Based on the uneaten food I would guess you had a smaller ammonia spike that unfortunately your filtration and rays were unable to handle. I believe this would also explain why the gars were able to survive considering how ancient they are, while the (scaleless) catfish wasn't looking as good. Like Red Cichlids said what you tested was probably much higher due to the decaying fish.
With 615gph on a 180 you only have 3.4x turnover, probably less after head loss. You should try to double or triple that number and increase water changes to 50%