starting up and starting over again

[countrygurl]

Hi I am new here and need some advice!!
About March/April my hubby and I started a 40 gallon saltwater reef aquarium after a few hits and misses it started to come along nicely...UNTIL...being a ******* I bout some cured live rock from a fellow up in Edmonton AB who was getting out of the hobby well I noticed that the rock and aquarium had this red algae all over it warning bells galore but went with it anyway took the rock home and scrubbed it clean and set in quarantine tank then put in my tank everything wet well for about a month then noticed mean looking worms and more red algae growth my hubby cleaned the tank and with in about a week it went to hell in a hand basket EVERYTHING died was not overly impressed with him so took out all rock and put it out on front porch in the sun and elements for 2 months just restarted the tank again this past Monday with live sand and all my dead rock and yes I am running a protein skimmer and water fans to circulate the water my temp is sitting at 80 degrees I also put in bio start up to help the cycle and today added stability and prime to stabilize my tank and get my levels down my questions to you guys are this What are the levels supposed to be I am using a Hagen test kit that tests all parameters this morning the tests came out at
Ammonia 3.7
nitrites 0.1/0.3 (hard to read)
nitrates 5/10 (hard to read)
ph 8.1
phosphates0.025
any help/suggestions would be very welcome not sure on the hagen kit so may look for new testing kit wondering what is most used in the world of saltwater keeping

 

[qasim99]

Hi here is a rough guide on what you should aim for:
Alkalinity: 7-11 dKH
Salinity: 1.025 roughly or a little less
PH: 8.1 - 8.5
Ammonia: Less than 0.1ppm
Try to keep Nitrates and Nitrites below 0.2ppm. I was told on this forum that nitrates are not harmful to marine fish, but i cannot confirm if this is a fact or not

My advice would be to let your tank cycle for around 6 weeks, during that time, you can throw in a little flakes every now and then to create some bacteria etc.

With regards to your fish dying, my advice would be to set up a quaratine tank as well, and put any fish you are going to get in the future into quarantine before you actually put them in your main tank. That way you minimise the risk of having all your fish get wiped out due to a parasite which can be easily introduced by a new fish

 

[Dozer1one]

Low levels of nitrates (60 ppm or under )are not harmfull to most fish... It could slaughter most corals but fish would be ok.. Your tank is midway through its cycle, with the sign of nitrates, which is the end result. It will prob take a few more weeks till your params level out, at the end of it you should look for
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40-100 ppm depends on the strength of your cycle
Salinity 1.025
Temp 77....... 80 is to high and makes fish more susceptible to disease
You can worry about cal, alk, mag later keep it simple for now, after your cycle is complete which should be 4/6 weeks you can add your clean up crew ( inverts ) than another 4 weeks you can add a fish.... Not 6 not 3.... 1 fish lol. If you overload your biologics you'll have another ammonia spike and spark a mini cycle, most likely killing everything in your tank.
The red algae you spoke of was prob cyano bacteria, when it dies off it depletes the oxygen in your tank killing your fish unless you oxygenate the water with the use of power heads vigoursly breaking the surface water. Now as for test kits I use salifert personally, stay away from API test kits.
Good luck with all and keep asking questions and read as much as you can then read Some more

 

[countrygurl]

Thank you very much...This has been most helpful...our saltwater fish store has not really been very helpful just keeps tossing this and that at us $100 here $200 there becoming very annoying and disappointing...lol

 

[Sk8r]

I hate to say, but worms and encrusting pink algae are generally what you hope to get. The red stuff is cyano, which happens in just about every tank, and is no real problem. The skimmer should both remove any cyano dieoff and oxygenate the water.
If you get into trouble this round, do ask! There's a way to solve most everything in this hobby! A simple lights-out 3 days a month will usually do for cyano, if you have a decent skimmer.

 

[Dozer1one]

LFS ( local fish stores ) are notorious for giving you misleading information , it's kind of like this, you start in this hobby and go right to the store to purchase what you need but little do you know half of what their selling you is a waste of money, then over the next few months start researching and end up here only to find out half of what they told you or sold you is bull ****, then over the following months you start to really pic and choose who you deal with at your LFS and realize they don't all know what their talking about most of them are just kids who kinda like fish but really they just need money for their first date. Eventually you will get to the point where the employees you now have a repor with call you with questions, and the only one you will want to deal with at the store is the owner, but he or she is never there..... Anyway just ask questions here to get others answers and opinions.. Good luck and don't give up once you figure it out it's a pretty easy and a very rewarding hobby