Fish Deaths

Question
QUESTION: My 48 gallon tank has been up since Feb. I have lost 4-5 fish. A royal gamma, Flame Hawk, Yellow mimic tang, a fairy wrasse all soon after inserting them. Now my flame angel seems sickly. All come from Aquarium Adventure and were properly acclimated. What gives?

ANSWER: I need to know everything about your tank. Not just the size.
There are hundreds of reasons they could die, and I need to narrow it down.

Parameters, filtration, water movement, all the fish in the tank, how it was cycled, what you are feeding, how EXACTLY you acclimated them, the temperature, the salt gravity, the type of water you are using, the chemicals/salt mix you are using and the inverts in your tank.

-Nick

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Fluval built in filter, charcoal pellets, in tank 2 clowns,damsel,hawk,yellow tang,dottyback.temp.76.7,marine salt mix. Feather duster,3 green mushrooms and two cleaner shrimp.Chocolate starfish.also fan circulator. appropriate chemicals with chlorine removal?

ANSWER: Is the fluval your only filtration, or do you have live rock in there as well?

and water change schedule?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Fluval and about 12 pounds of live rock. Waterchange (about 1/2) on a monthly schedule. The tank raised fish do well, the wild caught seem NOT to do so well.I use frozen food and alternate with flakes. Small amount fed daily

Answer
Tank raised fish are hardier than wild caught, the wild caught will always die first.

You need more live rock.

Live rock is what keeps a reef tank stable, stability is essential in a reef tank. Without the live rock, all the temperature, pH, and salinity changes would kill most fish very soon.
Tanks with less live rock are also harder to maintain.

I would suggest adding at least 40-50 lbs of live rock. But go very slowly. Cure the rock first, and add only a couple pounds every week or so. Adding too much all at once will recycle your tank and kill your fish.
Also, with more live rock you can ditch the fluval if you wanted too. Just make sure you have lots of flow.

You should also put a sump on there, it would aid with stability.

-Nick