Whats going on with my tank?

My first thought is a bad test kit. I would have your params checked at your LFS and see what is going on there. Another thing could be stray voltage coming from somewhere as well. Or, maybe they fish were just sick coming from your LFS.

 

first off, Chromis are not hardy at all which is indicative of the price they go for. Even when properly acclimated, they still don't have a great survival rate. As for the nitrate, I would assume the reason why your nitrate is so high is because of the beach sand. I would strongly suggest against anyone from grabbing beach sand because of the contaminants. All sewage flows to the ocean unless you have septic tanks.

 

Thanks sticksmith for your input! I'm currently using an API test kit that I bought over a year ago so that could be the issue. I'll bring a sample of my water to my LFS as they offer free water testing and rule out whether my kit is defective or not.

Also, Hawaii got hit with a bad storm for the past 2 days and there have been a couple blackouts lasting about 5-30 long so that too might be a cause for an unexplained death to the chromis'.

Looks like I'll have to check the parameters with my LFS and go from there.

 

That sounds good. Hopefully that will explain everything for you.