my first 29g saltwater tank progress. input welcome

[Zactheninja]

Your tank should be cycled in a month.

 

[RedLeggedHermit]

ya thats what i was told. so im going to be getting more fish if i see no more new problems. just tested the water. ph - 7.8 ammonia - .20 ppm (same as last time) nitrites - 0 and i am going to do a pwc on tuesday when i get paid to get rid of the nitrates. petco sells 5 gallon buckets of premixed and cycled water so im going to use that so i dont have to worry about mixing salt and stuff like that.

 

[RedLeggedHermit]

so.. over view of my sw adventure so far.
i set the tank up about a month ago. putting just the filter the heater in the tank with some live sand. let it cycle for a week and a half. (did not know they took longer at the time the fw tanks.) after the week and a half was over i went out and bought 2 medium sized live rock and two or three small. then i bought 4 redlegged hermit crabs and put them in the tank. this whole time i was testing the water daily with test strips i had bought at petco. all fish and inverts are from there by the way. after another week i bought two 4 stripped damsels, one maroon clown, one strawberry dottyback, and one condy. a couple days later my brother bought me a chocolate chip starfish as a gift. after about three days after that i realized that the test strips were not working properly. so i took a sample of water into petco for a free water test. and they said my nitrites and ammonia were a little high but still in the exceptable range. so i started having them test the water every few days. soon after that however my damsels developed a strange and as of yet still unidentified mold that seamed to bore itself into there head area as well as eat away their pectoral fins. i bought pimafix but i guess they were too far gone. took about 2 days to infect them (at least visibly) and kill them. so i kept medicating the tank after removing their bodies to kill any of it that might still be in there. not seen it since. so around the 3 and a half week mark my clown starts to hide in the rocks a lot. nothing unusual i thought. but after a day or two i find him in the middle of the tank floor dead. no tell tale marks of how he died just dead. i went and purchased a powerhead. so a few days ago i bought more live rock and put it in the tank. and bought some snails and more hermits. afterward i notice little white spots on my strawberry dottyback (just 6 or 7 spots). ick! soo taking no chances this time i went out and bought parashield. have been treating with that for this will be the 3rd treatment of a recomended 4-5 day daily treatments for infections of ick. i see one spot left on him. and i havent noticed him scratching anymore. when i bought the parashield i also bought amquel plus and ph adjusting chemicals whose names i dont remember off the top of my head. i also bought my own test kit.

so.... sorry that was alot longer then i thought. lol the water quality has settled and i am actually getting accurate readings. and thats the history of my first tank so far. if nothing else goes wrong im going to hopefully buy some new fish to join the strawberry dottyback. moral of this story is WAIT AT LEAST A MONTH before putting anything in the tank. lesson learned! hopefully my only problem from now on is deciding what to buy!l lol

 

[Keithhjs]

Also it's probably best to add your livestock slowly, one fish every week or two.

 

[RedLeggedHermit]

thanks for the advise.

 

[RedLeggedHermit]

so my condy has been acting kinda strange. it might be from the parashield im adding to the water everyday. but hes shrunk and retracted his tentacles. and theres this brownish ropy slime on the rocks hes touching. im thinking its just his way of protecting himself from the parashield? thoughts?

 

[Wendy8184]

Not sure, but be very careful what ick treatments you use....I had a 150g tank that was doing great until i decided to try to save a powder blue tang w/ ick.
Ick medicine killed all my corals and the fish died anyway. corals and anemones are very sensitive to any medications on the market. At least that's my experience.

 

[ReeferRusty]

Definitely should have waited on the livestock. This saw hobby surely is not a rushing game. My advice to you is throw the strips in the garbage. Get a master test kit for sw by API at least. Fish are added 1 at a time unless small. Your tank needs 1-1.5 lbs of live rock per gallon. These rocks meed to adjust to your bioload (fish poo and pee) over time. Hence adding livestock slowly. Don't be surprised if nitrate is through the roof. Acceptable level is 0-5ppm. Keep on 5 gallon water changes twice a week until your nitrates are 0, and your tank is keeping up. Good luck. If you need more guidance, join us in the chat room. All fish need to be in quarantine two weeks before going into display. Or you risk loosing it all. I know from personal experience.

 

[ReeferRusty]

Anemones, only belong in well established tanks over 6 months old minimum. If they are in environments that have unstable fluctuations in water quality, They WILL certainly die.

 

[DWilliams]

Anemones, only belong in well established tanks over 6 months old minimum. If they are in environments that have unstable fluctuations in water quality, They WILL certainly die.

I agree with this, you defiantly need a well established tank for any anemone. Also it's extremely rare for a clown to host a Condy anemone. It's one of the anemones out there that nothing host.

 

[RedLeggedHermit]

ive got a saddle back clown hosting it right now.