Alright. I think our friend here has a 440 gallon tank in the works. I don't believe the tank has fully cycled, while our friend has already purchased some livestock, one of which has already died.
Fish Like Me, I think IndoorOcean is right on with his recommendation. If possible, go to a local bookstore and pick up a copy of Saltwater for Dummies. You can order it from amazon.com as well. You can gather your very basics of saltwater from this book. In the meantime, the fish and snails you've purchased need to be taken back to the source. Heck, you can take them and release them into the ocean if nothing else. They'll have a better chance surviving there then in a plastic box with god knows what kind of parameters.
Secondly, I don't think you understand 'cycling.' It's short for Nitrogen Cycle. In layman's terms, it's kind of like when you purchase a house to live in, you must ensure before you move in that you will have your basic necessities therein to sustain you in good health and spirits. In order for your fish to survive, and then thrive, there's a few things you must first understand. I'll keep it very basic and to the point.
The salt in your water is referred to as your Salinity. The salinity of your water must be maintained within a specific range for your fish and corals to survive in. Salinity is measured in Parts Per Million and Specific Gravity. SG can be easily measured with several devices, the most common and basic being a hydrometer. You must maintain your SG between 1.021 and 1.026 for your fish and your corals. The SG must remain constant, or fluctuations will stress your livestock and may kill them as a result.
You want to keep the temperature in your tank ideally between 77 to 81 degrees. You can sustain stable temperatures by employing submersible heaters or external chillers depending on what type of weather you live in. You can do more research on Heaters and Chillers online. They are two completely different devices. You can check your temperature by sticking a thermometer either inside or outside of the tank.
Next is the toxins in your water. To keep it simple, just know that your water initially contains a bunch of chemicals and etc which can be very harmful to your fish and corals. Some names for those chemicals are nitrates, nitrites, ammonia etc as your quickdip test kit indicates.
Basically, once you have your water in your tank (hopefully with some live rock or some sort of organism) you just need to let your tank run for a period of time and not add any livestock to it. Maybe it'll take a couple of weeks, maybe longer, but by using your quickdip test kit, check to see when all those chemicals have disappeared from your water. In your case, the pink should not be pink but should remain white, and the ammonia indicater should remain yellow?! Consider investing in other test kits that are more accurate. For basic tests, you can get by with RedSea brands, but for more complexed stuff such as Calcium etc you want Salifert test kits.
I am tired of typing now and this has already become a really long post, so in the end, I will say that you need to do a lot of research before you do anything else. These forums are a good place to start, and you've taken a step in the right direction. As a matter of fact, while your tank is cycling do nothing else but read about reefkeeping and saltwater. Oh, and welcome to Reef Central.
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