Sorry to hear of the setback Dez. When I posted like an idiot about how cool damsels are I think I had my reply window open a while and your post wasn't there yet so I had no idea.

I don't know enough to help you out but good luck I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of this. If anything a few big water changes might help get rid of something you can't test for that MAYBE leached...

Brett,

It is the most frustrating thing ever and the guys here at Marine Aquaria have been awesome. They took the damsels in and I ran 1 lb of carbon for a few days and I actually have my skimmer up and running. Then they gave me an even bigger damsel that has been in their sump forever cause no one wants the fish and they can't seem to kill it.

I took it home (this was a couple of days ago) acclimated the fish and checked on him in one hour. Seemed okay. Then to go clean up my kid's toys, then came back downstairs to check and the fish was dead! 2 hours! Completely dead, no red gills or anything, just dead.

Today, after a couple more days of carbon and skimming, the guys at Marine aquaria give me this huge fish that a customer brought in to test my water again. I put him in my tank and he seems fine, but then after a couple of hours, the fish has laboured breathing. I knew he was not doing well so I put him back in the original water he came in and half of my water cause the original water got cold. After a little bit, the fish stopped having laboured breathing.

So what I'm going to do is to drain my 40 gallon frag/tank. Isolate it from the system. Mix new salt with R/O DI water. Then I'm going to Marine Aquaria and they'll give me a damsel - theoretically at this point the fish should be fine - fresh new water. If the fish is not fine, then I know it's a crappy batch of salt. If the fish is fine, then I'm going to move a bunch of my rock into the tank to see if it's the rock leaching stuff into the tank. If it's fine, then I know I have to change all my water out or something. If the fish is not fine, then I know that there's something leaching from that 5 year old rock. Then I gotta get rid of the rock.

Here's wierd thing as well. The colt coral frag in my tank has been doing well during this whole time. Good polyp extension and everything. What kills fish but not coral? And what kills it so fast?

Could it be the sponge that grew on the rock while it was in the dark for 4 years? Now it's beginning to die off (only the parts that are exposed to the light). I scrubbed as much of the sponge off today to maybe try to eliminate another variable.

Argh....time to pack the bag in on this hobby....life was much simpler the last 4 1/2 years without a tank.

not sure of the effect on fish of high alk but have you've been able to get it down?

dead sponges= bad
im quite shure dieing sponge could be a issue, i have no idea if its causing your problem though, have you tested amonia/nitrite? not shure if they release anything toxic

Parameters are all pretty much stilll the same. The dkh went down a bit though

Temp 78
Salinity 1.024
ph - 8.3
Calcium 440
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5ppm
dkh - 15
Phosphat 0 - 0.25

These are all within limits of keeping fish. Must be an unknown toxin. My colt coral frag from my nano is still doing amazing with great polyp extension.

Tonight I drained the 40 gallon frag tank and I started the RO/DI fill of it. So I will have to wait a day before it's full and then I'll salt it and try to figure out which variables cause the fish to die/breath hard.

Anybody wanna buy a tank? argh

must be the salt
 

Hi Dez,

I've been following your thread; you've done a great job. What I think would be causing it is the salt that was put away for years. My guess would be that some of the minerals chelated or something crazy and are now in the water, killing fish. Think heavy metals.

I'd do a massive/emergency water change, followed by another (dilution is an itch), and one more for good measure. Then try a damsel...

I am fighting cyano (still ayoung nano), so I hear some of your frustration.

all the best

Here's the thing though....the 5 year old salt was new and still sealed. Do you think the salt has a shelf life? Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out. The fish store maybe thinks it might the be 5 year old rock that was 'cooking' leaching something out. We'll see in a few days I'm sure. Thanks for the comments. PS, do you like the aragocrete that I made as my closed loop intake (remember I came to your place and picked up that cement?)

Worst case you replace the rocks and salt Dez! Sucks but that'd be a garantee! I need to see this one mature please power through!

Ha ha, do you mean worst case remortgage my house? That'd be another $2000 in stuff. I probably spent that in electricity trying to keep that stupid rock alive. Should have dried it out....but who knew it would take 4 1/2 years to get the tank up.

Well....I've even stopped really updating this thread. I should put up pictures of the skimmer running at least to show some progress when I get home.

Thanks for the encouragement Brett (to spend more money that is).

You can't stop now; it will be worth it when you figure it out!
(plus this is my favorite tank journal 'selfish :redface:')

I would be worried about the salt as wells and I have no actual scientific facts for this but just a feeling. I know you'll figure it out and the guys at Marine Aquaria are awesome keep the faith it WILL get better!