pic with tank and things i vee done so far

[fish_bay]

saturday 3 feb i got the tank brought it in washed (much i could ) the film residue of old buildup , put the dead crushed coral , didnt wash it, and bought 2 bags of live stuff, one with sand and one with crashed coral, add that mixed the instant ocean salt w water to the point that i have my salinity between 24 and 26 as i been told that i need for a coral tank,i let it run with the filters till monday when i came back from vegas and the water was clear,i went and bought a yellow-tail damsel and a small live rock to get some bacteria , following the advice the guys from ocean floor gave me , to wait bout 3 weeks to put liverock in it, on wendsday i went and bought another damsel and i check my stats on the water the guy said it looked great , didnt gave me any numbers , just showed me the color on the strips.and now i feed the both damsels , the yellowtail is eating the other one , a black with white spots, doesnt and he is getting chased all the time ,the waterr is in the upper 70 i think 76 to 78.

the dead coral i have i will get out when ill put the live rock i just add them so the damsel have somewhere to hide.


let me know what i did wrong and how can i go from here .

 

[mr_X]

That was bad advice. You don't need to torture the damsel through the cycle. You should put all rock in immediately. You also should not have used crushed coral. you are going to have a lot of maintenance with that as opposed to smaller grained sand. The live sand in bags was a waste of money.
Take the damsels back and leave the tank empty. Buy a pound to a pound and a half of live rock per gallon of tank water.
Wait 3 weeks and start testing your water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
You will need your own test kits. Those strips are very inaccurate. If the LFS is using them, I would not take their advice on anything.

 

[melosu58]

Cycle your salt tank

Try reading this article to see why you should not use livestock for cycling. It will give you better advice.

 

[CleverBs]

That was bad advice. You don't need to torture the damsel through the cycle. You should put all rock in immediately. You also should not have used crushed coral. you are going to have a lot of maintenance with that as opposed to smaller grained sand. The live sand in bags was a waste of money.
Take the damsels back and leave the tank empty. Buy a pound to a pound and a half of live rock per gallon of tank water.
Wait 3 weeks and start testing your water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
You will need your own test kits. Those strips are very inaccurate. If the LFS is using them, I would not take their advice on anything.

I agree with mr. X you need to find yourself a new fish store because if they are using strips and calling themselves a fish store is just sad...

 

[fish_bay]

ok what testing kit i should get ,can i add sand now to cover the crashed coral .how can i correct the mistakes i made

 

[Gti_Leo]

to start you could use an API or red sea man test strips, they will do the job that a normal fish only with live rock keeper will need, but if you decide to go the way of the reefer then you'll need a more accurate test for alkilinity and calcium.

you should also invest in a refractometer to test the water salinity

 

[BallinCrew10]

ok what testing kit i should get ,can i add sand now to cover the crashed coral .how can i correct the mistakes i made

The crushed coral will work its way to the top of the sand. I'd remove it and just use the sand.