Fish Death continues.... Any solutions....

[ponokareefer]

I think Myka hit the nail on the head with the specific reasons for most of the deaths, and ingrhaul has some great advise as well. 5 months in essentially a "new" system is still pretty young and the bacteria may not have had a chance to fully develop to handle the bio-load appropriately. Even if using the old system water, rock, sand, etc, the new set up will still take quite a while to establish a balance.
As for the mandarin, I got a mated pair from someone that was eating prepared foods for quite some time, but the male just stopped once it hit my tank. The female is still doing well though.

what you really need to do is some reading before you buy any fish you have to know what fish eat what you do not want too many fish competing for the same food all the time one or the other will die sooner or latter. Stay away from the hard to keep fish for now your system is too young for them. Most corals are heartier than fish they can stand to be out of water for hours at a time fish can not. corals can be cut into peaces and survive fish can not, do I have to go on. Just slow down and buy some nice fish like a flame angle they are a nice hardy fish. A lot of the flame angles are reef safe till they mature to adults and then its a 50/50 game... You can cut the chances of them turning by feeding them a bit more than the other fish by training them to come to a spot first and then give then some of the food and then feed the rest in a different area of the tank..

bill