going insane

[minireefkeeper26]

About two months ago I added a bengai cardinal to my tank(didn't have a QT tank at that time, I do now!) Anyway I had a clownfish and an orchid dottyback in the tank as well. The bengai started breathing heavy and stopped eating, actually spitting the food out, then quit eating all together. He died after 3 days. Then my orchid dottyback started doing the same thing and I did a freshwater dip. I did a dip every 2 days, he died after a week. Then my clown got sick, I did freshwater dips every day per the LFS recommendations. I quit doing the freshwater dips after 5 days because he was getting too stressed. He lasted 2 weeks then died. I had the orchid and the clown for 6 months before I introduced the cardinalfish. The tank is fully cycled, perameters are fine. I waited a month or so before trying to add any fish again. I have a reef, so I did not medicate the tank. I was told by the LFS that I should wait a month or so before adding any fish again to let the disease die so to speak. I decided to add a yellowtail damsel 2 days ago, the first day he did fine, and yesterday he was fine. Today he is hiding and not eating, he is also breathing harder than normal but not really hard. What should I do? I quarantined him for 2 weeks before puting him in, so I know he was healthy before I put him in. What disease is doing this? Am I going to have to take all the rock out, corals etc, and medicate. If I medicate the tank I can't put any corals or Live rock in the tank again can I? Won't the medication stay in there forever even after adding the carbon and doing water changes after medicating? I need help I don't have a clue what to do. AHHHHHH

[pico1]

if you take everything out you can use hypo-salinity on the tank and put everything else back in and you'll be fine.

[minireefkeeper26]

Thank you for your quick response but today my yellowtail damsel died. He did not make it long in my tank. Something is in there, does anyone know if I need to treat the tank now? There are just hermits and snails in there now, and one fire shrimp. Should I take everything out and treat the tank? Or just leave it with nothing in there for a few months? I just think even if I leave the tank empty for a year and put a fish in, he will get the same thing. I am at my wits end.

[Otter]

This may be a silly question but what is the history of the tank itself? We had a FW tank once that we got second-hand... I had two complete wipes like you're describing before we figured out that someone had probably used the tank to store cleaning chemicals... no coral was in it so I don't know how plausible this is, since those guys probably would have gone faster than the fish.

[Cuba Libre]

^^^Probably not the case since he had the clownfish and dottyback for 6 months.

 

If you waited a month and that didnt work I would try 2 or 3 months and and then add a fish. Also, Pico1's suggestion could be helpful too