Experiencing Die-off of fish!

[Weeburn]

Sorry for the wall of text, but I figure more details are better than less:

55g tank has been set up for couple years, guess I restarted when I moved here in October, FOWLR, only a few random corals that were hitch-hiking on my live rock. Only fish I've ever had were a few various damsels and had one Fire clownfish (saddleback) for about 2 years, always less than 5 fish per tank.

Never had any major problems with tank, water always clear, everything has been looking healthy. About 3 weeks ago bought a Condy anemone at DNA, I figured it wouldn't host my clown, being Atlantic, but it was only $20 and looked cool. After a couple days, turns out the clown did host to it, and around this same time I upgrade my lights and did a 10g water change (would have done 15 but ran out of salt)

Everything in the tank looked good for about a week and a half/2 weeks, last week I noticed anemone was looking unhealthy about half the time, okay the other half. It started getting pretty deflated, not attaching to anything, occasionally discharging slime but clown was still trying to swim around/in it. Noticed some spots/patches of what looked like dead skin on the clown, after a couple days he died. Inspected the rest of my fish thinking it was Ich, but see no similar spots/patches. Figured condy anemone killed the clown (which i'd heard they can, since their sting is more potent).

A few days later one of my yellow damsels died, then this morning another one went, my two remaining damsels (one black/white striped, one yellow) are acting kind of erratically, black/white looks like he's trying to "itch" himself by scraping against rocks, darting erratically.

Possibility anemone is dying/unhealthy, killing fish? I was about to pull it out two days ago, but now miraculously it's looking healthier than it has. Going to DNA shortly to buy their water, do a big water change with their water instead of mixing my own like normal. Think I should ditch the anemone just in case? Any other ideas? Anything they would see in a water test that may be helpful (my water's always tested okay, occasionally nitrates and phosphates higher than 0 but not too bad).

55g FOWLR
4x65w PC bulbs half actinic half 10,000k
About 15lbs of live rock
Prolly 35 cleaners mixed snails/hermits
3 month old Fluval 305 canister filter (have a 750gph powerhead coming UPS)
No skimmer for now (yes, i know, i know, i'm getting one this week, but in the past everything had always been healthy/clear water without one, i'm pretty good about staying on top of my water changes, but i know i need one)

I plan on waiting to buy anything else until I get the PH and skimmer, then just letting the tank do its thing for awhile before introducing any critters, but if there's anything I can do in the meantime besides just waiting for my last 2 fish to die I'd really appreciate any help!!

 

[bimmerzs]

Listing your actual parameter values would be more useful than just saying ok. Probably a good idea to run some carbon along with water change in case some type of pollutant got in the tank. Since you did change out the lights around this time coupled with the erractic fish behavior, you should make sure you aren't getting stray current into the tank. Are you using a sump also or just the fluval??? Inspect the pump on it as well as any powerhead's to make sure none are spewing anything into the tank.

Cheers,

 

[melev]

How often do you change out the media in the Fluval? Is it carbon and floss only?

Your fish might be suffering from something called black ich, which isn't as visible but causes death more quickly.

 

[Weeburn]

Update, had my water tested today at DNA with samples from before and after last night's water change. I expected Nitrates to be through the roof, but surprisingly enough:

Ph: 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate N02: 0
Low range Nitrate NO3: 10
Salinity 1.024.

Then DNA guy checked my phosphates/alkalinity, he didn't write those numbers down (wish he had) but said they looked fine, slightly higher than ideal but not high enough to cause any problems. Said he didn't really have any idea besides ich.

To answer y'alls questions, no sump, just the Fluval. Don't think any stray electricity would be getting into the tank from the lights, power supply never gets near the water, cables routed securely, and same with the Fluval, everything is water-tight and insulated electrically. Haven't changed/cleaned filtration in the canister yet (got it in Feb after my old pumps failed), but there is a mix of carbon and whatever the hard white pieces of stuff are (sorry, don't know what it's called) in the trays inside.

Suspecting just Ich at this point, upon further inspection of my remaining yellow damsel, i do see some very small dots on his fins, but doesn't look like what was on my clown. Nothing visible on my white/black striped damsel.

When I went yesterday he mentioned the possibility of copper from using their water, but today i told him which tank i got the anemone/shrimp out of, he said that specific row of tanks doesn't have copper, since that's the row they have corals in, so there's no way there. He did mention the possibility of something on my hands getting in the tank (mechanic here), but I do a pretty good job of washing up before I leave work, and dont get that dirty working anyways, i suppose it may be possible.

 

[Weeburn]

Update 5/2

So the last of my two fish are gone. My plan is to do weekly water changes for the next six weeks or so (15/20 gallons, maybe more?), getting my water checked each time. If there's no indicators of a problem in the basic water test parameters, I'll just assume it was Ich or some other parasite/disease I'm not familiar with. After six weeks or so I'll add a fish and see how it does before adding anything else.

Meantime, the green algae that had started about the same time I upgraded my lights has really taken off. I've set my timer to significantly decrease the amount of time light is on, and in addition to the powerhead I'm getting (should arrive tomorrow) to give me some more flow, thinking of adding live rock to give the algae some competition ( I don't have enough anyways), but more importantly some more cleaner snails/hermits.

You guys think whatever was killing my fish may be a risk to inverts? All the ones currently in my tank seem to be doing fine, and since the algae bloom I've noticed more snails than I though I had, being especially active. The guy at DNA said he'd hold off, but since my water tested good I figure it can't be a water quality issue.

Your thoughts? Any other specific things they can test my water for that might indicate a problem besides the basic pH, Ammonia, Nitrates, phosphates, etc?

 

[Treamaya]

I would suggest putting in a poly filter. It will tell you what it is filtering out by the color it changes to. If you had Ich kill of your fish, you need to wait at least 6 weeks for the remaning ich bacteria to die off in your tank. They can't live with out a host. I would also check to ensure you don't have a bad pump leaking any electricity into the tank. Use a multimeter, one probe in the water and the other to the ground of the outlet (half rounded whole). Measure with the lights off. Flourescent lights imbue AC (similar to static electricity lots of Volts no current therefore is harmless) into the water. If you measure any AC, unplug pumps one at a time until it goes away.

 

[chappy]

@Treamaya wrote:

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