Plenty of questions

[racerX]

Wow, where to start, first off i wish i would have found this before i start a SW aquarium. let me list my entire set up and you can start by telling me whats wrong. I followed the guys at the LFS and now after reading on here i feel i was lead astray.

55gal glass
emperior 400 filter (with recently removed biowheels)
3 maxi-jet 900 power heads (in every different direction)
1 prizm skimmer (hanging type)
20lbs of live sand
50lbs of play sand
35lbs of live rock
1glass heater (left over from FW)
2 hood lights with one tube per hood
each with a Coralife 20,000k super daylight 15w tubes

And I bought premixed water to start with and now I use instant ocean with RO for my water changes
water changes are 10% every other sunday
I left the tank running with nothing in it for about three weeks until I was told to get three false perculas for $58, 3 red leg hermits, and three black turbo snails.

now when your done with that, I waited about a month and tested my pH, SG, nitrite, nitrate and amonia every two days totaling about two months and two test kits. yeah they saw me coming. at this point I test on tue. thur. and sat. Then I added a dragon gobie to help circulate the sand. then about two weeks later I added six blue green chromis. about a week later I added a chocalote chip starfish. waited about two weeks and got a banggai cardinal. waited another two weeks and then added what i hoped to be the last fish and it was a coral beauty. At this point i was feeding three times a day and only enough that it could all be eating within two to three minutes and i watched to make sure everyone got something to eat. I was alternating in between New life spectrum pellets and formula one frozen food. the first two of the day the pellets and the last the frozen. everyone was eating both.

did i got wrong there? I tried to go as slow as i could but i got kinda caught up in it.

next all heck broke loose.

first my smallest clown looks like he was covered in slime as i went to classes in the morning (10:00am) when i got out of class (2:00pm) i went strait to the LFS and told the owner who is an older man and i thought he knew best. he gave me a jug of rally and a bottle of sera ectopur and told me to follow the directions and i would be fine. for a week i did. And during this the other clowns showed the same thing, and the gobie and the coral beauty got covered in white spots, despite popular belief I'm not and idiot and i knew that that was and i lost all three clowns and the coral beauty within days. I went back and told another salesmen what had happened and he talked to the guy that takes care of all of the stores tanks and then I was advised to use Paraguard and Melafix. And i did for a week and the dragon gobie died. Now that i have killed everything in my aquarium except the chromis and the crabs and snails I have bought a 10 gallon and set it up as a medivac center and a holding tank for newbies. how long do i have to wait before A) i can start to add fish back SLOWLY B) i can stop worrying about the precise few that survived?

oh and i also bought a neon gobie to help with the ich and now the guys at the LFS told me once the ich is gone hes goin to stave to dead???? why didn't they tell me that before i gave the $18 for him. is this true? i see him picking at the pellets that make it to the bottom.

And while im at it do i need to do a sand change after a certain time? cause the LFS said that i will need to buy more live sand.
And i have already located a new LFS and im goin tomorrow to check out the place and see about how long they hold there fish before sale and if they have a guarentee or not.

thank you for reading all of this but i have way to much money in this to quit now and in my mind it would be a better investment to make it work and enjoy it then just give up.

thanks,

Very long winded Shane

[MonoSebaelover]

Welcome to Aquaria Central. I would say definitely find a new local fish store. The one you are going to is just trying to make sales without any regard for the fish themselves. Here is a list of things I would do with your set-up and some advice with what went wrong:
1) Buy more live rock. You should have 1-1.5pounds per gallon.
2) I would never have more than 2 Clowns in a tank so when you try them again just by two as the male/female pair will kill the subordinate.
3) I wouldn't put a dragon goby or any kind of sand sifter in a tank under 6 months old as there is not a lot for them to sift. So if you try one again then put it in after 6 months.
4) Just know that no Corals can be kept with a CCS (Chocolate Chip Star), they are extremely predatory on reefs.
5) You never mentioned about the Bangaii, did he make it?
6) The Angels story is the same as the Dragons not ideal in a tank under 6 months old.
7) NEVER NEVER NEVER medicate your display tank. I don't know what a couple of the meds you used were but NEVER use copper. It is very good you set up a little tank. I would quarentine all new fish for 3 weeks in that tank.
8) If you want you can buy 1-2 fish now but put them in the quarentine tank for 3 weeks then reintroduce into the main tank.
9) Damsels are one of those fish that you can't kill so I wouldn't worry about them and as long as water stays fine so will the inverts.
10) They lie about the Blue Neon Goby. They will eat anything but will eat ich when fish get it (mine loves frozen Form One). It is the Cleaner Wrasses that generally won't eat anything else but the three that I have tried (still have all 3 today) are doing great and eating everything.
11) No sand change. That will just destroy bacteria. Told ya this store is just trying to make sales.
Last bit of advice, don't buy fish because a store tells you it works. I did that 9 yrs ago when I started freshwater and never did it again. Now I have some beautiful tanks due to doing my own research and taking it slow (actually most people don't find my tanks beautiful because I deal in rare and oddity fish, the ones you pay a lot for and rarely see :D). But anyway, if you have questions ask here first and you should be good to go. Anyway, hope this helps and good luck on your voyage with saltwater!

[racerX]

Ok, thanks mono
and no the cardinal didn't make it
right now I still haven't used any copper based meds
the chocalote star died too, don't know if it was cause he got to one of the dead sick fish before i got home or if he just died?
the fish that i had in there are the fish I listed as the ones i wanted and aparently the guys at the fish store sold me too quickly.
the only other one i wanted was a flame angel but i wasn't sure about two dwarf angels in such a small tank?
I found a new store that is highly recommended and I'll be goin to check it out in a few hours after my morining rounds.

The quarintine tank, I filled it with some sand out of my 55gal. and a piece of LR that was about two or three lbs. and used a water mix of about half from my tank and half RO/instant ocean mix. will that eliminate the need for me to cycle that tank? and i have a small whisper filter on that one that i don't have a cartriage in so i guess its just for circulation. Is this right?

Also if i wanted to add some more sand to my main tank is there a way to do it without clouding up the tank again or damaging the few guys that are still alive?

thanks again mono

Shane

[racerX]

Oh yeah,

One more thing, would a cleaner shrimp or maybe two help prevent a later ich outbreak?

and is my feeding habits ok?

[MonoSebaelover]

Two dwarfs in a 55 would start WW3 so that won't work. I would put carbon back in and try and get the meds out. Then let the tank sit at the current level for 3 weeks. As long as everything is live in the qt tank then it should be okay just try a hardy fish first just to be sure. Yeah, just use circulation along with weekly water changes. I would add new sand slowly and just slowly lower it through the water column (in a container) and let it gently hit the sand bed. The foods you are feeding are fine and when you get another dwarf angel, Ocean Nutrition (the company the makes Formula 1) also sells a Dwarf Angel frozen food just like F1 that should be used. I would hold off on the Cleaner Shrimp till you are sure all the meds are out of the water as almost all medications are not invert safe which probably caused the demise of the Star. Anyway, hope this answers all your questions.

[racerX]

yep that about does it,
thanks for all the help, i wish i could have got on here sooner.
I think i might start back with some clowns. are maroon any less hardy then false percs? I'll be goin to the new store later today and i hope everything is as good as the local hobbiest say it is.

I don't want to be responsible for the death of anymore fish.

thats my new mission statement.

[racerX]

should i take out the carbon filters in my penguin filter on my 55gal? or wait till i have more LR? I took the bio wheels out thats good right i should leave them out?
I told you this was plenty of questions