I'm really struggling with something going on with my tank that I haven't seen in the 25 years of having tanks. So first of all my skimmer was broke and I was dealing with the warranty to get it fixed for like 3 weeks without one. Everyone has been fine and last Sunday I noticed my Tiger Jawfish acting weird and out in the open. Monday I get home from work and my jawfish is dead, 3 coral catfish dead, and my Imperator Angel is laying on her side gasping and my Flagfin and Tangs are all breathing super hard.
I didn't know what to do so I added a lot of Prime thinking maybe it was ammonia for some reason and within a few hours they were acting better even my imperator made it. Tuesday I get home and my Imperator and Flagfin are dead and same thing everyone looks okay except they are breathing really hard. This tank has been going since January, haven't added anything new in a couple months. The other fish are all breathing hard I use Prime again and they seem better. Wednesday I finally get the parts to fix my skimmer get it running again, basically during the rest of the week I lost a yellow tang, swallowtail, coral beauty, 10 fish in total.
All my coral seems to be okay, anemones, shrimp, snails, starfish all invertebrates seem okay! I test and Ammonia/Nitrite are 0 my Nitrate was like between 5-10ppm (not best for coral but fine for fish) and my PH is at 8.2. I get the skimmer going Wednesday night thinking that will help things but it doesn't. Friday night I do about a 40% water change and they immediately seem like they are breathing better. Saturday they seem okay then Sunday I get up and they are breathing really hard again and my Scopas Tang is laying on its side. I change out my reactor and put all new high grade carbon in it thinking there is some foreign substance. I run into Vet Pets cause its close to my house they retest everything and get same results. I get two poly pads and add to my sump and I also add more Prime. By Sunday night my Scopas looks better.
Monday everyone seems okay, all eating, tonight I get home and my scopas is dying on side again and it seems like my other fish are still breathing harder than they should. My tank is two 180G cylinder tanks that are one system with about a 120G sump. I'm so dumbfounded on what's going on and I don't even know what to do and I can't understand what the Prime is doing unless it's just the slime coat that's helping? Do you have any ideas??? I haven't done anything around the tank no chemicals used in house nothing I can think of...soo frustrating!
Sorry for this long post on this section...Brian