Help! The fishies are dieing!

Help!!!! We keep losing fish! Apologies up front for the long post -
We can't seem to keep any new fish alive for more than a few days.

Our current readings are:
PO4 - 0, NH4 - 0, NO2 - 0, NO3 - 0, pH - 8.4, Alk - 7, Ca - 380, salinity - 1.026, temp - 77.9

What I don't understand is that our corals are doing fine. We have lost 2 Coral Beauties (1 lasted about a week), 5 Chromis (they lasted about a week), 2 yellow tangs (1 in less than 24 hours, 1 in less than 48 hours), 1 mandarin (lasted 3 months). All this in the last 5-6 months (the tangs within the last 2 weeks).

Our current inhabitants are 2 clowns (that we've had for over 1 year), a clam, a fairly new lawnmower blinny (really skinny) and an urchin (that's growing like a weed).

We do have an outbreak of green hair algae, but I don't think that would make such a difference. We've increased our water changes from 15% once a month to 15% every 10 days.

Any ideas why most of our fish are dieing?

TIA,
julie

 

Any symptoms would be helpful for an attempt at a suggestion.

 

ya and ur mandarin starved to death you didnt have enough pods to keep him alive the others were probubly from stress maybe try acclimating them for long periods of time

 

Thanks for the input. They basically had no symptoms - seemed fine one day, dead the next. I added pods to the aquarium about once per month....

 

I agree that symptoms would be helpful. But a few initial thoughts, any stray electricity in the tank? Did you get all fish from the same LFS?

The blenny should start taking care of the hair algae and fatten up.

If the tank has been set up for over a year, you should have had enough pods for the mandarin. But I think they can be hit or miss.

 

It could be a # of things. Are your fish being harassed? How are you acclimating? I dont buy fish from 1 LFS anymore because they would die within 2 days every time. I started buying elsewhere and no more problems. just my experiences.

 

We have a grounding rod (?) in the tank.

Yes, we did get the fish from the same LFS - but some he had for a few weeks.

Mandarin was doing fine until a week ago.

 

Using any chemicals near the tank or have lotiony, soapy hands going in?

 

the only other thing I can think of is something may be getting in your tank. Window cleaner, soap, stray voltage, something off your hands.

 

Looks like your params are pretty good for fish, and you do have a grounding probe so that would eliminate electricity. I would be more concerned with the ones that died in a very short time. If the LFS had the fish for some time, is it possible that it could be an acclimation issue? Maybe try a different LFS and see if you have better luck.

Did the mandarin eat frozen food?

+1 for pesticides or spraying something around the tank