HELP! my first marine tank, and im having trouble!

sco0011

Reefing newb
I recently purchased a 150 litre fishtank as i have been wanting to set up a marine tank for a while. Friends of mine have one and they explained to me the process of setting it up etc so i thought i would take the plunge and buy one.

So i purchased as i said a 150 litre tank (3ft) as well as an "aqua one" external filter, which has skimmer attached aswell as the thing that sits on top made of plastic and when the water bubbles the bubbles go into the plastic bit to empty...not sure what its called
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. anyway i have had this tank for 7 weeks now and am having some serious trouble. I purchased 10 kilos of live rock as im told that they help with the initial cycling of the tank. so i set it up and got the salt levels all right and allowed it to run for 2 weeks before decided perhaps i should put a fish in? So i went to my local aqaurium which im beggining to think arnt very helpful. They told me it would be fine to put in two fish that where hardy to help the tank cycle. so i purchased two tropical mollies for a saltwater tank? they did fine and i eventually replaced them with two clown fish after the 3rd week. I did some tests and it showed that the PH was fine and the ammonia was a little high. The man at the local aquarium said that this was normal and the best way to speed up the process was to add more fish. so i purchased a puffer fish (baby) and over the next few weeks i ended up with 7 fish in my tank as per the mans instructions. Anyway over the past two weeks i have noticed that the ammonia is really high around a 4-5 and even 6 on the ammonia for saltwater ratings. So my local aqaurium man told me to purchase ammonia down i have used the whole bottle aswell as doing water changes every 2nd day. 50 percens on the first day with a tripple dose of ammonia down and 20 percent for 7 days after that. So it has now been two weeks and the ammonia has returned to the 4-5 mark. I have changed to feeding them a frozen shrimp block once a day as he told me im probably over feeding them with the flakes which i wasnt as i was feeding them just enough to eat within 2 minutes and only once per day.

My tank has a mix of crushed coral for the bottom and sand. there are three live rocks in there, the man at the aqaurium told me to purchase a second pump to circulate water more which i bought and that is all that is in the tank, and also a air rock thing that runs along the back of the tank underneath the crushed coral.

I realise that my tank most probably has not cycled but i am beggining to think that my local aqaurium is just making money off me as everytime i go in the man sells me something that i probably dont need.

I would really appreciate if someone could treat me like a 3 year old and give me some good hints and tips on how to genuinly set up my tank as i have looked on the internet and there seems to be different stories everywhere!
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Oh and one last thing i forgoto to mention is my live rocks have also began to start growing brown algae which i think is because i have used tap water with a saltmix to set up my tank which was reccomeneded by my local aqaurium man.

any help will be greatly appreciated,

Callum.
 
Hi...

You have been seriously led astray by your aquarium dude. If you can... please please take the fish back to the store. There is a very high chance they will die in your tank.

Basic rule of thumb is one fish every two to three weeks.

I'm a little flustered over this. Someone else will step in.

Welcome to the site!!! Glad to have you.
 
Oh boy, i am so sorry that jerk took you for a ride like that.

First I would get rid of all the fish. To keep them in an uncycled tank is cruel and just adding more waste wont help things.

I would also pull out the crushed coral once the fish are gone, it will cause issues down the road.

I would also read this article: https://www.livingreefs.com/water-chemistry-t31270.html

I tried to spell everything out as best as i could for someone who is just starting up your tank.

Read that and then if you have any questions, please feel free to post and we will help you as best we can! Even if you are the tiniest bit confused, please ask!

oh, and hello and welcome to reef! We will get you on track! Just take a deep breath and get read to learn!
 
Ok, i have read your water chemistry thread and have found it very useful!. I definatly think that i need to change what aquarium i am going to. I have called another aquarium and told them of my troubles and i am sending my fish to go and live in one of there tanks for 2 weeks to hopefully allow my tank to cycle. Are there anymore hints or tips that you can give me for a hopefully faster cycle?

Thanks,

Callum:frustrat:
 
howdy and welcome to the site..:D
Hannah's got you coverred, I would also add that you are going to need more liverock for the tank.. Rule of thumb is 1 to 2 pounds per gallon.. Your tank is about 40 gallon and you have about 22 pounds of rock in it now, Going to need to bump it up to about 22 kilos or better in the tank...
Then just let the tank take its course with cycling...
 
You can only add one fish every three weeks, adding a pair of clowns is the exception to this, so make sure the fish can live in that other tank. Adding too many fish at one time can cause the tank to cycle again.

Adding more live rock will cause the tank to cycle faster as well.
 
1+ -you added too many fish to fast. Your LFS is trying to make money off you and ignorantly they are losing you as a long term customer. There is no shortage of idiots in this world trying to start their own businesses.

The big fish and coral breeding company called ORA Inc. uses "Special Blend" bacterial additive to speed up cycling and maintain beneficial bacteria. I have used the stuff too and my tank cycled in 2 weeks.
 
Just to keep everyone up to date i have done some water checks and my ammonia is almost undetectable! yay! however the nitrate is still a little high. I have gone to a different aqaurium and the lady said i shouldnt add anymore live rock as it will make the ammonia spike right back up again. So i have been thinking i should start planning on how to aqauscape my tank... i eventually want to have some corals and anemones in my tank. Does anybody have any ideas on how i should lyout my tank? or what i could purchase to put in there, i have been told that hammer corals are easiest to keep.
 
I know the liverock may cause a mini cycle but if you want to keep nems or such down the road you are going to need pristine water conditions which you will be hard pressed to achieve with the small amount of rock you have in it.. If you want to avoid the possible cycle see if you can find some dry rock in your area and put that in. :D
 
+1 marcah

Nems are very poor choice for a young tank, I would wait at least a year until you get one.

The easiest corals to keep are softies such as leathers, mushrooms, zoas, etc. I would start with them.

Also, nitrates dont come down on their own, you need to do a water change to bring them down.
 
can you please elaborate on getting the nitrate down? i bought some de minralised water and did water change however i notice the water still reads as high in nitrate 2 days after? also i am getting brown algae growth in my tank how dod i get rid of it?
 
Im not sure if I would use mineralized water, that might contain stuff that will screw with your water quality. I would see if you can get RO/DI or distilled water. Those are both pure water sources.

Also you need to lots of water changes to bring down the levels. I would start doing a weekly water changes of 30% if you have really high nitrates. It will probably take a couple months to get the nitrate levels down. Doing a 30% water change will only remove 30% of the nitrates present, which is why you have to continually do water changes. Nitrates are also continually produced by the fish waste.
 
awesome thankyou for your help, so i have just got home from work and the brown algae has gone crazy in my tank! how do i get rid of it?
 
hi.....
with your nitrate levels being high that will spur on algae growth also high phosphate levels will spur on algae growth... i had problems with algae growth and i used a phosphate remover in my filter which the algae dissapeared with in a few days also i run carbon and a product called purigen made by seachem which it take all the nasty stuff out your water... it last months and when it done you can recharge it and get a second use of it ......
 
so after a long wait my fish have returned to the tank :D yay! the nitrates are at 0 and the ammonia is at 0. i added 10 kgs of extra live rock to my tank for a total of around 25 kgs. I have added 3 corals to my tank also about a week ago and they seem to be doing ok. i think one of them had brown jelly fungus? but im not to sure, i put it into a seperate bucket of sea water and got most of the goo off it and now i have put it infront of the jet as i was told to do this by my new LFS! i also have a plate coral which seems to be doing ok and a mushroom coral but one fo the mushrooms have fallen off :S also the plate coral looks as though it is dying because 1/8 of it has turned into bone kinda. any advice haha?
 
If I read this right, you have 7 fish in a 40 gallon tank. If that is the case, you're going to continue to have water quality issues. Also, I don't know of any saltwater puffer that is small enough to live long term in a 40 gallon tank

The other thing I wanted to add is that any Fish store exists to make money. Feel free to take the advice from a fish store and run it past us. We aren't here to make money off of you, we're here because we're all hobbyists that want to see each other succeed
 
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