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AprilFaith

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jun 27, 2013
Messages
2
I am new to the hobby of salt water aquariums. My daughter took a marine biology class and begged me to get a tank. She told me it was easy. She told me she would handle everything. Although my daughter does handle some aspects of the tank...I'm the one reading, researching and realizing that I'm in WAY over my head.

So here I am...signing up and praying for help in how to do this the right way.

We began by buying a salt water tank off of an online classified ad. The previous owner said he didn't have time to take care of it...this should have been my first hint that I was getting in over my head.

We added 2 maroon clowns, 1 tang, 2 cardinals, 1 coral beauty angel and 1 purple sea anemone (conti??) When one clown died, we replaced it with one royal gramma and a long tentacle sea anemone. Unfortunately, our fish died one by one due to ick. Me and my daughter were devastated. She cried a lot as she felt responsible.

After losing all of our fish, we decided to take our time and figure out how to do this the right way.

The first thing we learned...the people at the fish store lied to us. We always explained our tank, our lack of knowledge and believed everything we bought would do fine...we were told we were safe with our purchases.

We have cleaned the red bacteria that was on the glass. We currently have a small forest of aiptasia on our live rock, most are about an inch tall. We have not added fish for the past month as we are a little scared to hurt any more fish.

I do not know a lot about salt water aquariums but I hope to be able to learn enough to be able to keep a salt water tank with happy and healthy fish.
 
Wow. I am sorry that you were steered soo wrongly by your LFS. It always makes me feel really lucky that I have access to the stores in my area.

Do everyone a favor and never go to that lfs again :)
 
I am new to the hobby of salt water aquariums. My daughter took a marine biology class and begged me to get a tank. She told me it was easy. She told me she would handle everything. Although my daughter does handle some aspects of the tank...I'm the one reading, researching and realizing that I'm in WAY over my head.

So here I am...signing up and praying for help in how to do this the right way.

We began by buying a salt water tank off of an online classified ad. The previous owner said he didn't have time to take care of it...this should have been my first hint that I was getting in over my head.

We added 2 maroon clowns, 1 tang, 2 cardinals, 1 coral beauty angel and 1 purple sea anemone (conti??) When one clown died, we replaced it with one royal gramma and a long tentacle sea anemone. Unfortunately, our fish died one by one due to ick. Me and my daughter were devastated. She cried a lot as she felt responsible.

After losing all of our fish, we decided to take our time and figure out how to do this the right way.

The first thing we learned...the people at the fish store lied to us. We always explained our tank, our lack of knowledge and believed everything we bought would do fine...we were told we were safe with our purchases.

We have cleaned the red bacteria that was on the glass. We currently have a small forest of aiptasia on our live rock, most are about an inch tall. We have not added fish for the past month as we are a little scared to hurt any more fish.

I do not know a lot about salt water aquariums but I hope to be able to learn enough to be able to keep a salt water tank with happy and healthy fish.

Posted this at a bad hour I'm just learning about salt water tanks but you need an ro/di system to make tank water especially with corals I can link you to one that's only 200 in the morning . Also you probably should cycle your tank first letting bacteria build in the tank filter so it can break down harmful chemicals. With fresh water ich I've been told to raise the tank temp 2*f everyday untill you hit around 86 and it goes away. Not sure how that works In a saltwater tank but I will step back and let an expert help.

Also starting freshwater is always the best way to go 10x easier I've been at it for over 2 months and an saving up for a sw tank but an realizing rhe challenges . :/
 
Posted this at a bad hour I'm just learning about salt water tanks but you need an ro/di system to make tank water especially with corals I can link you to one that's only 200 in the morning . Also you probably should cycle your tank first letting bacteria build in the tank filter so it can break down harmful chemicals. With fresh water ich I've been told to raise the tank temp 2*f everyday untill you hit around 86 and it goes away. Not sure how that works In a saltwater tank but I will step back and let an expert help.

Also starting freshwater is always the best way to go 10x easier I've been at it for over 2 months and an saving up for a sw tank but an realizing rhe challenges . :/

For long term success with a reef tank you should definitely look into a ro/di unit. That being said it isn't necessary. There are tons of people that use tap water and as long as your tap water is a good quality (no nitrates/phosphates low metal content) it should be fine to use for a while.


Marine ich is a 100% different beast than freshwater ich. The only way to treat it is to let your display tank go fallow (fishless) for a minimum of 8 weeks while treating your fish in a different tank.
 
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