Complete Tank Killer if dont get help....

[illiterate]

I was stupid and got a 75 gal. aquarium from a friend,,,, needless to say i gave her 140 dollars worth of canned food for it,,,lol.. but i had went to pick the tank up and found that she has not changed the water in 2 years,,, the sides of the tank were so green with a hair like algae that a good electric razor would probably come in handy....lol.. once she started tearing down the tank, i seen hard globs of salt all over the top of the tank,,, looked like death valley took over the top of the tank and lights,,, once most of the water was drained,,, she caught 5 fish,,, a maroon / gold stripe clown, a blue devil, 2 yellow damsels, and a big purple fish with silver sides, a lil brown on his forehead... looks kinda like a bass, but has teeth,,,, sharp teen..but small.. have no idea,,,, my wife says looks like a coral beauty,, but not sure,,, anyhow,,,, once i got it home, i cleaned the tank completely,,, any tubing, rocks, items placed in tank, all the gravel is a crushed shell.. i cleaned everything,, scrubbing and rubbing,,, once i got the tank all set back up,,, using tap water,,, my wife and i got the chemical in the tank,,, well.. as of now,,, the salt is at a 1.016 / 1.017, ph is 8.0, ammonia is real high at 8.0, Nitrites at 0.5, and Nitrates at 5.0.... now i have no idea how to check specific gravity, calcium, alkalinity, or anything else,, working on that,,,
any suggestions would be helpful here too...
well...not knowing anything from the start,, i waited the alotted time to place the fish in the tank, working with the temperatre witch sticks around 76-78 degrees. i woke up this morning and found 1 yellow damsel stuck under an item in the tank.. dead... the bass wannabe is doing a dance of death... which has been for 3 weeks now since i found this site today... ive done many things wrong here after finally realizeing that I didnt know what i was doing and making my fish suffer for it,,,
is there any way to get more algae into the tank?
is there any supermarket salt i can get instead of the salt at fish stores? (hard for me to get here,,, until i can get some ordered online....
is there any household items i can use in my tank to help with the chemicals that wont hurt the fish? is there anything i can get as of live rock or live sand, or live plants of some sort to help with these levels so i dont have to keep worring about it,,, or to make a self cleaning, self growing, self taken care of tank where maybe even the fish can be taken care of, and i read at another site that this place had a step by step guide to setting up a salt water fish tank.... WHAT DO I DO NOW? How do i save what fish i didnt kill, and how do i get it up to par without much money? (I hate being unemployed)...

 

[celacanthr]

ASAP take the fish to a fish store. dont sound desperate cause most will buy em back from you otherwise.
what did you check the salt with?
calcium and alkalinity arent importent at the moment, only when you get corals will you need to know these.
salinity/specific gravity is how much salt there is in the water.
you will not be able to have any fish in your tank till it cycles-which means the ammonia rises then falls to 0 and then the nitrites rise and then fall to 0 and your nitrates begin to rise. Is there any live rock in the tank? Trust me these levels are normal but fish should definantly be taken to a local fish store ASAP.

 

[birdy]

Honestly if this is not a hobby you want to spend a significant amount of time and money on then you may be best off just selling the setup. I am not trying to be rude or harsh, just the facts, this is an expensive time consuming hobby.
It is almost a must to use a purified water source, correct salt (only salt made for aquariums will work). Good filters and weekly water changes and usually daily checks and algae cleaning on the tanks. Test kits, heaters, lighting. lots and lots of factors.
Don't get me wrong there are ways to do this hobby on a budget but you do have to have a budget.
Algae growth comes from bad lights, bad water and bad husbandry. If this is a used tank you would need to replace the light bulbs, the spectrum shifts in aquarium bulbs and makes algae grow. If you use tap water you are VERY likely to have algae problems unless your tap is really really good.
You don't "have" to use LR, I highly suggest it, but good porus baserock will act very similarly as far as a biological filter.
Go to the Library and get some books, just be sure they were published in the last 10yrs, the earlier the better.
Explain all the equipment you have on the tank, and what exactly you did to clean the tank

 

[ophiura]

WOW...this is a BAD situation. Not an uncommon one, but definitely a BAD one.
If you can, you should take any remaining fish to the store and at least have them hold them until the tank is cycled.
Basically, though the tank was in poor condition, the WORST thing to do was to clean it out like that. More than a few people have killed fish in this way.
You CAN NOT use salt from the grocery store - you MUST use salt for saltwater aquaria!!!!!!!
I would go to the fish store, have them test your water again. Perhaps pick up some ammonia neutralizer if it is indeed that high.
You may need to do a series of water changes. What sort of dechlorinator did you use?
Your specific gravity is quite low...you've already tested it (the 1.016 value).
There are several reef/marine societies in Ohio - maybe try to google these:
Central Ohio Reef Aquarists
Cincinnati reefkeepers club
Cleveland saltwater enthusiasts association
If you can find local assistance, they may be able to direct you to good stores and perhaps help take some of your livestock for awhile.

 

[illiterate]

Well, good thing is, i got the fish out already,,, talked to friend of mine,, he is taking them for awhile, his tank is already set up, but has no fish,,, he is more into just keeping all the plant life,,, I almost forgot about him,,, but he didnt take care of fish,,, of course,, i was lucky he stopped by,,, he lives about 2 hours away though,,, talk about having luck,, yes i want to keep this tank,, but stupid me,,, i know that things need to be thought out more and taken care of better,, and i dont know if it was just the excitement or the thought,,, cool,,i can do this,,, I have a plastic guage that tells me how much salt is in it,,, you put it in the water, and a lil lever like a speedomiter of a car raises to give me the reading,,, I dont like it,, want something better,,, my friend said he has alot of stuff at his house he will bring me tomorrow and show me how to do it,,,lol... thank goodness for intelligent friends.. he said he can take digital reading but prefer using the test tubes for the ph balance and all... he also said he will bring me some live rock and and something to produce more algae in the tank,,, what exactly is live rock? I mean,, he just said its a rock with live animals on it,,, if this is so, how do they ship them from stores and such without killing the animals on the rock,,,?? ok,,,talk about getting really confused,,, well, now that the fish is safe,,, he is going to come over tomorrow and help me out and get it going right,,, thank goodness for all you guys that have intelligence in these things,,,lol.. or i could have killed all my fish.... thanks anyhow guys,, and thanks for the posts....

 

[celacanthr]

well live rock life is usually full of small hitchhikers that are able to survive out of water for a while if you look at the top of this page you will see a thread with hitchhiker info on it.

 

[symon]

I inherited my tank as well, I had alot of work to do to get things looking and working right! As you , i picked it up , it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a LONG LONG time! Lots of Alge growing, I tried to be careful about how much cleaning i did, I have had fish in the past and understand the importantce of benifical bacteria! But still you have to fight the urge to clean the crap out of it! Maintaining your water lvls will be the most important, Don't worry about the alge right now, replace your bulbs ( that way you are sure thay are working properly), get a good test kit, check your salt, am,nitrite and nitrates, calcium and magnisum are good to know as well ( for corals), Most of all, You need to let folks here on the boards know, what size tank, and all the appropiate info, so thay can better understand and help! Everyone here is very happy to help you understand , but they need this info

And Really - Slow Down and take a breath, Nothing in Saltwater tanks happens fast, well except in a small tank!

Everything will take longer then you think it should, LOL but it all happens in good time