Anyone know more about dying lifestock - no clear reason?
I have recently lost a significant amount of lifestock and would like advice:
About my tank:
- 200 liter tank
- skimmer
- 2 filters
- 1 fan
- light unit: 1 white, 1 blue
- Quite a lot of live rock
- 2 big corals (one of which is leather mushroom) and about 10 smaller corals
- 2 hermit crabs
- 1 cleaner shrimp
- 1 pistol shrimp
- over 7 snails
- 1 big starfish, 1 small starfish
- 2 Ocellaris Clownfish (male, female)
- 1 black clownfish (female; male died due to be being stuck behind a filter)
- 4 green Chromis
- 2 Banggai Cardinalfish
- 1 Green Mandarin Goby (not sure if alive)
- 1 Red Scooter Blenny
- 1 small sized 'mystery' crab (came in with some of the life rock)
Situation:
During the holiday season we spent about 2 weeks away from the tank. We had some issues before we had a skimmer with the nitrates building up, so we left the top of the tank off. This caused a huge chunk of water to evaporate, increasing the salinity. We've had 3 casualties, but managed to improve the water after this. Since then we've had no problems with nitrates or ammonia. The PH was low, but is up to its supposed level now as well.
Since that event, we've had some (not much) dark red sediment in the front of the tank; we were told this comes from the life rock and the organisms in there dying. We have also had a returning white spot. Every time we put a new fish in, a new wave of white spot surfaces; 2 since the holidays. We have also had our Flame angel loose its colours, gain a blurry eye, a bigger white/glossy spot on its side and die as a result of that.
Other casualties:
- 1 flame angel, losing its colors, blurry eye, damaged scales on one side (slight white spot)
- 1 male black clown fish, replacing the one that died behind the filter; no apparent reason (no white spot visible either)
- 1 cleaner wrasse; lost its colours and died 2 weeks later, gasping for air (no white spot visible)
- 1 Green Mandarin Goby (not sure if alive, not seen in a while)
Because we have no problems with nitrates or ammonia or the corals, we are not sure what causes our fish to loose their colours and die.
Anyone know what this is or what to do?