okay I'll start there, will this help with the ph issue?

The best way I found with reefs is just let them be on routine and dont mess around with them.
I would get your salt level down.

hold on before you go lowering the salinity.....two different ways to measure salinity......forget now exactly what they are called:redface:, but one measures out to 1.025ish and the other measures out to 35......

as for the ph.....dont worry about it too much.....a lot of time messing with it creates more issues (because of the swing) than if it is a little low or a little high but stable......

Good point. I never look at that side of my refractometer.
How are you measuring your salinity?

.35 and 1.35 are the same according to my refractometer
I changed it out a bit to 1.25
I won't mess with them anymore Ive done what I can and this hobby is starting to worry me

Lol. Just remember Keep It Stupid Simple.(kiss)
With my biocube all I do is small weekly water changes. And clean the skimmer once a week.

thats all I wanted and than things started going wrong...
my poor fish are now hanging out at the bottom of the tank rocking back and forth...

if i were to take a guess your having troubles because the tank needs time to stabilize its not the same as cycling even a tank thats fully cycled will go through swings of different things from algae to parameter swings in its first year. even when using already cured rock the tank needs time to stabilize, then you can add livestock.when adding the first livestock its important to do it very slowly , add one small fish or invert and let the tank catch up with the newly aquired "bio load" after some more maturing time goes by and the tank is still doing well( which it will ) you can consider adding more fish( but slowly) the longer your tank matures without over working the bacteria the healthier it will be and alot less frustrations you will have.

what are you using in the bc for water flow???

if your tank is testing for 0 amonia i would think your fish died for other reasons, how did you go about adding them to your tank??? did you acclimate them to your tanks temp??

the less you do with your tank right now the better, its a hard tip to follow but just do your water changes, 10% average weekly, get testing for alkalinity,calcium and magnesium, nitrate and phosphate. keep the tank clean and give it time to age as it ages it becomes stronger and can handle alot of pollution:P

make sure your tank has ample flow, the temp stays consistent,salinity is consistent,water changes are regular and with some patience you will have a stable tank in a couple weeks and within a year you will have an established system capable of growing what you like and keeping what you can:):)

get your other powerhead in the tank and running, and aim it slightly towards the top of the water so that the water just ripples. i think you may have a problem with oxygen for the fish

dont add anymore medicins to the tank untill everything comes back to normal adding things to an unstable tank is a whole new problem that you dont need:):)



**** edit****


dont add anything to the tank right now for a bit thats not ran on your reef aquarium on a normal basis.

no buffers
no meds
no dosing

if you like you can run carbon and is a good idea:)


right now just test and do water changes it will stabilize on its own in no time in a 30g