Getting frustrated (what am I doing wrong)?

[Nakie31]

Can anyone please advise me I love this hobby but I'm getting frustrated it seems like either I'm buying sick animals or not understanding what I'm being told. It seems like everything I have put in my tank has died except my clean up crew. I check my levels once a week and they are right on target. Salinity 1.025. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0 pH 8.4. In my tank I have 2 cleaner shrimp 10 hermit crabs 7 snails doing just fine running all over my tank and they go nuts at feeding time. The owner of the LSF told me not to add any fish for 4 weeks incase there is a disease that needs a host. So I got a SEA HAIR to control the green hair algae in my tank. I acclimated it the way the LFS to me to the same way I acclimate my fish. I put them in a bowl with the water it came with then I add 1 cup of my tank water every 15 min. 3-4 times until I have doubled the water. I swear as soon as I put the sea hair in my tank it moved for about 5 min. and has not moved since. The guy at the fish store just told me that they move at night so I am going to wait and see. I'm stating to think I'd be better just advancing in this hobby just by watching youtube and online chat sites like this one , and buying my fish and things online. So can someone tell me am I doing something wrong and if so how can I fix it?

 

[BrokenSpoke]

For starters your numbers cannot be correct. If nitrates were truly 0 you would not have any hair algae. What test kits are you using?

 

[Foooz]

Can you provide more details? Tank size, filter type, amount and type of live rock, how long tank set up, how cycled and how long ago, where is your water coming from, etc. you will get a lot of excellent help here.

 

[Nakie31]

Nope I apologize my nitrates is 10ppm I use API saltwater master test kit and I use Nutrafin Test kit

 

[ReyR]

I would double check your salinity.

 

[mokrytzki]

Don't get frustrated, you will find lots of great help here.

 

[Nakie31]

My tank is 6 months old it's a 72 gal. bowfront with 60 lbs. od live rock and 60 lbs. of live sand

 

[Nakie31]

I might get frustrated but like I said I love this hobby I will keep on going

 

[homer1475]

Your acclimation process is off.

Think of it this way, when a fish is in a bag ammonia is building up. It's not toxic until you open the bag. leaving a fish in a bag and transferring water water back and forth is only causing more ammonia to build up(no bacteria to consume it), so your hour in a bowl is probably causing an eventual death(I think I remember reading it's usually kidney failure, and can take a while to present itself).

You should be practicing proper quarantine procedures? If you did then to acclimate the fish you match salinity of the bag the fish came in, float the bag for a few minutes to temp acclimate(with it still closed up), then just dump him in the QT.

 

[CStrickland]

Can you provide more details? Tank size, filter type, amount and type of live rock, how long tank set up, how cycled and how long ago, where is your water coming from, etc. you will get a lot of excellent help here.

My tank is 6 months old it's a 72 gal. bowfront with 60 lbs. od live rock and 60 lbs. of live sand

1- Does this mean you don't have any filtration besides the rocks and sand?
2- Again, what is your water source and how was it cycled / how long ago?

3- How many fish have died?
4- What kind of fish?
5- How long did they last before they went?
6- How did it happen like we're they gasping and panting, or lethargic, or have spots on them etc etc?
7- What do you have moving the water for aeration?
8- What is the alkalinity of the water?
9- Temperature of the water?
10- what kind of salt are you using?

Sometimes it helps to post a pic of the tank. You never know what the missing piece is. There was a poster last week who had set up a tank with a bunch of gravel from their driveway, nobody would think to ask but the pic said a thousand words.

Sorry you've had a rough start, hopefully we can get you on track