I made several rookie mistakes, help me set things right.

[Applepiee]

I started with my reef tank 3 weeks ago (I'm currently in a small apartment so went with a small tank 'till I move and learn more about this hobby), after 2 weeks with out any livestock I decided to buy 2 fishes (pottyback,Clown fish), one red shrimp and 2 corals.

I noticed that my kenya tree never seemed to get up and was shrimping, yesterday it looked really bad and the tank smelled bad, so I decided to throw out the kenya tree.

That same say I noticed (as you can see in the picture) a little cloudy water.
I started making salt water to do some water change (read you have to make salt water 24hours before) in a bucket. And then went to the pub.

When I came back 4 hours later, bam.. Water really cloudy and... my red shrimp and pottyback died (Only had them a week, but I really loved them already).

I panicked.. so I decided to save the only living fish left, Nemo by putting him into the bucket with the salt water.

I started throw all of the water away, washed all of the stones again (but I just read here in another thread that you're not supposed to wash your sand?! My shop said I have to wash it), Put new water in, and made it salty.

But now my water got really cloudy again.. I guess that the whole water cycle has to start again, but I have nemo stuck in the bucket! what should I do? Can he survive in the bucket with a small live rock?

And what caused the cloudyness to begin with? The water was already cycled.

I'm using a power filter, and not a skimmer, is this my problem? I also do not have equipment yet to check all the parameters, only temperature and Saltmeter.

Here are some picture to visualize my problem.

Thanks a lot in advance!!

 

[TheSaint216]

Slow down a bit. Your adding an awful lot to a new tank.

 

[Applepiee]

Slow down a bit. Your adding an awful lot to a new tank.

This is not really helping with my question on what to do with my clownfish, but thanks for your input.
I didn't know that this was "too fast"

 

[Waters]

If your LFS will allow it, I would return the clownfish for now. If that is not a possibility, then he can live fine in a bucket with a heater and powerhead until your tank is completely cycled. You will have to monitor ammonia and nitrite levels in the bucket and be prepared to do water changes as needed.

The problem appears to be that the tank never finished its cycle. Are you testing the water? How did you cycle the tank? What TheSaint meant about it being too fast is that three fish is a lot to add to a small tank all at once. The biological filtration doesn't have enough time to establish itself to keep up with the additional ammonia from the fish.

Hope this helps....good luck

 

[cu455]

If I was in your position I would get macro algae, a light, airstone and leave nemo in the bucket until your tank is good to go. Since you cleaned all your rocks you will have a lot of die off causing a large ammonia spike. A larger storage bin with more water volume will be better. Don't forget to mark off your water level and keep up with the top offs.

 

[Downbeach]

It doesn't sound like your tank had fully cycled. I think the best place to start would be with some reading. Here are a few articles that are worth reading, not only for the novice, but are a good reference for veteran reefers as well:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-03/rhf/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-05/rhf/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/rhf/index.php

 

[Applepiee]

If your LFS will allow it, I would return the clownfish for now. If that is not a possibility, then he can live fine in a bucket with a heater and powerhead until your tank is completely cycled. You will have to monitor ammonia and nitrite levels in the bucket and be prepared to do water changes as needed.

The problem appears to be that the tank never finished its cycle. Are you testing the water? How did you cycle the tank? What TheSaint meant about it being too fast is that three fish is a lot to add to a small tank all at once. The biological filtration doesn't have enough time to establish itself to keep up with the additional ammonia from the fish.

Hope this helps....good luck

Well, you can see my equipment in the picture, I do not have a power head, only a power "waterfall filter" which is difficult to place in the bucket. I do not have equipment to test the water, my LFS didn't say I needed this, only to test the salt.
To get it cycled I just.. waited.. a few weeks. and added 3 cups of this at the first week.

Also.. The water in nemo's bucket is made at the same day, only a few hours before I changed the water of my full tank, doesn't it mean that this will also cycle and become cloudly?

Thanks for all the info guys

 

[RareEarthCorals]

I just cant imagine an LFS seriously selling you all this stuff. Return the clown to the LFS and request a refund. Do some research here on R2R before you throw away another dime. This isnt some parttime hobby that lends your priorities elsewhere, especially lack of research on your part, before a drop goes in the tank. There are alot of information on how to start a saltwater aquarium, no excuse. Do you go buy a car without doing the research? Spend some time and become acquainted. Research is key to your success.

Once you feel confident you understand the process of setting up a saltwater environment, and what a cycle is, prepare to buckle down and get ready to spend money. Get confortable with that thought as this is not a cheap hobby. Some of us have thousands wrapped up and some tens of thousands. This is not a drop water in the bowl and a few fish flakes kind of hobby. Buy a saltwater test kit should be the first thing on your list.

Patience is key and before you buy animals or corals make sure you understand what it takes to raise them successfully. You are responsible to these lives. Best of luck to you.

 

[Applepiee]

I just cant imagine an LFS seriously selling you all this stuff. Return the clown to the LFS and request a refund. Do some research here on R2R before you throw away another dime. This isnt some parttime hobby that lends your priorities elsewhere, especially lack of research on your part, before a drop goes in the tank. There are alot of information on how to start a saltwater aquarium, no excuse. Do you go buy a car without doing the research? Spend some time and become acquainted. Research is key to your success.

Once you feel confident you understand the process of setting up a saltwater environment, and what a cycle is, prepare to buckle down and get ready to spend money. Get confortable with that thought as this is not a cheap hobby. Some of us have thousands wrapped up and some tens of thousands. This is not a drop water in the bowl and a few fish flakes kind of hobby. Buy a saltwater test kit should be the first thing on your list.

Patience is key and before you buy animals or corals make sure you understand what it takes to raise them successfully. You are responsible to these lives. Best of luck to you.

I understand where you are coming from, and I did always research before acting, and did ask a lot of the process to my LFS.

I did have patience and knew that water first needs to be established with just setups without any fish, and I noticed that the water looked really clean and no bad smells,.. so thought the cycle was over, I understand that serious hobbyist like yourself may get frustrated when you hear that somebody owns a small reeftank but didn't know about the chemical processes of the salt water, I love having fish and taking care for them and will learn from every mistake, but you have to remember that everyone started somewhere.. this is literally my first baby steps, go easy on me. "Buy a saltwater test kit should be the first thing on your list. " not sure what you mean by this, I already said that I have this and I check this regularly.

I already started reading here on R2R starting here. Thanks for the tip

I know that I am responsible for their lives and I was devastated when this happened.

Thanks for helping! I appreciate it a lot.

 

[madtownguy]

I understand where you are coming from, and I did always research before acting, and did ask a lot of the process to my LFS.

I did have patience and knew that water first needs to be established with just setups without any fish, and I noticed that the water looked really clean and no bad smells,.. so thought the cycle was over, I understand that serious hobbyist like yourself may get frustrated when you hear that somebody owns a small reeftank but didn't know about the chemical processes of the salt water, I love having fish and taking care for them and will learn from every mistake, but you have to remember that everyone started somewhere.. this is literally my first baby steps, go easy on me. "Buy a saltwater test kit should be the first thing on your list. " not sure what you mean by this, I already said that I have this and I check this regularly.

I know that I am responsible for their lives and I was devastated when this happened.

Thanks for helping! I appreciate it a lot.

Saltwater test kit is to test the water, not check the salinity. The cloudiness in your water is from an ammonia spike, a really really bad one. You never want to add everything at the same time if you can avoid it. Everything that is living produces waste, your tank wasn't ready to handle all that waste and also probably had some problems with water you didn't know about causing something to start dying which also increases ammonia. Three weeks was probably enough time to put a clown fish in, I put mine in within 3 days but I had a lot of live sand and live rock also. From the photo it looks like you didn't even have an algae bloom yet, there's signs to tell if the tank has cycled. But getting a test kit is always a good idea. If you want nemo to live I suggest you take him back like others have said or get something working on the water in that tank. Essentially you have put nemo in a house with out any toilets or air flow, he isn't going to last long like that. I personally wouldn't use that bio stuff you put a link of, that could have caused as much problem as good. 3 cups in a tank your size is a ton!

 

[Rob's Reef]

#1 I would never go back to your LFS.
#2 read, read and then read some more. If you try to do things on the fly you end up wasting money on cheap equipment when you should have sprung for the better stuff because you end up buying it anyways...
#3 test kits... you said you didn't have test kits per your LFS direction besides a salt test... WRONG! Get yourself some real test kits... API makes a couple kits.
One has test for Ph, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. The other kit they have that you will need test for Calcium, Carbonate Hardness "dkh", phosphate and another nitrate. So you'll just have a backup for that if you get both those kits. They are a good starting point...
Keep testing and make it a habbit.
4. Read again! as much as possible. I'm always on this site reading everyone's experiences. Great place to learn tips and tricks.
5. Find a new LFS!!!

Good luck!

 

[RareEarthCorals]

I sure did make a lot of mistakes. I contemplated responding and didnt want to be too hard on you. The LFS is not the place to learn about the process. You may get one person on a slow day that wants to help but they are mostly concerned with sales. Im hopeful you are willing to learn. Take the time and use the resources here. Everyone is willing to help but judge for yourself. Verify and reverify before you jump on any single suggestion, even mine. There is more than one way to cycle a tank. Once you feel comfortable and you feel the information will help you then jump in with both feet.

 

[RareEarthCorals]

A refractometer test salt content in water. A saltwater test kit will test PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. You will need some form of these to measure success.

 

[Russ265]

cloudy tank is bacteria establishing. it should look like a nice white mist. these are heterotrophs that feed on carbon. if you add new plastic to a tank, you are likely to see it. best to wait 3 days then it will be done.

ammonia takes about a week or so to detoxify to nitrite.

nitrite oxidizes to nitrate after 2 MORE weeks.

this is just an average. nitrites arent as harmful to marine fish as freshwater. long as they stay low you will be fine. corals also seem to not mind nitrite either ime. im sure a purist will cry that i am lying but w/e.

get a hydrometer or a refractometer and keep salinity at 1.025. you have a small tank. it will evaporate and salt will remain. (yay breathing room)

if you want to speed this process up. get live rock from your lfs, or get some dirty filter sponges from a petco. bacteria additives like biospira or dr tims will also help shorten the cycle to 2-3 weeks.

test test test

btw. lil nemo will do better in that tank rather than a bucket.

also do you have a heater? keep the tank's temp above 74 f

 

[Applepiee]

Thanks for all the replies! Everyone is extremely helpful, thank you so much.

cloudy tank is bacteria establishing. it should look like a nice white mist. these are heterotrophs that feed on carbon. if you add new plastic to a tank, you are likely to see it. best to wait 3 days then it will be done.

ammonia takes about a week or so to detoxify to nitrite.

nitrite oxidizes to nitrate after 2 MORE weeks.

this is just an average. nitrites arent as harmful to marine fish as freshwater. long as they stay low you will be fine. corals also seem to not mind nitrite either ime. im sure a purist will cry that i am lying but w/e.

get a hydrometer or a refractometer and keep salinity at 1.025. you have a small tank. it will evaporate and salt will remain. (yay breathing room)

if you want to speed this process up. get live rock from your lfs, or get some dirty filter sponges from a petco. bacteria additives like biospira or dr tims will also help shorten the cycle to 2-3 weeks.

test test test

btw. lil nemo will do better in that tank rather than a bucket.

also do you have a heater? keep the tank's temp above 74 f

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
I always try to keep my salt at 1.022.
I already have live rock in my tank, so are you saying a need a lot more?
I do not have a heater, as the summers in Japan are really hot I actually have something to cool down the water, the temperature is usually at 80F

 

[Applepiee]

Can't seem to edit my post, so I'm double posting, sorry..

Update

Tested my water with several test kits. They didn't have everything, but I got my hands on Ammonia,PH,Alkalinity(KH),Nitrate (NO3) and Nitrite (NO2).

Here's my current water parameters:

Ph - 7.8
Ammonia - 0.25
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 10
KH - 9 drops 'till yellow​

The water cloudiness seemed to have disappeared for now, but I reckon it will come back as my tank will cycle again, I will keep eye on parameters on a weekly basis.
Also, my coral is retracted (obviously) but I can see a few peeking out.

I have also placed nemo in the tank, seemed like a better option than the bucket.

 

[Russ265]

keep ammonia below .5 ppm and nemo will live to tell the tale.

you should only care about testing ammonia, nitrite and nitrate atm.

10ppm nitrate tells me you may have been almost done with your cycle.
after a week you wont have to change water all the time to get ammonia down.

if nitrate is increasing that means you have some good bacteria going on so dont wash anything.

9 drops means you have 9 dkh
ph can rise by pointing a powerhead at the surface and letting the water ripple for gas exchange

 

[Applepiee]

Ok, thanks!

I do not have a powerhead though, It's possible that I need some equipment changes (like people stated before, I went too cheap) But still figuring out what exactly is good, and what is not good that I have in my possession, you can see that in the third picture of my original post.

 

[Michael S.]

What size aquarium do you have?
I would recommend 1lb of live sand per gallon, and 1 pound of liverock per gallon. This will help your biological filtration.
A good starter aquarium would be the JBJ Nano Cube, as well as a small tunze powerhead. That is how I began. I did this for about a year, and then upgraded to a 50 and then a 125G

 

[Applepiee]

I have 25L (6.6 Gallon) cube tank with 2KG (4.4) of rock.