New Saltwater Tank

[lourdbaltimore]

Okay, so I've read and read and read, and I've had good success with a freshwater aqaurium and a terrarium.
So, this undertaking is a small 10g Salt Aquarium.
My question, for those who could help, is very simple.
I had the tank up and running for about a week (with just salt water). Have lots of filtration, bubbler, and nano protein skimmer. Added Live Sand, Live Rock (only 4 lbs to start), a dozen of the small snails (Can't remember the name), and an o. clown (after the week, and not all at once). In hindsight, I should have not added a fish yet, but I thought I was getting good info from the fish store.
Snails seem to be doing fine, so far ammonia, nitrates, nitrates, ph all testing fine. Fish seem to do ok for the first few days. However, when I did my first water change after he had been in a few days, he rapidly died. I only changed about 10% or less of the H2O. I'm curious if he could have just died from stress? He just kind of went to the bottom after the change and started breathing heavily.
Ugh, frustrated, but I'll stave off the livestock for a while.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Mike

 

[Anonymous]

:welcome:

Yes, fish can die from stress but seeing as it was so close on your water change I wonder if your saltwater you mixed for the water change was the proper SG, temp (and declorinated if you are using tap water)?

 

[lourdbaltimore]

Hi, yes, sorry I was in a rush earlier.
Yes, unforutnately it is tap water, but I did declorinize it, and I mixed in the proper salt and ran a powerhead to thoroughly mix the salt and test the SG before adding it to the new tank.
I didn't think too much about the temp because I was changing such a low %, but i'm sure it was within 4 or 5 degrees.

 

[shavo]

you say the tank is a week old??? I wouldn't buy anymore fish for a few more weeks, why did you get snails already too. it is a week old. wht kind of light is on this tank?

this tank has to cycle.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, yes, sorry I was in a rush earlier.
Yes, unforutnately it is tap water, but I did declorinize it, and I mixed in the proper salt and ran a powerhead to thoroughly mix the salt and test the SG before adding it to the new tank.
I didn't think too much about the temp because I was changing such a low %, but i'm sure it was within 4 or 5 degrees.

How ling did you let the water sit before you used it? generally its accepted practice to allow it to level for at least 24 hrs. Otherwise all the ingredients may not have dissolved completely and cause problems.

 

[lourdbaltimore]

Sorry, like I said, the guy at the fishstore was helping me out, and he was hesitant, but said a fish was probably all right.
I didn't know about letting the water settle for 24 hours first, i had not read that anywhere, thanks for the advice.
I definitely don't want to kill anymore fish, so I have decided to wait a month or so before adding any.
Thanks for the help.
Mike

 

[Snowboarda42]

Sounds like a good idea.

Look into "Cycling a New Tank" (google)

Your LR will go through a die back, ammonia will spike, it will start to decline due to bacteria which change it into Nitrite. The nitrite will spike, then decline due to bacteria which change it into NitrATE. The 'trates will spike and go down as well. Once all are close to zero, you can add fish. Only do a couple at a time so the bacteria have time to catch up due to the bio-load being added. Too many fish = too much ammonia, trates, and trites = dead fishy.