Hello
I started a saltwater tank about a month ago I used the bottled natural sea water, live sand, and argonite purchased a wet,dry system and all the other necessity's had it all set up in about 8 hours went back to my LFS and purchased some live rock, the salesmen said it would be fine to put in a few fish and some inverts to get the tank cycled so I bought three clowns, a sand sifting star 1 fire shrimp and a sally lightfoot all of which are doing great I have been testing everything on a weekly basis since day one my nitrates have gone from 0 to 20 over time I just recently seen a slight change in the amonmia and the nitrites have stayed at 0 so I am not really sure if it has cycled or not. as of now theres 60+ lbs of live rock. I started out using a hyrdrometer since then I have stopped and I am now using a refractometer
a couple weeks after I went back to LFS and even though something seemed wrong about what the salesmen was telling me that damsels would be fine with what was in the tank and the royal gramma I was purchasing I went against my gut. For the first few days everything was ok then I started noticing white powdery stuff on the gramma and two days later she was on the bottom of the tank still alive I rushed her back to the store (she was my pride and joy with a great personality) another salesmen asked what else I had in the tank and I told him I just recently added her and the damsels and he said who told you to put the damsels in there so I told hm and he started showing me were they were going after her needless to say I took bad advice and she didnt come back home with me. we also have lost two cleaner shrimp one I have no idea why it died and the other I believe my fire shrimp my have been the cause. I was disgusted with the LFS so I looked for a new store and found this awesome store right across from the LFS thats a specialty shop called sea save we went to visit and brought home the most amazing live rock so far we have brain coral on the live rock aiptaisa and a new crab that I dont know what it is and quite a few serpent stars this store is great!!! But somehow I woulnd up back at the LFS and since my gramma died I bought a new one out of the same exact tank and she died this morning she also had ich or velvet I couldnt catch her to qt her so I used kick ich after the first treatment her whole tail was gone and she was only getting worse I finally managed to get her in the qt and treated her with copper but this morning she was lying on the bottom lifeless so I am very disappointed in myself because I should have done it right. I also have two anemones and after reading the anemone care post I am worried that I made another bad decision although both seem to be just fine I still worry one is a bubble tip the other is a pacific I have a red looking serpent star and a couple oysters that came on the live rock some snails and some hermits.
I will not be purchasing anything else from the LFS and will only be pruchasing from sea save they have the biggest sea horses I have ever seen the aquarium here has nothing on there sea horses and down the road in a year or so I hope to own some of them amazing creatures. I am now set on making sure I do my very best to keep the fish and inverts I have healthy and qt any thing that I buy from any place other then sea save cause there they do all of it for you so no worries
I started a saltwater tank about a month ago I used the bottled natural sea water, live sand, and argonite purchased a wet,dry system and all the other necessity's had it all set up in about 8 hours went back to my LFS and purchased some live rock, the salesmen said it would be fine to put in a few fish and some inverts to get the tank cycled so I bought three clowns, a sand sifting star 1 fire shrimp and a sally lightfoot all of which are doing great I have been testing everything on a weekly basis since day one my nitrates have gone from 0 to 20 over time I just recently seen a slight change in the amonmia and the nitrites have stayed at 0 so I am not really sure if it has cycled or not. as of now theres 60+ lbs of live rock. I started out using a hyrdrometer since then I have stopped and I am now using a refractometer
a couple weeks after I went back to LFS and even though something seemed wrong about what the salesmen was telling me that damsels would be fine with what was in the tank and the royal gramma I was purchasing I went against my gut. For the first few days everything was ok then I started noticing white powdery stuff on the gramma and two days later she was on the bottom of the tank still alive I rushed her back to the store (she was my pride and joy with a great personality) another salesmen asked what else I had in the tank and I told him I just recently added her and the damsels and he said who told you to put the damsels in there so I told hm and he started showing me were they were going after her needless to say I took bad advice and she didnt come back home with me. we also have lost two cleaner shrimp one I have no idea why it died and the other I believe my fire shrimp my have been the cause. I was disgusted with the LFS so I looked for a new store and found this awesome store right across from the LFS thats a specialty shop called sea save we went to visit and brought home the most amazing live rock so far we have brain coral on the live rock aiptaisa and a new crab that I dont know what it is and quite a few serpent stars this store is great!!! But somehow I woulnd up back at the LFS and since my gramma died I bought a new one out of the same exact tank and she died this morning she also had ich or velvet I couldnt catch her to qt her so I used kick ich after the first treatment her whole tail was gone and she was only getting worse I finally managed to get her in the qt and treated her with copper but this morning she was lying on the bottom lifeless so I am very disappointed in myself because I should have done it right. I also have two anemones and after reading the anemone care post I am worried that I made another bad decision although both seem to be just fine I still worry one is a bubble tip the other is a pacific I have a red looking serpent star and a couple oysters that came on the live rock some snails and some hermits.
I will not be purchasing anything else from the LFS and will only be pruchasing from sea save they have the biggest sea horses I have ever seen the aquarium here has nothing on there sea horses and down the road in a year or so I hope to own some of them amazing creatures. I am now set on making sure I do my very best to keep the fish and inverts I have healthy and qt any thing that I buy from any place other then sea save cause there they do all of it for you so no worries