Help with a salt water tank

[George]

Originally Posted by mousetap

Thanks for your replies Mike & George...

It is a 30Gal tank. The store advised me to get about 30lbs of live rocks based on 1 gal = 1 lbs. I didn’t get any test results from them. When I brought a sample to the store, they add some chemicals and checked the colors…and said water is clean. I remember he said that he checked for Nitrite, nitrate and ammonia...

If I did a test now…would they be able to tell…if it is due to an ammonia attack? Do I need to clear the entire water tank before I try out again? Is there anything I could do to prevent this in the future?

Is there any store that you would recommend?

Several possibilities. Your tank is new so maybe it's still in the process of cycling. You are adding fish too fast (did you add 4 clowns at the same time?). add one or two fish at a time and wait for the bio filter to catch up to the load before adding another fish.
How long did you wait between adding live rocks and fish? (uncured) live rock may cause your tank to go into another cycle.
You are in Vancouver. Maybe King Ed Pet Center is closer for you. They are at: 7377 Kingsway, Burnaby.
Or you can make your way to JL Aquatics, 205A-3430 Brighton Ave.Burnaby.
Either of these stores should be able to test your water sample and give you good advice.
Good luck. And go slow.

[BlueAbyss]

Read read READ before doing anything in this hobby, mistakes can be very expensive. Quick lesson on the nitrogen cycle, ammonia is excreted by fish converted to nitrite then nitrate by bacteria, and from there can be turned into nitrogen gas by bacteria, picked up by alga (which can also consume ammonia directly), or removed in water changes. If you have ammonia today and nothing is producing more, it will go down pretty quickly, being converted to nitrite and then nitrate (and becoming less toxic at each conversion).

Reef tanks reach sort of an equilibrium after a change is made (ie: adding a new fish, more light, etc.) and takes a little while to reach that equilibrium. It sounds to me like you did too much too fast. Move slowly and do a lot of research before you add livestock... specially with delicate creatures like anemones (as an example).

[mousetap]

Thanks a lot for all your suggestions...

[mike31154]

That's what forums like this are for. A belated 'Welcome' and best of luck with the hobby in the future.