oh when i got the tank at the time, i had no idea of what a marine tank was about. I had a few guppies in a little tank when i was a kid but thats that. Anyway, the fish looked happy, so i went to the pet shop asked the guy there about what fish i can add to my tank. So i went and bought over a peroid of a year; 2 clowns (nemo looking guys) and another clown ( big one with yellow and black stripes) and a fire shrimp and another damsel. so in total 6 living fish in my tank.
They were all looking good and happy. at this time i had done some sort of research but not enough obviously. I cleaned the filter media once in this time ( with fresh water)
I KNOW! Anyway. I left for the Sates last year beginging of december for 3 months, asked my maid to feed the fish every 2-3 days. only a little. but i think she over fed them and things went pear shaped (cant blame her though, she knew nothing either) had 2 fish left and the prawn. others all died
my girlfriend tried to save the tank but she couldn't do much.
so i got back, immediately started doing some mamoth research. learnt all bout the whole nitrogen cycle and so on. bought a nitrate and nitrite tester. nitrites were good. almost nil. nitrates however were off the scale of the test chart! did two 20% water changes, cleaned the sand and everything. and checked a week later. to no avail:arghh: and the salt cost quite a bit ( im a student by the way)
I went to the pet shop, this is now about a month ago, and bought the whole range of Organic Aqua, some activated carbon, some filter cotton, and Purigen ultimate filtration stuff. Only if i could go back in time!
now im sitting here, with my nitrates still off the scale and half of the Organic aqua stuff i paid my arm and leg for, a test kit and a siphon pipe. Im also sitting with 8kg of salt, which im really keen on doing another water change, but i need to find the source of these nitrates! im thinking bio balls?
So now the question is. how do i get this baby back on track again? I feel like a bad father who has neglected his kids! I really dont want to put these fish under any more stress, but i suppose im gonna have too!
Sorry bout the whole life story, but i guess you guys will be able to help more if you know the tanks story etc.
really hope u guys can get me kick started in the right direction. sadly i dont have a camera at the moment to take pics with but as soon as i can get them ill send a few. its not that pretty though!