advice please

[st0wn3d]

Hi, im new to this board, i was pointed this way by a friend... Anyways.. I have a 48ga tank that I just converted from brackish. I converted the tank by removing water and disolving more salt in the water outside the tank then slowly adding it back to the tank. This all went well until the very end, once i got over 1.020 on the hydrometer, my water quality dwindled and went to **** . Now i have high nitrite levels and i cant seem to get them to go down. I added 40 lbs of very nice LR that was curing in a friends tank for 5 yrs. My substrate is sand, not LS or aragonite, jsut some sand i found at the LFS that said it was suitable for fresh and saltwater. My filtration is just a Fluval 304. My question is what should i buy next? I dont have a bottomless wallet either. I wanted to buy power compact lighting next, but my real concern is the water quality. Oh yea i forgot to mention that i have 2 spotted puffers and 2 snowflake eels in there that seem to be doing fine (they were in my brackish tank and i was told they could take marine salinity levels). I also read on here somewhere that LS will cycle the tank in 4 days, is this true? So any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
St0wn

 

[underthesea]

You need to get those fish out of the tank that is way to much for that size of tank. Even using LR and Ls it still takes time to cycle a tank Mine took me about a month using lr and ls. During that time I had two blue devel damsels in the tank and that was in a 150 gallon tank. When you do salt water you want to go slow other wise it is going to cost you alot of money.

 

[st0wn3d]

Its been 2 weeks already since i got to 1.023 on the hydrometer... I just need some help of what to add, my sand is only about 2 inches deep, should i add some LS or aragonite? or a powerhead or more LR? I have nowhere to put the fish, they are all acting normal tho, they eat like crazy, they seem to be doing fine... I was told by the LFS dude to add 4x the reccomended dose of cycle every 2 days, will this help?
St0wn

 

[kris]

With the fish (and eels) you've got- which yes is too much for your tank-but that's beside the point I'm surprised you didn't have water quality issues before. Keep adding the cycle and frequent water changes to keep up with the heavy load you're putting on the system. If you are trying to save money skip the lighting and spend that money on additional filtration. I hope your not planning on adding much more to this tank or you'll find yourself doing daily water changes to keep up regardless of filtration. I think your bottom should be fine.
Good Luck

 

[hunterdaddy]

Hehe I love how people say too much for your tank.
How long have you had the tank again?? All four fish in there??
Sounds like they did fine to me.