[The Aquaholic]

I have a 40 gallon mini-reef that I built 2 months ago.... I know that's not long but here's my set-up: 40L ALL GLASS TANK
FLUVAL 405 CANISTER
BERLIN PROTIEN SKIMMER (w/ rio-2100 pump)
SMALL REFUGIUM (above tank-DIY)
25 LBS. LIVE ROCK
20 LBS. LIVE SAND
DIY- STAND/CANOPY
96W DUAL ACTINIC
96W DUAL DAYLIGHT
36W T5 TRUE ACTINIC
(5.7w per gallon)
60w mini halide for fuge
here's my problem...
The tank is running fine, waters clear, test's say "0",
ph,temp.,lots of surface agitation/current/surge. but
my damsels are dying 1 at a time. they were healthy
as can be then slowly started dying off.they seem to
get along, but they started breathing fast and started
dying. I have 11 turbos,5 reef hermits,1 camel shrimp,
and one remaining,dying domino damsel.
Any ideas as to what might have done this? my
specific gravity is 1.021 (.023 at 80f ).

[PDAJunkie]

Sorry to hear about your losses. What tests are you performing, i.e. ph, NO2, NO3, ammonia? Has your tank completely cycled? Where did your live rock and sand come from? With some more detail and answers to these, I'm sure someone can offer some advise. Good luck.

[Ninong]

Hi The Aquaholic,


I have no idea what could be killing off healthy damsels one by one while not affecting your snails, hermits and shrimp, unless it's some sort of virus or other pathogenic agent that only affects fish.

The typical culprits with new systems when animals start dying off are things such as brass fittings or other copper contamination, but that would affect inverts before it affected fish. And if it were some sort of electrical malfunction, I'm sure you would know it by now and it probably would affect everything in the tank. And you're not running double-ended metal halide lamps so we can't blame it on running double-ended metal halide lamps without a shield, which will definitely kill fish within a few hours to a few days.

I guess I have no clue what it could be.

[CSeaSee]

Not that this will likely lead anywhere- but what are you feeding the fish?