Please help, aquarium dying?

bannobenny

Hello, I live in Australia.

4 days ago I bought myself a large 120 liter fish tank set up for saltwater fish.
The tank has a below gravel filter system and a thermostat, the temperature varies from 24 degrees to 26 degrees, which is what is recommended. The water was added with the correct amount of salt given to me by the aquarium who sold me the set up. The first day I added the water, salt, get the temperatures to the right temp and then added about 3 or 4 small pieces of live rock.

On the second day I took some water to the aquarium for them to sample, and they said the water was perfect and was cycling well. I bought and added another 5 or so large pieces of live rock, and placed them in the tank. The water seemed extremely clear and seemed to be doing very well.

The 3rd day I went in to get the water sampled and again, it was doing very well. i added 4 more pieces of live rock to finish the tank off

After adding the live rock I watched the tank for a little while and managed to see alot of little creepy crawly's get about the tank.

This morning when I got up the tank looked rather cloudy, but I was late for work so I didn't get much of a chance to look at it.

When I got home I notices some white cloudy stuff growing on the surface of the water, and a lot of the creepy crawly's looked lifeless.
I checked some of them, and it appears the miniature life is dying, I have removed 2 dead crabs and a dead snail so far.

I'm extremely worried, as I have done everything perfectly by the book, yet it seems my tank is dying.

Unfortunately I won't be able to get the water tested until Tuesday, should I be concerned or is this simply part of the cycle which gets the tank going?

bannobenny

Additional info: I have a light for the tank also, which consists of 2 white lights and one blue light, which have been on since I set the tank up, but will have them turned off for the night. The filter system is always running, should I have the lights turned off over night? Or leave just the blue light on?

Pasfur

I see nothing to worry about at all. This is typical of new saltwater setups, especially if the live rock was not cured before purchase. I would recommend waiting about a week and then doing a very large water change, possibly as much as 80%. Don't worry, the rock does not have to be fully submersed during the water change.

Given that this is your first marine experience, it would probably help you a lot to check out the articles section of our forum. Here are a couple that should really prove helpful:
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/s...shwater-31955/
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/s...t-water-19051/

After you read these articles you will probably have a lot of questions, so feel free to ask away. Welcome to the forum, we're more than happy to help.

bannobenny

Thank you for the reply. I feel much better - I have managed to make some time tonight to pop in and get the water tested. Im hoping they don't find anything wrong. Your articles were a good read and very interesting. I do have a few questions but I will post them at a later time as I'm using my phone on break at work.

Pasfur

I suspect that your water tests will show high ammonia and/or nitrite. This would not be anything wrong, but just a normal progression in this tank. You should not take ANY action to correct this. Just let it ride out over the next week, then do a water change, and things will mature naturally from there.

bannobenny

No worries - I'll keep that in mind. Will my rock be alright during this stage? Some pieces have small bits of coral growing on them and others have some seaweed looking stuff. Also, im worried that all the dead life in the tank will contaminate water. How many days roughly will it be before the tank clears up a bit? Also is there any way to remove the muck on the surface or should it be left alone? Thanks again.

Pasfur

Its difficult to answer these questions without knowing the setup. Can you post some pictures and describe the equipment you are using?