Hello, I was hoping to get some sort of answer and any help is greatly appreciated.
I set up a new tank about 7-8 months ago and cycled it for a month before adding any fish. I confirmed no ammonia or nitrite before adding any fish. I first added a small cleanup crew of a handful of snails and 3 shrimp. A week or so later I added 2 clowns, long nose hawk and a fire fish. All seemed happy and week later all fish were dead overnight. No signs of stress or anything the night before. About 2 weeks later and a water change I introduced 4 chromis as testers. Same thing. A week later 2/4 were dead with no obvious signs of distress. About 3 weeks ago the other 2 disappeared (assumed dead, never found). I added more bio media to my tank (15 Gal waterbox) and another bottle of bacteria. I let that simmer until about last week. I picked up 2 clowns and a red hawk fish. I also picked up a salifert nitrite kit. Clowns are fine but this morning I found the hawkfish dead. No signs of distress last night. I have been testing nitrite over the past week and it has been showing nitrite. I have been adding prime in hopes to remove the nitrite. Im at a loss here. No more fish until I find out why this is happening. I've been reading that some nitrite is normal? I've also seen where prime may be interacting with the copper that was used in the water from the LFS my fish came from. My Ph has also been very low at around 7.4.
Please see attached link with remaining fish under white lights.
15 Gal Waterbox
Ph-7.4
Alk:9-10
Cal:450
Mag:1450
Phos: .2
Nitrate: 3-5
Nitrite: .01-.05
I set up a new tank about 7-8 months ago and cycled it for a month before adding any fish. I confirmed no ammonia or nitrite before adding any fish. I first added a small cleanup crew of a handful of snails and 3 shrimp. A week or so later I added 2 clowns, long nose hawk and a fire fish. All seemed happy and week later all fish were dead overnight. No signs of stress or anything the night before. About 2 weeks later and a water change I introduced 4 chromis as testers. Same thing. A week later 2/4 were dead with no obvious signs of distress. About 3 weeks ago the other 2 disappeared (assumed dead, never found). I added more bio media to my tank (15 Gal waterbox) and another bottle of bacteria. I let that simmer until about last week. I picked up 2 clowns and a red hawk fish. I also picked up a salifert nitrite kit. Clowns are fine but this morning I found the hawkfish dead. No signs of distress last night. I have been testing nitrite over the past week and it has been showing nitrite. I have been adding prime in hopes to remove the nitrite. Im at a loss here. No more fish until I find out why this is happening. I've been reading that some nitrite is normal? I've also seen where prime may be interacting with the copper that was used in the water from the LFS my fish came from. My Ph has also been very low at around 7.4.
Please see attached link with remaining fish under white lights.
15 Gal Waterbox
Ph-7.4
Alk:9-10
Cal:450
Mag:1450
Phos: .2
Nitrate: 3-5
Nitrite: .01-.05