Alright let me start out by saying i originally started out with freshwater, i have been doing african cichlid setups for about 5 years. About March of this year i purchased a 55 gallon saltwater setup from someone i transferred the tank the water and everything with it upon moving. When i bought it it had two ocellaris clowns a yellow tang and a diadema i believe. The tank had one powerhead flourescent lighting and a fluval 305. The substrate was crushed coral and there was a few plastic plants. Upon doing my research i purchased a Eshopps Psk 100 protein skimmer and a hang on back sump that i added crushed coral to and some white sponge pad. Here is the tank with some minor additions i added after setting up after moving
I ended up buying some chocolate stars and a condy anemone and a few damsels *First mistake*
Maybe a month a month and a half later one by one things started to dissapear popped up dead and just really started to stress me out because things were going fine for so long. Long story short i found what looked like piece of the condy dead in my tank. So upon water changes and so fourth a few weeks later i started to restock, Yet again fish started to die again. I had my water tested at my local LFS and was advised it looks like my tank had started to recycle probably due to the crushed coral getting kicked up somehow. so maybe a few days later SURPRISE the tank busts a leak given the circumstances i was in no position to reseal it so i just drained it and purchased a new 55 gallon. on top of that i did not keep the crushed coral substrate due to the cycling issues and i replaced it with sand. so upon the replacements i bought new live rock as well in hopes of helping get me back on track getting the tank to this point
i did purchase some right now live bacteria upon changing out the substrate and did tests to make sure ammonia and everything was right which testing it verified everything was right. So pretty much within the past two months i have been testing my water daily and my Nitrates are testing <10 Nitrites 0 alkalines testing between 180-300 and my PH continues to fluctuate between 7.8-8.4 throughout all of the problems the only fish that have been able to survive is a maroon clown and a salfin tang see below
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I purchased another anemone about two months ago when i got my new live rock and the anemone LOVED the spot that it found
but about a month ago when i got my maroon it continued to stress the anemone and the anemone continued to move around a shrivel up.
So i was advised through all this trouble that it would be a good idea to get a quarantine tank so i purchased a 36 gallon bowfront and it has an aqueon 30 hob filter and a remora protein skimmer i have been testing both tanks and i am getting similar readings on both tanks. I add iodide and trace elements to both as well as some stability supplement as well The anemone still has not opened back up like before and i am just trying to figure out what i need to do to get this tank back to how it was when i bought it before i literally kill myself!!!!:angryfire:Right now this is what both tanks look like
and
in the 36 gallon i have an 8,000K T5 the purple anemone and a serpent star and thats it and in my 55 i have various hermits turbo snails nassarus snails a serpent star a rock anemone a conch snail the salfin and the maroon and one polyp of a electric green something coral i have 2 powerheads the fluval 305 the eshopps psk 100 skimmer and the hang on back sump with return pump.I have lost so many fish and i just dont know what i am doing wrong. I do not use tap water i always buy R/O water and mix and just recently i bought some live sand from someone that had in their reef setup for five years i only brought about enough to fit in a paint gallon and i put that in my 55. PLEASE HELP!!!!
I ended up buying some chocolate stars and a condy anemone and a few damsels *First mistake*
Maybe a month a month and a half later one by one things started to dissapear popped up dead and just really started to stress me out because things were going fine for so long. Long story short i found what looked like piece of the condy dead in my tank. So upon water changes and so fourth a few weeks later i started to restock, Yet again fish started to die again. I had my water tested at my local LFS and was advised it looks like my tank had started to recycle probably due to the crushed coral getting kicked up somehow. so maybe a few days later SURPRISE the tank busts a leak given the circumstances i was in no position to reseal it so i just drained it and purchased a new 55 gallon. on top of that i did not keep the crushed coral substrate due to the cycling issues and i replaced it with sand. so upon the replacements i bought new live rock as well in hopes of helping get me back on track getting the tank to this point
i did purchase some right now live bacteria upon changing out the substrate and did tests to make sure ammonia and everything was right which testing it verified everything was right. So pretty much within the past two months i have been testing my water daily and my Nitrates are testing <10 Nitrites 0 alkalines testing between 180-300 and my PH continues to fluctuate between 7.8-8.4 throughout all of the problems the only fish that have been able to survive is a maroon clown and a salfin tang see below
I purchased another anemone about two months ago when i got my new live rock and the anemone LOVED the spot that it found
but about a month ago when i got my maroon it continued to stress the anemone and the anemone continued to move around a shrivel up.
So i was advised through all this trouble that it would be a good idea to get a quarantine tank so i purchased a 36 gallon bowfront and it has an aqueon 30 hob filter and a remora protein skimmer i have been testing both tanks and i am getting similar readings on both tanks. I add iodide and trace elements to both as well as some stability supplement as well The anemone still has not opened back up like before and i am just trying to figure out what i need to do to get this tank back to how it was when i bought it before i literally kill myself!!!!:angryfire:Right now this is what both tanks look like
and
in the 36 gallon i have an 8,000K T5 the purple anemone and a serpent star and thats it and in my 55 i have various hermits turbo snails nassarus snails a serpent star a rock anemone a conch snail the salfin and the maroon and one polyp of a electric green something coral i have 2 powerheads the fluval 305 the eshopps psk 100 skimmer and the hang on back sump with return pump.I have lost so many fish and i just dont know what i am doing wrong. I do not use tap water i always buy R/O water and mix and just recently i bought some live sand from someone that had in their reef setup for five years i only brought about enough to fit in a paint gallon and i put that in my 55. PLEASE HELP!!!!
