what to do with the Contaminated salt water?

[fishrfreinds]

I had 2 damsel they where cycling a 55. they died of fin rot tonight. 3 days old. i want to know if i can save the water or should i just throw it out. if all out possible i would like to save it. i was going to set up a reef and it only 10 days old. and the water was in a good range. oh and i did treat it with Pimafix. and the Water was RO.

Your fish could have died not only from the fin rot, but also because the tank was not ready for fish yet. Meaning, it has not been through the cycle yet. (see below).

If you treated the tank with any kind of copper solution/medication, you can x out the chance of having a reef with out tearing the system down and discarding anything that was in contact. Rocks, substrate and anything porous cannot be reused with any guaranty of contamination in the future. The tank and pumps can be cleaned well with a very mild bleach solution and then a soak in de-chlorinated water... Then start all over again...

If it is going to remain a fish only tank, then what you have will be fine and there may be no reason to empty the tank... it is going to have to remain fallow for a while to cycle. Throw a dead shrimp in it, leave the Damsels in the LFS, and let the shrimp rot away and in a few weeks, your tank should be cycled. You should teat for Nitrite and Ammonia also, when the values of these are 0, you are ready for fish.

[fishrfreinds]

The stuff i used was reef safe and the lps has only a 2 day guranteed.
Im for sure going to do a 50% change in water i think that should do it.
right.

If the tank is only 10 days old, you have a long way to go before it is ready to put anything in it... I suggest getting a good book on saltwater aquariums and reading about the cycle period. It is a very good thing to focus on right now... I would leave the water just as it is an let it run its course. If what you mentioned was an LPS coral, see if the LFS will hold it for you until your tank is ready...

JMO

[fishrfreinds]

well i guess we all make mistakes thanks for the advice i will do as i am told. i have set up a couple fish only before waiting for 7 days before i added any fish w/o problems. ok.

[Feron]

Hey... I'm a newb to the um...hobby <cough> - addiction - <cough> too...
I've got a 90g tank sitting there doing nothing but burnin electricty cause I wanna make sure the thing can hold it, the skimmer works, the heater works, the pumps work etc..

What I am more getting at is:
This isn't an easy endeavor... no matter how easy the 'begin your saltwater tank' reads.. it's a major undertaking with a heavy/ongoing responsibility.
The livestock totally depend on you for their survival..treat your tank as you'd treat your new born child.
(I'll never have one, but I like to think of my pets as such!)

Take it all slow, don't take LFS advice as in stone and read/google ALOT before making any move.
From what I have read, cycling is all relative. Putting X # of damsels in a tank doesn't eqauate to X # of days until the tank has properly been established.
The reason those fish are there is for their fostering of your POTENTIAL ecosystem... They are there to build it by providing the foundation.
And, it might just kill a few of them in the process..
For the price of a handful of damsels you might be able to convince a local reef club to give you a few lbs of LR, get some base rock, and start your cycle that way (provided the LR is habitted enough to sustain the transition?)

and at the same time provide a future benefit to your tank..

My 2c!

<and what do I know hehe>

Read this....

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showqu...q=2&fldAuto=15

And these....

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showfaq.php?fldAuto=2
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/saltbook.php

Cheers
Steve