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ccblazer

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 13, 2014
Messages
27
Location
Toronto, Canada
Hi, i am new to this forum and have been reading quite a few of your topics. I started a new saltwater tank approximately 2 months ago. The tank is a 35gal bow front, fairly tall at 31" but only 28" wide. i bought 40 lbs of live rock from a local aquarium store and loaded it inot the tank. I drilled 2 back holes, one works as the return to the tank from my 10 gal. sump and the other sends the water down from my main tank. The sump has rubble rock and cheato, I have 2 small power heads aiming downward into the tank. There is a skimmer as well as a filter sock. about 3 weeks ago there was high nitrite and nitrates. About one week ago everything went to 0. Salt is middle of acceptable. There is brown algae growing on the rocks and sand.
It seems to me the cycle had completed and i was ready to go. I started with a clean up crew. Several snails, 2 emerald crabs, several blue legged crabs and some tiny white shelled hermits.
I acclimatize by putting them in the top of the tank for a while, then opening the back and slowly adding my tank water until bags are mostly full. i use a net after that to transport them to their new home. 2nd day crabs were dead, snails dead as they hit the water, all but one blue legged crab dies, I also had 2 cleaner shrimps which died within a day.
so i cleaned out all the bodies and tried a different pet store. i bought a lawnmower blenny. it is still alive 4 days later. i then tried a tomato and black clown fish. This is the second day and the black fish is still swimming around but i found the tomato clown at the top of the tank almost gasping for air. now 6 hours later it is laying at the bottom of the tank dying. I am getting so upset with these results. It is like a death tank (that's what the wife calls it anyways).
Can someone help me out.
 
I can't, but try posting in the saltwater section instead of the new member introductions and you might get more help there :)
 
Hi I'm pretty new to this too, but since no one else answered, I'll take a guess. Maybe your ph is drastically different than the water they come in. Maybe you're adding too many too quick, increasing your bio load beyond your good bacteria you grew during cycling. Did you test a couple days after adding fish?
 
Welcome to AA! I only know stuff about freshwater, so I can't help you on your tank. But as previously mentioned, if you make a thread on it in the saltwater section you will get faster help there. :)
 
Could you tell us what your water parameters are? It would be easier to try to help with a bit more insight into what's going on. Welcome, by the way, and I hope it all works out for you. Have you done a decent water change of late?

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What are your water parameters? With inverts they are sensitive to water changes so they should really be drip acclimated over long periods of time. Are you using a refractometer to measure salinity? If so, check your water and the water your stock comes in. A lot of LFS have quite low salinity. A tomato and a black clown won't get along, try and buy same species as a pair. Interesting that the tomato is the weak one they are usually more aggressive. Acclimation might be the problem here, also because your tank is so new the inverts may not have had anything to eat yet.
 
Aiming your powerheads across the top of the tank will also help with surface agitation, may be why the clown is gasping for air?
 
is your tank currently empty? You may want to test that your tank is fully cycled by adding pure ammonia and seeing how long till it is gone!
 
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