reaally need help badly!!

[randyboy]

hy everyone.. i found this forum very wonderful and i know it will help me a lot... thnk god for this site...im just a beginner for a marine fish hobbyist.. i started my 90 gal tank last august, i have 2 submersible pump, i protein skimmer (turbo skimmer). and i bought a salt mix solution to complete my set up. after 10 days, i bought clownfish, couple of damsel, dogfish and blue coran.. but when days gone by they started to die. now i dont have any fish left,... it left me with anger and sadness of losing them.. my tank now is empty but i wont give up and i will start all over again.. start from scratch.. im just looking for the right way of setting up my aquarium.. can someone pls help me and guide me step by step so i can understand easily and have my dream marine aquarium. i only want a fish only aquarium.. pls help on what i must need and how.. thnx a lot...

[fishbooger]

I don't know anything about saltwater. If I were to start a salt tank; however, i would check at least 3 different sites on how to start it, including this site, and ask my local pet store (who has a salt water "show" tank) on how they mantain it/started it. Hopefully it will be just one person. Good luck

[BigDesert]

Randy -- Did you check your salt levels? What are they at? When you add more water to the tank from evaporation, do you add saltwater, or freshwater?

did you check your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels? Where are they at?

Perhaps you've added to much fish, to fast? new tank syndrome?

Don

[tjigger]

Randy -- Did you check your salt levels? What are they at? When you add more water to the tank from evaporation, do you add saltwater, or freshwater?

did you check your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels? Where are they at?

Perhaps you've added to much fish, to fast? new tank syndrome?

Don

BigD is right, I sounds like you didn't let the tank finish its cycle before adding fish, It usually takes a few mths before the water is ready .

[randyboy]

no.. i didnt check the amonia, nitrite and nitrate levels .. only the saltiness of water,, and its a bit salty.. how can i check these parameters? pls help me on the step by step procedure of setiing up sltwater tank... thank u .....

[Ken S]

Randy i lost a few freshwater before. I decided to drain my tanks for a few years.
Then i did a lot of research and started my first salt tank.
This is a great web site. theres a lot of great people here. I also found good info in some recomeded books at my local fish store.

good luck

[Triton]

Randy -

You need to buy a test kit for the aquaium, you should be able to purchase one online from AP's or your LFS. Now, the specific gravity in your tank should be around 1.024. Anywhere between 1.021 and 1.026 can be considered acceptible for a marine aquarium. Now, the important thing here is to not allow this to fluctuate too much. You need to keep in mind that when water evaporates from your tank, the salt does not and therefore, when replacing small amounts to top of the tank you should use fresh water that has been treated to remove the chlorine and any other chemicals that might be in it. I suggest using RO water from the store.

Keep in mind what when you do water changes (Which should be bi weekly about 15 % of your water) you will need to try and get the SG of your replacement water as close to that in your tank as possible. As for the other levels on your tank, Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites etc, these need to be almost zero on all accounts. Your going to have spikes in these when setting up a new tank. That is just a fact of life, but knowing that you need to wait out these cycles until you add your live stock is another fact ;). Also, it seems to me that you tried to add too much at once. You need to remember that the bacteria in your tank is what helps keep the nirate and nitrites in check. If you add too many fish at once, this overwhelms the bio load of the bacteria. So, add one fish at a time every few weeks until you are stocked to capacity.

Also, I did not see in your article what type of filtration system you are using? The pumps and the skimmer are not enough in and of themselves. You need some kind of filter that will clean the water and remove debirs etc from it. You have a lot of options here, wet-dry, canister, hang on, etc. They all have pros and cons so you should look into them and deicde which will work best for your system and needs.

Also, make sure you get one that is adequate for the size of your tank. It should be enough to turn the tank over several times in an hour. by that I mean say your tank is 50 gallons - you want a filter that can turn the tank over (in my opinion atleast) 3 times in an hour, so a filter capable of a 150 gph output. Make sense?

Well I think that is all for this sermon lol. Good luck! And the most important thing to remember in the Marine hobby is that patience pays!

[tjigger]

Good advise by Triton, i'm glad someone is taking up my slack since i've been busy lately.

[Triton]

Glad to help now that I am back Tjigger :)