All but 3 fish died yesterday. I'm feeling defeated.

[ReeferReefer]

Ha. I am looking at 1 or 2 for an 8’ long tank.....


Coral is king.....

I will say that its much easier to keep nutrients down when you have not fish

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

Hey, we don’t all live in puritanical Indiana.......


I too say “quit now”. If this hiccup is that much of a financial burden, sustainability in this hobby isn’t likely


Edit: Man. You didn’t sell that stuff yet? I felt like it was a solid deal.....

Can't sell the tank, stand & sump if my life counted on it. It's not like I'm asking crazy money. Sold everything else. Just sold the rock I had to some guy off of Offer Up last night. Sometimes you have to have patience when it comes to selling. I'll keep waiting.

 

[mdbronco]

I’ve had a similar situation. One thing led to another and another. In my case it started with first letting a beautiful but invasive macro algae gain too large a foothold. Then dosing chemicals to get rid of it. Which (I think) damaged my bio filter after I pulled out a large chunk of dead macro. Which then caused an ammonia spike. Which I then aggressively vacuumed the sand bed in order to get rid of any dirt my brain could imagine. Which then released a hydrogen sulfide rampage. And on and on.

I basically stopped doing anything and a couple of weeks after not touching anything, smells are gone, coral re bounding, and things are looking like they might turn around. Just sit back as people suggest and let things settle. Then see if you still want to sell and leave the hobby!

 

[LoneStarReef]

Peter,

I'd like to begin by welcoming you to the forum. And I am sorry that the circumstances aren't better.

I am completely with all of the advice you've been given here. I would be sorry to see you leave the hobby. I was in the hobby 5-6 years before I had any real success. You need to allow yourself more time. And you need to SLOW DOWN.

As has been mentioned previously, you are doing too much too fast. Nothing good happens fast in this hobby.

I like the 30 day rule. When you make a change to your system, you need to allow time so that if something goes wrong, you can isolate the problem. When you make 2 or 3 major changes to a tank at the same time, when you run into a problem, you will not be able to tell which of those changes caused the problem. So go slow.

The other thing I would suggest is to not be too trusting of your local fish store. Understand they are in business to make money, and, providing bottled solutions to different issues is a great way for them to bring in revenue.

Your tank is a year old. In my experience it takes 12-18 months for a tank to mature. I define mature as a tank that can maintain stable parameters. Your Green Hair Algae issue was most likely due to the fact that the tank is relatively new. I understand that a year seems like a long time to someone new in the hobby, but it isn't.

If you have elevated ammonia, then the best course of action is to identify the WHY part of the problem and correct. And I DO believe you killed off a large portion of your nitrifying bacteria colony when you did the peroxide dip.

As has been mentioned earlier in the thread; STOP adding chemicals to the tank and let nature take its course. If the green hair algae bothers you, then a scrub brush and some good old fashioned elbow grease on the rocks and glass before a healthy water change is the way to go.

This!! Slow down. Algae will come and go. Don’t get too anal about having everything perfect through the early stages of your tank but don’t give up on the basics (checking params, water changes, using RODI, etc). Mine is coming up on two years and is FINALLY stable and able to grow SPS.

Please be patient. Don’t add fish and/or corals too quickly. Let the tank mature.