Need help...Fish having trouble breathing...

specific gravity is 1.024

 

API saltwater testing kit

 

I am also guessing you had a mini cycle. 3 fish at once to a brand new system and new "reefers." If you are anything like me, you LOVE to watch the fish eat, and being new reefers still, you are probably way overfeeding the fish. Don't feed them today, or tomorrow. Add a bit of Prime to the tank to detoxify any ammonia or nitrites that your test kit may be missing, but the cycle is probably over already. Make sure you are getting good surface agitation as was posted above. Hopefully they make it :/

 

My chromis are like dogs, as long as there is food they will eat. It feels like you are underfeeding when you give them a set amount, but mine have lived for 6 months, so they are getting enough and look healthy.

 

I have a powerhead at the top of tank to create surface agitation. The fish were eating like crazy the past few days, and now today they have no interest in food. The parameters were all at zero before I added the fish three days ago. The fish were great until I added water to compensate for the evaporation last night, so I'm thinking it had to have something to do with that. I'm wondering how likely it is that there could have still been a poisonous metal in the water we added. Does anyone actually use an RO filter, and could share info about one?

 

Did you use water conditioner to remove the chlorine?

Chlorine will burn fishes gills, making it difficult for them to breath.

Most hobbyist use RO water. This nice little link breaks it down for you:

How Reverse Osmosis Water Filter Systems Work and What They Do

 

Yes, we typically use prime but for some reason last night my husband used API tap water conditioner...not sure if it's not as good or if it's just not the problem. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out

 

How much fresh water did u add? You should top off every day or so to prevent salinity swings.

 

We top it off with fresh water about every couple days, so we didn't add a whole lot

 

The fish are doing worse and are now laying on the bottom of the tank. I don't understand what is going on. Everything in the live rock and the hermit crabs thrive, but the fish can't survive.