Need advice asap

[tubz]

We bought a 90 gallon tank about a month and a half ago from a local fish store. We had him come and do the setup. It was set up with a sump underneath, a sock filter and pump in the sump. The live sand was added and about 10 pounds of live rock and 10 of base rock. About 2 days later he said it was safe to add our 2 clown fish. About 2 weeks later he added another 50 pounds or so of live rock and 20 of base rock. We are new to this so we trusted everything he said. When we wanted to add new fish he said it was fine. We were up to a yellow tang, the 2 clown, a blue tang, flame angel, and a dottyback. Also 10 turbo snails and 10 other kind. 1 diamond gobie, a tiger shrimp, fire shrimp, and a cleaner shrimp. Also a sea urchin, and some small starfish.
Our turbo snails have all since died, the last 3 soon after he did a 20 gallon water change 2 weeks ago. Also over the past 3 days i lost the flame angel, blue tang and today the dottyback.
I am trying to learn what to do now as I don't trust him.
Was that too many too soon?
We were never told about tank cycling, or to check anything within the water. I bought a test kit, our ph is around 8
ammonia and nitrite are near zero and nitrate maybe 20-40.
I also just put in a powerhead yesterday which we werent told we should have, besides the sock filter in the sump do i need anything else? Protein skimmer etc?
The tank has been cloudy since almost the beginning and has algae on sand, rocks. What do I do and why are my fish and snails dying?

 

[Grouper954]

That's adding way too many fish at one time. Your filter systems can't handle the shock of the bioload and are slowly poisoning your fish.

 

[NanoReefer]

could you post a pic so we can id the algea? that seems way too fast, you want to wait around 3 weeks between adding fish. a blue tang will quickly outgrow a 90 they need a minimum of 6 feet of swimming room.you have 80# of rock which is good. a skimmer would be extremely helpful for you. also the cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp and tiger shrimp are extremely sensetive to ammonia nitrate and nitrite in the water, so i think your lucky your sensative inverts survived. if you ever need any help just post a question and well help to the best of our abilities. p.s welcome to the site:)

 

[fastrd400]

Sounds to me like the person that set your tank up knows how to set up a fresh water tank, but doesn't know DICK about saltwater. The tank should have cycled before any live stock was introduced to it. Also, he allowed you to add livestock in much larger numbers than you should have at one time.
Start doing water changes once a week to try and keep the remaining fish and inverts alive. Test your water every day to make sure those numbers don't get out of control. And above all, find another LFS that knows what they are talking about.

 

[tubz]

Here is a few pictures

 

[marcah]

first howdy and welcome to the site.. :D
I am sorry to hear what you are going through with the tank and the LFS. Always remember MOST LFS are in it to make a dollar and will sell you anything to get it..
The tank never had time to cycle. With the die off from the snails and fish I am really surprised that you didnt get an ammonia spike and if you had that could be one of the causes for other dieoff in the tank. When you say ammonia is near 0 What is it actually? Any ammonia can wipe a tank out.. It is just another example of an LFS only caring about money and not about the livestock or the consumer. A skimmer would be a smart purchase at this point ( reef octopus makes a nice skimmer) along with enough powerheads to turn the tank over 30 times your tank size or better per hour..

 

[tubz]

On the little color chart I have I think the ammonia when i just checked is about .50 ppm

 

[little_fish]

Oh man, I am so sorry for your troubles with this man, he has totally led you astray. The best thing you can do is do plenty of water changes to get the ammonia to zero to try and save your remaining livestock.

Here are some really good articles you should read to help you get up to speed on keeping a saltwater tank:
https://www.livingreefs.com/cycling-tank-adding-fish-and-corals-t26452.html
https://www.livingreefs.com/water-chemistry-t31270.html
https://www.livingreefs.com/why-using-tap-water-bad-idea-t19865.html
https://www.livingreefs.com/basic-equipment-list-t19611.html

 

[wontonflip]

Wow..that sucks....+1 everyone...but I'm glad you were wise enough to realize that the lfs was dead wrong. Everyone's given good advice. We all want to trust the lfs, but you have to always keep in mind that at the end of the day, they're gettin' paid whether your fish live or die. In fact, they'll make more money because you'll end up buying more fish from them.

To repeat what everyone said, definitely skip the blue tang. The yellow would have been ok in there. Stick to adding 1 or 2 fish at a time, and give yourself a month or 2 before you add any more new fish after that. Check out liveaquaria.com for a guideline on a fish's minimum requirement. I never do impulse buys on a fish I know absolutely nothing about. The only impulse buys I do are the ones where I know at least the tank size requirement and temperament.

Leave your tank be for a while so the levels balance out. Get yourself a good dropper test kit (avoid test strips) and refractometer so you can do your own tests. Were you topping off the tank w/ rodi or distilled water? Maintaining a tank on your own is really really easy. It's best to rely on yourself, then come to us for advice :)

 

[Smitty]

Hello and welcome to the site...I'm glad you decided to join us. Everyone has you covered.

 

[steeldoc]

+1 on everything that was mentioned. i have been in the SW hobby for about 6 months now. only have a FOWLR tank but preping myself and tank for corals. liveaquarium.com is an amazing website. also the best advice that myself or anybody else can give you is research research research. there are so many different corners in this hobby, it is impossible to see them all. so i have found it best not to trust any one person on anything. now if you hear the same advice from 3 or 4 different people then that would probably better. and oh yeah, find yourself a different LFS.

 

[TRAUMA]

welcome this is the best place to bee I learned a lot here

 

[315hottuna61]

Trust the people on this site, they love their tanks. It's a damn shame that most lfs's are too " busy" to take the time to really help customers - i guess they forget that repeat customers are how they make their freakin' money