrying!

 

[darthgoby]

I had the same thing happen to me for a while and I ended up doing a variety of things to take care of it.
The first thing I did was learn how to pick fish. I think that in a lot of cases, the fish dying in the near term has to do with how there were collected and treated in the store. I used to pick fish out at random until one guy at a LFS actually went through their stock and pointed out ones that werent in the best of shape. For example, when I was picking out my Tang he pointed out that one had an eye problem and he didn't recommend that one. He fed a couple and suggested I get the one that actually eat versus the one that didn't. If you think about it from the Fish's perspective, the whole collection/transport/selling process is incredibly stressful and I'm surprised that any of them survive it sometimes. When I think back on some of the fish I picked out at first, I can't imagine what I was thinking.
The second thing I would think about is a quarantine tank. Not everyone uses them and many people use them all the time. That might ease the transition where you put the fish by itself in a small tank (10 gallon) and it learns to acclimate to a new environment. Some people even recommend that you keep the fish in QT for 4-6 weeks although I have a problem waiting that long. Instead of putting them in the main tank where there are other fish, maybe an intermediate stop in the QT tank would be good.
If something happens to these new fish, don't get discouraged. There are all sorts of really cool inverts you could add to your tank. I just finished sitting in front of may tank for an hour watching my snails and crabs go to town on a big piece of krill I stuck in the tank. Fish aren't the only fun thing you can have in an aquarium.