Mysterious deaths

[Guggey]

I have a 125 gallon tank with 100lbs of live rock. the tank has been running for almost 2 months now my ammonia and nitrite lvls are 0 and i cant seem to get my nitrate to drop below 30ppm. I do regular water changes with oceanic seasalt mix. I also add the supplements follow doseing instructons. I have not yet tested their lvls yet. i have 2 36" 195watt power compacts with acentic and 10000k temp usually ranges between 78-80 through the day and night

Now to the problem.. I have 5 green chromis, 1citrus clown goby, 1 sailfin blenny, 1 maroon clown, 1purple fire fish, sandsifting star, 1 feather duster, 5 hairy mushrooms and 2 bubble anenomes. I had a banded coral shrimp that mysteriously died earlier in the week. when i had purchased it at the store it appeared to have a slight bluish tint which i assumed was iodine dificencies which soon faded a few days in my tank. when i removed it from the tank it appeared in good pyshical condition. Also the hairy mushrooms 1 is expelling its insides (stringy material).. 1 of my aneomes is doing great while the other seems to be fading.. i had to remove it from a hiding spot underneath a rock which i assumed was causing its current state..however its condition has been declining over the past few days...
Any help or sugesstions would be appreciated..

[m3rcury]

1) are you using Ro/DI water or tap water?
2) how much flow do you have?
3) have you checked the nitrate level of whatever water you add?
4) what are your phosphates?
5) what is your pH?

this sounds like a water quality issue. the above questions will help others suggest answers.

[Guggey]

Im using tap water and i have 2 power heads 145gph and270 gph. I also have a canister filter, protien skimmer and pengiun 350 & 200. Ph is about 8.3. I dont have a test for phosphates..Just tested the tap water 15ppm Nitrate

[papagimp]

Tap water at 15ppm should indicate not to use it. I'd go with RO/DI or buy DI or SW from a LFS. It may be just me but the flow seems a tad on the low side. Oh, and get a phosphate test!

[Guggey]

Went to the store........ Tank phosphates are at 2.0 i purchased some phopx dont know how well it works... also calcium is at 800ppm

[papagimp]

800? wow, what's the alk running?

[Guggey]

alk around 300ppm

[theatrus]

300ppm alk is 16.8 dKH. Very very hard. Natural sea water is 8dKH in general (though tanks with stony corals sometimes run 10-11dKH).

What are you supplementing the Oceanic salt with? Oceanic is known to be low in Alk and high in Ca. I'd stop adding anything, and do water changes to bring the tank levels down slowly.

If your source water is 15ppm nitrates, you'll never go under 15ppm in your tank.

[Guggey]

I use Kent- Calcium, Iodine, Stront moly, Coralvite...
Amquel+ to control Nitrate

[Shagsbeard]

You've simply got to do two things:

1) get better water.
2) stop adding suppliments to your tank.

You really should do:
3) phase out the cansiter filter... you don't need one.
4) get about 50 lbs of additional live rock. This is your best filter and you have too little of it.
5) next time you start an aquarium, don't stock nearly as quickly as you did this one. That many fish for a two month old tank with problems is really asking for it.

[Guggey]

Ill start buying water from LFS...I slowly introduced inhabitants monitoring ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and used stress zyme never saw huge spikes.. no deaths until last week my above problem.

[Guggey]

used a dropper dkh test and its is around 9dkh 161ppm KH
probably hint not to use strips

[papagimp]

you really don't need those supplements yet. I'd avoid dosing stontium or magnesium unless you have to. Most if not all the minerals and elements in the water are related one way or another, so if you get one out of wack, it throws something else out. The two biggies are your Alk and Ca. the Strontium should be taken care of by doing w/c regularly. Iodine is good for shrimps and crabs when they molt, not sure what other purpose it would serve that you'd want to dose it. The coral vite isn't too bad, I've used that before, it's a nice supplement if you have lots of filter feeders. I've never gotten amquel + to do crap for my nitrates, If memory serves, it'll detoxify ammonia and nitrate, but it won't get rid of them. I started out originally dosing almost the same stuff you listed but found out later that I didn't need any of it. Now my tank is full of corals and other fun livestock and I still don't need to dose much of anything. Ca every once in a while, alk couple times a week, that's bout it.