4 dead fish this morning...others in danger?

[15aleo]

I thought my tank was finally ready to add fish, but I woke up this morning to find 4 dead fish. I don't know what I did wrong.
I added 2 saddleback clownfish, 2 damselfish, 2 banggai cardinalfish, 2 blue leg hermit crabs, and a turbo snail to my tank last night after double checking the water parameters of my new tank that's cycled for about a month. I temp acclimated for an hour in the bags, and then drip acclimated for an hour. I washed my hands with SoftSoap non-scented, and I also had powder free Nitrile gloves on. I put 1 cube of Prime Reef frozen fish food in the tank, and 1 strip of seaweed salad on the side of the tank. I added a dash of API Stress Coat to help calm them. When I was watching them, they were not heavy breathing or acting distressed, no white spots on them other than their coloring. The 2 clowns and the 2 damsels were dead on the sand this morning. I don't see any torn fins or any signs of other violence, and they were all from the same tanks so the clowns were already together.

Water parameters:
Salinity 1.025
ph 7.8-8.0
ammonia 0
Nitrite 0-0.25
Nitrate 0
Temp 76.5F

My new filter just came in, but I added the filter media from the old filter that had been cycling the tank when I swapped it out.

What did I do wrong? What am I missing? Are the fish that survived in danger? The hermit crabs are busy exploring and the banggais are swimming around kinda jerkily, but that's how I've always seen them swim in other tanks. Please help

 

[Supa]

Stray voltage? Parameters look good, I run my temp at 79,

 

[GHOSTLY]

How big is the tank? As that seems like Pretty heavy stocking I would say the BIOLOAD Could not handle it

 

[landlubber]

cycled for a month or started a month ago? ghost feeding took me into 6 weeks but its certainly possible it could happen quicker.

 

[Supa]

I tried to find the tank size by looking at profile but from what I gather it’s a different tank the one in the profile seems to be set up last week or so

 

[15aleo]

Stray voltage? Parameters look good, I run my temp at 79,

My heater is titanium with a temp control, and none of the wires on the wave pump, filter, or protein skimmer are damaged.

 

[blaxsun]

Unless it’s a 2-gallon tank that’s not small enough for a half dozen small fish. Other than removing the corpses, I’d test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate again. Temperature might be a bit on the cool side (78-79 is more typical).

 

[Supa]

My heater is titanium with a temp control, and none of the wires on the wave pump, filter, or protein skimmer are damaged.

Doesn’t have to be damaged, pumps in general tend to release small amounts of stray voltage some worse then others (this may not be your problem but could be so I would just test to make sure).

 

[blaxsun]

Other than the tank size, were these new fish from an existing tank? LFS? Online supplier?

 

[Just John]

I'm sorry to hear about your fish. I assume the parameters you posted were from after the fish died, not before you put them in. Is that correct?

 

[MaxTremors]

It’s a bit concerning that your nitrates are zero. I wouldn’t expect a newish, fully cycled tank to have zero nitrates. Have you been ghost feeding your tank? We need to know more about how you cycled your tank, tank size, what kind of rock you used, and any additives you’ve added since starting your tank (everything).

 

[15aleo]

How big is the tank? As that seems like Pretty heavy stocking I would say the BIOLOAD Could not handle it

It's 30 gallon. All fish are very tiny. The damsels weren't even 1/2" long, the clowns were maybe 1".

 

[15aleo]

I'm sorry to hear about your fish. I assume the parameters you posted were from after the fish died, not before you put them in. Is that correct?

I checked before and after, and they were the same, so they're holding steady there.

 

[15aleo]

Other than the tank size, were these new fish from an existing tank? LFS? Online supplier?

They were all from PetCo

 

[15aleo]

Doesn’t have to be damaged, pumps in general tend to release small amounts of stray voltage some worse then others (this may not be your problem but could be so I would just test to make sure).

How do I test for stray voltage? Stick my hand in there and see if I get zapped?

 

[landlubber]

It’s a bit concerning that your nitrates are zero. I wouldn’t expect a newish, fully cycled tank to have zero nitrates. Have you been ghost feeding your tank? We need to know more about how you cycled your tank, tank size, what kind of rock you used, and any additives you’ve added since starting your tank (everything).

its also concerning that OP is still reading Nitrite which is completely toxic to animals and again leads to the question, was this tank even through its cycle?
none the less there are a lot of questions that aren't being addressed so i'm just going to assume user error/inexperience was the culprit.

 

[15aleo]

cycled for a month or started a month ago? ghost feeding took me into 6 weeks but its certainly possible it could happen quicker.

cycled for a month

 

[15aleo]

Unless it’s a 2-gallon tank that’s not small enough for a half dozen small fish. Other than removing the corpses, I’d test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate again. Temperature might be a bit on the cool side (78-79 is more typical).

I'll slowly raise the temp a few degrees for the other fish

 

[landlubber]

cycled for a month

ok and did you test to ensure that you had a safe "ammonia free" environment before introducing animals? unless biological bacteria were introduced early to speed up the process there may have not been enough time for a bacteria culture to develop.
adding more than a fish a month is also enough to overwhelm the biological needs. half a dozen is way too much.
stray voltage is a possibility but going from the information we have i think things just got rushed too fast for the system to support.
also, i would not raise the temp right now. it will only serve to accelerate the fishes inability to breath.

 

[Just John]

Since you can't confirm the voltage issue right now, I would do a good water change and add some ammonia remover, if you have it, just in case your test is giving the wrong results. If it's not the voltage and the fish were healthy, something is wrong with the water. In my opinion, if fish start mysteriously dying do a water change immediately and ask what caused it afterwards.