Need some help

I need some help.

I have had such a bad week of fish dying and I have no idea why.

Here are my details:

55g, mixed reef

Fish that are fine and have had no issues at all:
6 line wrasse
Black and white clown
Ocellaris Clown
High fin red banded goby
Canary yellow blenny

Fish that have died:
Powder blue tang (he was fine for 3-4 months then dead - I posted in another thread this was after a vacation I went on and I questioned the introduction of some pathogen by the tank's caretaker)
Potters Wrasse - dead within 24 hours
Rainford's goby - dead within 48 hours

Fish that I got 48 hours ago and is fine:
Coral goby

Reef occupants:
3 headed torch
Big xenia colony
Blue maxima clam
BTA
Coco worm
Feather duster
Hammers
Maxi mini carpet anemone
Finger leather
Candy canes
Long and short tentacle plate
small zoa frag, small mushroom frag

Other inverts:
Starfish
Nassarius snails, Turbo snails
2 peppermint shrimp
copepods

Lighting - 7 LED reefbars 4 blue, 3 white, and a current USA marineland LED on at 8 am off at 6 pm w 4 hours blue moonlight then off

Skimmer - JNS-VS1 HOB skimmer, filter, eheim 2217 with a big bag of activated carbon, bag of GFO and bioballs, and filter floss

Parameters
Salinity 1.025-26
Temp 79 degrees
dkH - 8.5
Nitrate - 0, Amm - 0
Calcium - 400
pH - 8.2

I am acclimating with a drip method into a bowl with a piece of airline tubing. The latest guys I acclimated for 3.5 hours...sometimes its not that long but the store told me they were kept at a salinity of 1.015 so I had to go slow.

Can someone please offer advice...the rapidity of death indicates to me this cannot be a pathogen. That is way too quick to get sick and die. Is it just stress? Am I buying fragile fish? Or do I just suck?

I cant figure out what to do next...i just did two 20% WC over 2 days so basically have added in 20 gallons of brand new water...I am using RODI water...with reef crystals...

Can anyone offer recommendations?

 

Forgot to mention:

Feeding wise, I feed every day. In the morning I feed New Life Spectrum marine pellets
Then when I get home maybe every other day I feed 1/4 cube of mysis
For corals I feed reef roids every few days - just a pinch, dissolved in water first, and maybe once a week I add aquavitro fuel...

 

If your store is actually keeping their tropical tanks at 1.015 and you're around 1.025-26 that might very well be a contributing factor. It's a lot easier for fish to adjust to going down on the SG scale, and a lot harder to go back up. I need to back and look at my notes/literature on how fast you can raise the SG for marine fish. Your options are, get your fish from a store that holds their fish at a higher salinity, lower your display salinity (keeping invert stress in mind), acclimate in a quarantine tank (your best option by far), or drip acclimate much longer (PITA).

When everything in the tank is doing well and fish die then it's probably a different reason for each death and not a blanket cause. Wrasses are sensitive during acclimation (try an acclimation box) or acclimate in a wrasse minded quarantine tank.

 

The fish that was kept at 1.015 is the goby who is actually still doing fine. The other two were kept much closer to my tank at 1.025 and 1.020. I acclimated over several hours with a slow drip...is this not long enough? Do I really need a box? Cant I just a big bowl like what I have been using or a small little critter tank?

How long would you acclimate a simple goby or wrasse?

I am not sure I understand the quarantine tank thing...I can understand if this is to the benefit of the main tank, ie you want to isolate a fish and make sure he doesnt introduce anything to the tank....but how does this help the incoming fish? after a few hours the fish's water is entirely that of the tank so what is the difference if its in a tiny box or in the actual tank where it has room to swim (and copepods and algae to eat)....I have no predators, no aggressive fish...

 

Please read Hunter aka member evolved thread on reef safe wrasses.