Help...What Happened?

[4kevnbekc]

I really hope I do not get much flack about my question, I will admit that my husband and I are new to the whole SWF thing, and have only had an established tank for 2 months now.
It is a 55 gallon tank with live rock, live sand and (as of yesterday) a bunch of really cool fish. We know the whole rule as to how many fish to gallon tank, so we have been careful not to overcrowd. We had a Copper-banded Butterfly (loved to munch on the apstacia) a very small dwarf lionfish, a yellow tang, a Huma Huma Trigger and a domino damsel. Everyone was getting along great, except for the tang and the butterfly, but that was not a problem....
We noticed that the butterfly was cut by the tang and started to get a small fungal infection. Another fish also seemed to have a "fuzz" on him as well, so we were advised by local fish store to treat the entire tank. We had just gone through asmall ich problem and after treating the whole tank, everyone looked great.
Needless to say this morning, I awoke to find a graveyard of fish. Very upset. The only one who seem to be hanging on is the trigger (for which I am greatful, he is my favorite) and the damsel. Every other fish in our tank (with exception of chocolate chip star and feather dusters) passed away. The meds we were given were reef safe (no copper) and everything seemed fine last night.
Our sality level was 1.022, ph was a tiny bit low, but nothing alarming, nitrates, nitrites and ammonia checked out fine as well.
My question...and please be nice....I am relatively new to this....been reading alot and taking advice from a local fish store....is....What The Heck Happened To All Our Fish? Could it have been "toxic tank syndrome"? The meds that we used was PimaFix, which was supposed to be okay for all live rock, sand and inverts as well as plants and ALL the fish. I did not even use the total amount I was supposed to, I used less than required.
I am very upset because we thought we finally had our tank where we wanted it to be.
After all of this occured, we did a major water change (over half) and will have to sit back and wait to see how the surivivers do. So far so good. Redid the tank, salinity is fine, PH is fine, all the others check out as well.
I am looking for some constructive criticism, please be nice and don't yell. I just read the post from the poor guy who had the overcrowded tank (29 gallon) and I am cringing while I am typing this because I am unsure of the possible backlash I may get.
I know there are a lot of knowledgable people on this board and since it seems as though our local fish store lead us wrong, I was hoping someone here might be able to shed some light on what may have

 

[beth]

Look on the label of that medication and tell us what the ingredients are.
4kevnbekc, please take a look at the FAQ Thread at the top of this forum and read the post on Quarantine Tank as well as ich. Also, look at the Diseased Fish Thread and look at the fish there with ich. Is that what your fish had?
The tank size you have really is not suiable for those fish, and some fish, such as the butterfly, is really only appropriate for fairly knowledgable hobbyists. Additionally, you have a tank with both "reef fish" [butterfly and tang] in with predatory fish [trigger and lionfish]. Tangs are hard swimming fish and need rather long tanks to be comfortable. Obviously, the 55 gal is not going to fulfil this need for the tang. Tangs as well as triggers can be very territoral. In a small overcrowded tank, a fish fighting for territory is bound to result in problems.
Can you post up your water readings?
Also, that fish per gallon thing, just does not apply to the Saltwater hobby.
What resources books have you read or have available to you?

 

[4kevnbekc]

The only ingredients that this stuff contained are as follows:
Pimenta racemosa CAS #8006-78-8 1.0%
Inert Ingredients 99.0%
What our fish had this time around was not ich. I am familiar with ich, as we had just recently gone through the whole ich thing, did treatment and a water change.
As far as reading that I and my husband have done, it has been on numerous informative websites, magazines and many books we have borrowed from the library. As far as names go, the one that sticks out most in my mind is The Saltwater Fish Encyclopedia, which in my humble opinion is the best resource we have found thus far.
Like I may have mentioned, this is a new hobby to us, and we are trying to gather as much info as we can about this, and learn something new each step of the way. As far as the fish that we had goes, each time we would go and buy fish, we would tell the places which fish we already had, and thought (dumbly) that they would advise us as to the fish which were not compatible. That is part our ignorance, that much blame I will take. They all seemed to have gotten along, and we had planned (and still do) to upgrade the size of our tank to a 125 gallon within the next month or so.
Since this has happened we are a little wiser as to which fish work better with which, and will be more careful when chosing replacements.

 

[beth]

Let me suggest Robert Fenner's, "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist". This book, if you really read it cover to cover, will equipt you well for this hobby. It touches on everything, but is not complicated at. It is also a good read with lots of detailed pictures.
Book from this site
Same book at Amazon so you can read the reviews
That medication is herbal based. I've never heard of the product. What is your pH? I would suggest doing a water change and use carbon if you can. When is the last time you dosed the tank with that? And when is the last time that you saw ich on your fish?

 

[4kevnbekc]

I will have to look into getting that book. Been trying to find some good books at the library and Barnes and Nobles and the such, but their inventory is seriously lacking.
I did about a 1/2 water change, and all the levels check out great. Our Huma Huma survived and has been doing great. Am happy he made a good recovery. It was a little touch-and-go for a while. He is a tough little man.
We only dosed the tank once, and that was when all "you-know-what" broke loose and we lost all the fish. I knew about a quarentine tank, but the knuckleheads at the fish store told us to treat the whole tank it would be fine. We had to do that awhile back with ich and everyone was good to go.
Thanks for all the helpful info.

 

[beth]

Do try and get that book. It really is helpful for new hobbyists and very informative. You won't be bored reading it, I assure you.
Please don't medicate your display. Think about how you can set up a quarantine. It really is the only safe thing to do if you are going to keep fish.

 

[4kevnbekc]

Trust me, I know that now. It was a costly but effective lesson. Will not happen again....beleive me!:happy:

 

[beth]

There is a writeup in the FAQ Thread at the top of this forum on QTs you might be interested. Also, take a look at the post on ich. Good luck!