legalnanoreefer Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Hello all! We're very new to the hobby (about 3 days) and have already encountered a tragedy. Get ready. So we go to our local aquarium store, buy a beautiful 6 gallon nano tank, live rock, live sand,a heater, and saltwater. We also purchased a water conditioner that instantly makes the tank ready for some fish and corals. After getting everything ready to go and testing our salinity we run to Petco (I know, I know) and purchase two damsels, a shrimp, two hermit crabs, and an anemone. Disaster strikes. We test our salinity again for fun and it's way too low so we add more of the water the store gave us, knowing when we bought the water it was perfect. So overnight the anemone dies. The heater exploded and released toxins into the water. We put all our creatures in the remaining water and rush them back to the fish store for help. (Get ready) Apparently the store had sold us R.O. water and saltwater. We thought they were both saltwater. So not only had the heater exploded, releasing toxins and causing the water to cool down, we were adding fresh water to our tank. Then we plopped all our creatures in a big ol bucket of fresh water to get them help. They got us a new heater and all new water. So a day and a half later, everything is dead besides the hermit crabs and one black and white damsel (Convict). If that wasn't bad enough our premium expensive purple live rock we bought is now just as white as the cheap stuff. I thought Convict was on his way out yesterday because he just lays at the bottom of the tank and gasps. BUT WAIT. When we turned off the light for the night he started swimming around. This morning he's back to gasping and laying. Please let me know if there's anything we can do to save little Convict. We feel terrible about loosing so many animals so quickly. Our salinity is 1.024 and the temp is 80 degrees. We know we're the absolute worst right now, but we want to get better! Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Start with actually making sure your tank has a cycled and what that process involves. There is only one product I know of that truly makes water instantly ready for fish/coral and its called Prodibio BioDigest. Do not buy an anemone until your tank has matured a minimum of 6 months (it would be best to wait longer than this). This "premium" purple rock they sold you is not really anything special and should not be something that is expensive. Coralline algae is definitely desired but my LFS has never made me pay extra for a rock with corallline algae on it. Good luck with getting everything back up after that heater exploding. Link to comment
smeagol108 Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Unfortunately no matter what you are sold, a tank cannot support that livestock initially and so quickly especially compounded with the other factors (heater/water issues). Only established tanks transferred to a new tank can support this. Best advice at this point is to keep you salinity and temperature stable, monitor biological cycle through testing, and wait for a for a cycle to complete. (0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, Some Nitrate). Do water changes as neccessary. Theres not much you can do to control whether that fish makes it or not at this point. I would also suggest checking out the beginners section and purchasing a book or two (or through internet research) learning more about maitaining a saltwater aquarium/reef tank. The only thing to happen fast in this hobby is disaster, so it is better to be meticulous and take your time with everything you do. Test every drop of water you put in your tank for temperature, salinity and ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. Link to comment
iceshade Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Start with actually making sure your tank has a cycled and what that process involves. There is only one product I know of that truly makes water instantly ready for fish/coral and its called Prodibio BioDigest. Do not buy an anemone until your tank has matured a minimum of 6 months (it would be best to wait longer than this). This "premium" purple rock they sold you is not really anything special. Coralline algae is definitely desired but my LFS has never made me pay extra for a rock with corallline algae on it. Good luck with getting everything back up after that heater exploding. 1 local lfs of mine has fiji, very nice, but then it has "colorful fiji" with more algae on it, so it's not worth buying the more expensive one? will the regular fiji develop the color too? (sorry for hijacking) Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 1 local lfs of mine has fiji, very nice, but then it has "colorful fiji" with more algae on it, so it's not worth buying the more expensive one? will the regular fiji develop the color too? (sorry for hijacking) More than likely yes it will but it can take months for it to truly develop. The only benefit buying to the "colorful" is your not having to wait for all this growth to occur. My LFS sells live rock $5/lb and they don't upcharge you when you find a piece with coralline algae (in fact they actually picked one out for me the first time I ever went there). Link to comment
legalnanoreefer Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 Thank you for all your advice! What water tests do I need to be doing at this point? The guys at the fish store said all I need is a hydrometer which sounds a bit weird considering I had more tests back in the freshwater days. Also, they said during the first week, I need to rinse out my filter daily to get rid of sand is still settling. Is fresh tap water okay for rinsing or is that just poison for the tank? It's difficult because the fish store seems extremely knowledgeable and they know we're beginners, but there also seems to be quite a bit they aren't telling us. i.e. "this bucket is freshwater and this one is saltwater" Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Thank you for all your advice! What water tests do I need to be doing at this point? The guys at the fish store said all I need is a hydrometer which sounds a bit weird considering I had more tests back in the freshwater days. Also, they said during the first week, I need to rinse out my filter daily to get rid of sand is still settling. Is fresh tap water okay for rinsing or is that just poison for the tank? It's difficult because the fish store seems extremely knowledgeable and they know we're beginners, but there also seems to be quite a bit they aren't telling us. i.e. "this bucket is freshwater and this one is saltwater" Honestly if they told you all you need is a hyrdometer I would be worried as most saltwater stores are going to recommend a refractometer anyway. You need tests for at the very least ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and if you plan on keeping corals you will need tests for dkH/calcium/magnesium/phosphates. I rinse my fiber filters in tap water and then rinse them in some saltwater before adding them back to the tank but I only clean them out once a week and replace them every 3-4 weeks. Link to comment
legalnanoreefer Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 Thank you so much. I'm assuming all of these are separate tests. I'll do more research. It's so frustrating that they're misleading us when they know what they're doing as they have dozens of tank and run a maintenance service! I'm planning on bringing them some of our water and having them do some exhaustive tests to see what's going on in there. Updates to follow. Really, thank you all so much for your advice. Link to comment
iceshade Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 The internet is the best source for the right information. Often members of forums like this know more than most LFS employees lol. Big chain pet stores maybe have 1 knowledgeable employee every so often, but most of the time they are all bobos. I am lucky in my city there are something like 5 reef shops. 3 of which are amazing and ironically the smallest which is a family owned business is hands down the best. Try to find reef shops dealing in mainly salt water fish, trust me it's a lot better. Link to comment
righttirefire Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 I know a lfs around here that is the same. You need to find the owner odds are he/she is a service/maintaince person and only in the shop a limited amount of time Link to comment
Roshan8768 Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Well that sucks. Now you can wait while your tank cycles, and then try again in a month or so Link to comment
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