damn fish keep dying!
 

hey guys , i cant seem to keep any fish in my tank alive i am only using little chromis or damsels right now , but for some reason they keep dying off almost immediately upon entering my tank ie withing 15-45 min. i am not sure why , my params are all pretty good , sg, is 1.025, ammonia is 0, nitrate 0 and nitrite0 ph is a little high at 8.6. the fish seem to be breathing really fast so i am not sure if my water needs to be better oxygenated, is there a simple way of doing this? this is becoming really distressing

steve
tank is a 10 gallon btw

fish dying
 

Are you taking time to acclimate them or are you just dumping them in?

Ditto Jaws Q. Sounds like possibly pH shock.

No voltage leaking from any appliances in the water? (You ought to notice it when you touch the water, though, if the fish are dying that quickly)
Anything in the tank that isn't live rock, NEW crushed coral/sand, and equipment?
And are you sure of the test results (especially pH)? Does your pH test read higher than 8.6 (ie. the roof isn't 8.6 so your pH is actually between 8.6 and 14)? Do you trust all of your other test kits?

What's your temperature? If oxygen is your concern try dropping the water to 76-77ish as that will allow more oxygen into the water.

Adidas and I have been having the same problem with our tank. We only have a small 10gallon setup right now cuz of the landlords, but we noticed that the one small fish he had in there was breathing really heavy, and the snails and crabs are dropping like flies. none of the tests came back irregular til just the other day, when the amonia was spiked at 8.

I would consider double-checking your meters/test kit against someone else's.

most of my test kits i believe are pretty accurate , i acclimate my fish for several hrs , so it isnt that , they seem fine during the acclimation, but when they enter the big system they just k.o.. all my other params seem to be fine , other then a little high in the ph. is there an oxygen deficency issue here , the water temp is at 80.2. i know my ammonia is at zero as i have checked it with 3 diffent test kits. is there a way to introduce oxygen into the tank?

Are you using RO/DI water? Is there anything that could have contaminated your tank that you can't test for (i.e. heavy metals)?

i am not using r/o water but i dont think it is contaminated... i suppose i could change it all over to r/o water but i dont want to buy a unit, is there anywhere in the lower mainland that sells it?

For a 10 Gallon i would just buy it at the grocery store. That's what I do with my 30 Gallon, only cost 2.99 to fill a 5 Gallon Jug. You could do a 100% water change for 6$. The water cooler jugs to buy are about 10$ usually.