why do my gobies die first?

Everytime I am about to have a problem..... i lose a goby first. I have lost 2 tanks of fish in the last 6 months and can NOT figure it out. I am getting better at testing! (the knowledge part!) But it doesn't seem to help. Last week, I lost a watchman goby & a blue spot within hours after the first. Then a clown. Thankfully everyone else is fine. All my tests are good. Today my pH is too high but it was 8.3 last week. Today one of my leathers folded over. It maybe because my pH is too high - Everything else is within range.

Does anyone have knowledge about what will take the gobies out first?

Thanks for any input. We have 180 gal tank with 5 fish left! My husband is going to kill ME if I kill another $400 worth of fish!

 

Well, the ph does not seem to be "too" high, bud. We here try to keep it stable between 8.2 to 8.4. But even lower pH of 7.8, for example, would not bother the fish.
Have you been dosing anything new lately? Do you use RO/DI water?
Let us know all the results you get from testing. Ammonia, nitrate, alkalinity ?

If you have these tests it would help to provide the results.

Also, do you feed a lot? There could be a very wide range of things that can kill a fish. We can help you pinpoint the problem with some more details about the tank.

- Mag.

EDIT:
PS: remove any dead fish/coral ASAP when they die. Otherwise your ammonia will go to the roof and also some corals will release very nasty toxins in the water that can make your fish very ill and even kill them.

 

When I was new to the hobby, (I'm still a newb, but with some basic knowlege, thanks to RC and 3reef) I always used damsels to practice. I waited 3 month since my last crush before I introduced damsels, crabs, snails. Good sign for me to introduce live stock is when I was getting GHA blooms, and big population of pods, then just few water changes to bring NO3 down to at least 10. Now my 29g host 25 LPS and Mandaring with no any problems. May be sump with skimmer and some macro algae will help. Shouldn't be a problem to spend $500-600 to get proper equipment before spending 1 grand on life stock. This forum got a lot of really good info. Hope you will find the way to keep your fish and corals alive.
May be you have something in your sand? That may explain why gobies go first. What about air quality in the room where tank is? Do you use any chemicals like air freshener, conditioner ect?

 

How are you acclimating?

And if you can, to get a quick check on Params, go to a LFS and take down the params and let us now what they are.

 

Are you introducing too many fish to the tank at one time ?