Ouch, that sucks :( Sorry to hear it and good luck with things.

And not that you have enough to worry about (and I don't think it's the cause of the fish deaths), but nitrates at 35ppm is definitely something you also want to look at. (It could just be the fish feeding.) You may want to look into sugar, or sugar/vodka/vinegar dosing as a temporary stop gap measure (be careful not to overdo it, the sudden reduction in nitrates can shock things - also if you dose too much sugar your tank will go cloudy with a bacterial bloom).

Crap...I forgot to update this thread...I have 3 nitrate tests, 1 pinpoint monitor and two different brands of traditional test kits. I tested the water with the test kit and it gave me the 35ppm reading. When I tested with the pinpoint monitor I got 22ppm. I re-calibrated the monitor and got 21ppm. We are believing the monitor.

I did that water change yesterday, so I'm going to check the levels in the tank for today, and possibly do a second change tomorrow.

Nitrate levels are definitely the product of some seriously heavy feeding over the weekend, and possibly the death of the powder grey. I know the powder grey was eaten over the course of the 8 hour night, but still 8 hours is a long time.

I'm tired of this though, I just want a nice tank again with fish that thrive and don't die. I think I'm asking too much lately.

Oh no :( I'm really sorry....I didn't think Nitrates at 22 ppm could kill fish like that?

I'll hold on the Regal. No hurries.

Please do! I want to make sure whatever is happening in my tank won't happen again, or will stop happening. I am so clueless, 3 dead fish in 3 days, 2 with unknown causes of death.

Ohhh horrible news!! :( I'm sorry to hear about your losses.. I really hope your luck changes QUICK and you figure out whats going on!

No, indeed 22ppm NO3 won't do that, even 35ppm won't, but I thought I would caution about 35ppm because the last thing one needs now is to start noticing the SPS letting go (35ppm is way too high for SPS, IMHO). 21ppm is definitely a lot better than 35ppm though, I would not bother with the test kits if you're using the monitor. Just have plenty of calibration fluid on hand, I find if I get unexpected readings (or readings that don't make sense), I guess over time that stuff just contaminates to slightly different nitrate levels, so I switch to a new batch of calibration (I use refill the little bottles with the big ones) and it seems to normalize.

I try to calibrate the monitor every few months when I remember.

Today's readings, I'm just including the red flag ones from yesterday;
dKH 5, dropped by 1pt
Ca 350, went up 5ppm
Nitrate 11/10 went down by 10 or 11 pts with the WC, tested with monitor
phosphates; 1st test 0.01, second test 0.17. I'm taking the second reading as valid.

I dosed for Ca yesterday, and dKH today, but I guess its not doing much so far. I am going to go ahead and do that other 25g WC tomorrow. The water change we did yesterday was about 1/8 of the total water volume.

I've never really battled nitrates before. I've read some serious accounts of some brutal battles, but I've never had one myself. I think the highest I've ever had for nitrates is about 30ppm in any tank I've had.

I'm hoping one more WC will bring phosphates and nitrates quite close to 0. With the Ca reactor online I'm hoping dKH will slowly start to rise to the 8/9 dKH I like to see. Once I start to have to top off again via my kalk. reactor I'll start to see the Ca. rise to the 400/420 mark I tend to keep my tanks at.

I'll have to check my instructions to be 100% sure, but I swear I remember reading that you're supposed to calibrate the monitor for every use. I know if I don't, I will not get steady readings from day to day.

That would be great if you could check. My monitor came second hand with no instructions.

Found them online - http://www.americanmarineusa.com/NO3monitor.html

Sort of buried near the bottom it says "Calibration is recommended before each measurement."

I'm not sure if anyone local has any, but you can MO new calibration fluid from J&L. Probably wouldn't hurt to have some extra onhand. I find the calibration fluid only lasts so long before it seems to drift. I would think that the residue of the 1ppm fluid would eventually start to pull down the 10ppm fluid. (Having said that I seem to get a few months out of each, so the stuff lasts forever anyhow.)