Hey fellow tankers!

[roosworld]

Ok so I am new but I have spirit!
I went back to the aquarium and tropical fish store and discussed my many replys from all you good people.Long story short they said they were right and I would soon know that they were.
I brought 20 lbs of LR and built it up in one corner.added my sunken ship wreck(Hey it was that or sponge bob) put in the clown fish a a fire angel,and a a hippo tang he called it blue with yellow tail(I had not heard of that one.)They told me that the coral and the live sand was the best new method and they have it throught tried and true tests...OK I got a deal with them that if my fish die they will replace them and give me 10 lbs more of live rock.I know that this would not help the lil guys that may die but they are adimit that they have not just sold me 1400.00 worth of stuff to sell it.I said I could wait they kept saying that there was no need the fish were hearty and the tank was done correctly I could sleep well.They also told me to put in two turbo snails and two hermit crabs.I did...So recap
1st day -set up tank in afternoon add salt ,genisis and marine buffer by 6:00 in evening.live sand by 9:00 wait
2 nd Day - 12:00 in afternoon add live rock and clown fish fire angle and tang.sea weed or algee feeder something like that also on back of tank.
7:00 2nd day they are still alive but I am nervous
Any thoughts would be helpful
Roo

 

[ty_05_f]

Wow. I hope any of your fish make it. I did cycle my tank with one yellow tail blue damsel but i felt so bad for him. He did make it and the fish is doing well but some don't. I would try and find a new lfs if I were you one that doesn't try to sell everything to you when it's not even cycled.

 

[ty_05_f]

Also you will want to monitor your ammonia and nitrites real well and make sure you do alot of waterchanges. This will also elongate your cycle but at least your fish will live.

 

[sebae0]

agreed, did you even cycle the tank? it looks like a no! its good you got a guarantee from lfs on the stuff but its probably gonna die, you need to cycle a tank first b4 adding livestock. this coulda been done just with the live rock you purchased, it usually on average takes about 4 weeks. slow down and ask questions here and we will be more than willing to help you out.
welcome to the board!

 

[javatech]

A bit late but take a look here
http://www.simplifiedreefkeeping.com/faq/faq.htm
and then pray you don't kill anything

 

[kzlen]

Im curious on how long the LFS said they would be willing to take back your dead fish? I made mistake of buying fish before I cycled my tank. My fish lived for a couple weeks before they started to die.
Killed both of them and I felt very sad about it . It was my fault , I had little Knowledge of SW. Thats when I found this site. Ive learned alot since then and still am learning thats for sure . I also will never go back to that LFS, will sell you anything and everything just to sell it .

 

[squidd]

I agree... a 24/48hr or even a 7 day guarrentee doesn't mean much it'll take a week or two to build up enough "toxins" to kill the fish...
By then they'll say "Too late, must be something else. All you need is a bottle of this..." Cha-Ching

 

[ross]

Please take your fish back! They will die if you don't. I'm surprised there haven't been more people responding to this post.

 

[dacia]

It sounds as though you came to this website and read lots of valuable information before heading to your LFS.
Why on God's green earth would you choose to ignore years of experience and trust the money-makers in the first place?
When your fish die, please start over and do things right. Hopefully your LFS will honor their guarantee, but you should hold off on the fish until after the cycle is complete.

 

[roosworld]

I got the tank and the equipment and bought the fish before I found the site.After I set it up and started reading I got alittle freaked out.I mean as someone new what are you supossed to do you go to the store ask the so called expert and then do what they say.I called the store and told them that I was bringing the fish in as per our agreement the manager (Who the agreement is with will not be back until Monday after 12:00 I can bring them in at that time only)The asst.manager said that if the tank tests are perfect what is the problem the fish are in no trouble and stop listening to the online people! Yeah right disregard many many years of actual exsperiance and listen to a 19 year old kid (no offense to any young ones here.)telling me to buy something else (He suggested more live rock to further aid in the cycle.)He said my tank has cycled I said in three days! he said tanks are really changing.LOL I will return the fish on monday and never go back.
DACIA I would not have gotten them after talking to the informed people here.
Ross I have a 2week deal to take them back but I will attempt to take them back monday with the manager.
OK so how do I fix this thing? What can I do to cycle the right way I have crushed coral down with live sand ontop of that about a inch and a half of each. 20 lbs of live rock that is just gorgous.
Any suggestions will help.I am going to the book store in a few to get my reading material.Thanks for helping and I am sure glad to have found this site.
This is why there are so many tanks for sale in the paper and why people get a bad feeling about salt talks.The stores shopuld be held alittle more accountable for things.
Roo

 

[sebae0]

good to hear that you might be able to take the fish back, secondly just let the tank go thru the cycle on its own. go slow and things will turn out much better and more satisfying for you.
the liverock will cycle it for you, also pick up a ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kit if you haven't already. the cycle is complete when your ammo, and trite are at zero for a couple of days. then you'll see the nitrates rising.

 

[karajay]

Hang in there Roo! I myself got alot of bogus info from my LFS. Thanks to coming here and doing alot of reading, I'm getting things straightened out. You will too! Stick around, keep reading and keep on asking those questions.

 

[ross]

Its a very good idea to get a book. Keep track of your ammonia until monday when you can take the fish back. Do a water change if the ammonia gets too high. Try to hold back on feeding too much because that will just cause more ammonia. And last- come here before you take the advice of you lfs people because they obviously don't know too much about sw tanks.

 

[lesleybird]

Hi, How much live sand did you add? If your fish store sells live rock that is truely fully curred, I would buy about thirty more pounds. Curred live rock has a lot of the benificial bacteria on it that can help to prevent a big amonia spike in a cycle. I set up a 25 gallon quarenteen tank with twenty plus pounds of live sand and twenty five lbs. of live rock and put a fish in the same day and added another fish a week later. I also had a hang on filter on it with a biowheel wet/dry type filter. I added a lot of bottled bacteria called "Cycle" and did 20 percent water changes every 4 days or so for the first few weeks. My amonia never went above zero, nitrite never went above zero. It can be done, but it is expensive to buy a large amount of live rock, live sand and bottled bacteria to keep the amonia and nitrites from spiking in the first few weeks. I believe it can be done especially if you feed very sparingly as I have done it. I would not reccommend doing this though as it is so expensive, and those extra water changes are a pain. Good luck, Lesley

 

[liz50138]

First of all, you don't need sand AND crushed coral. Eventually the sand will settle on the bottom and the coral on top. Now it is virtually impossible to clean the sand bed.
Second you'll need about 55 lbs of live rock, but you don't need to buy it all at the same time. And you don't actually NEED that much, it's just ideal. You can also add base rock, which is cheaper than live rock, and the live rock you have now will seed the base rock and make it live.
I would take back your fish, which i assume you've already done or are getting ready to since it's Monday. Wait until your tank is fully cycled (about a month, give or take a week) Then add one fish. You won't be able to add more than one because you tank isn't used to that big of a bio load yet. In about a month, it'll be used to it's new bioload, and then you can add your second fish.
I'm not sure if your fish store sold you a yellow-tail damsel or a blue hippo tang. If it has a black horizontal stripe on it's back, it's a hippo, other wise it's a damsel. Tangs need much more room than a 55 gal tank. It's a heated debate about how much room a tang needs, but most say about 90 gal is the minimum. After you take all your fish back and have your tank fully cycled, you'd be ok to add the clown fish, definately not a blue hippo tang, or any other tang, and i'm not sure about the fire fish. Don't know much about that one. (preferbly not from the same fish store but that is up to you.)
Hoep all goes well for you and keep us updated!