i think i found the problem. i was focusing on the fish and inverts and missed something obvious. my magnificent anemone was missing. found him chewed up in the pump. dont know why the testing didnt show anything wierd though. time for a new test kit im thinking. thanks for all the suggestions im hoping that was the problem. the powerheads dont seem to be disturbing the sandbed noticeably

Anemone chewed in pump, darn. Glad I went closed loop, no powerheads in my tank. I hope thats the cause. Sure is alot of fish$$$ to lose all at once

it was a painful loss but i was way overstocked though now i can work more on my corals without the fish in the way. turns out there are 4 fish left. a percula, a scooter blenny, a yellow spotted tilefish and a citron goby. hopefully they make it to the new tank

If ya had to many fish, I woulda taken some LOL. :mrgreen:

Got any pictures of your tank?

Too bad about the fish.

Bandit, important to guard your intakes even with a CL.

My guess is that your ammonia/nitrite test kits weren't showing you what was there. When the anemone died, it could have produced a good spike in those parameters.

Would fish actually be MORE sensitive to ammonia than corals? I'm thinking...yes.

I have heard that if water quality is the issue, the first thing to go is the inverts. Is this not true?

When an anemone, sea hare or something else gets sucked in, is it the ammonia or nitrites that cause the crash? Sort of thought it would have been some other toxin (and therefore not something we would normally be testing for).

You must test trace levels if you're going to be dosing!

That's a lot of trace elements you're dosing. You're LFS must be happy - ;)

While I do agree it was probably an ammonia spike from the anemone dieing, certain trace elements can be toxic in elevated levels. Others are correct: you shouldn't dose if you aren't testing for that specific thing regardless of what the bottles say.

You should have to dose half the periodic table in any event if you are doing regular water changes.