Newbie mistakes - local style

i have a 2' x 1' x 1'. have 6 small fishes. no LR, just sand bed. did not cycle water long enough as i thought i have sea water should be ok.

then 2 fishes got kill by the fire clown fish. later all the other fishes start to get white spots and eventually all die.

try to save them with metafix. no cure.

has been 3 weeks now since the last fish die. still cycling the water with bacteria added to tank every week.

now have small worm on the tank wall, very small one. not sure what they are. and some brown algae. heard that brown algae is not good, any advice from bro here???

The QT is to make sure thr fish is free of desease before being introducing to the main tank and causing a major outbreak and to let the fih adapt to life in captivity. If directly into main tank, will be stress from transport, new enviroment and harass by other fish.

My QT now is a simple 3 ft tank with substrate, some coral rocks for fish to hide so they wont be so stress, with normal FL without corals. Filteration is just ehiem 2013 canister filter and DSB. Leave the new fish there for 3 weeks if all's well, transfer to main tank a

I have heard some people that uses a bare tank with some coral rocks. They apply copper treatment during quanrantine period or hyposalinity to make sure the fish is free of disease.

I didnt like to ideal of putting fish in QT cos have to WAIT weeks before can see in main tank. But after the minor outbreak of Ich, think better use QT. Headache of treating ich when in main tank.

Algae outbreak during cycle new tank is ver common. If you keep you nitrate and po4 down and weekly changes of water snd throw in some algae eaters, it will go away as the tank matures.

Like to share my recent mistake. Introduce a mimic tang (small) into my main tank. The poor fella almost kill by the yellow tang.
I did not have this problem, with the introduction of my Naso and later PBrT. Think the saying, do not put a yellow color fish or similar shape fish into an established tank with a yellow tang existing oredy.
Took out the mimic tang just after half and hour and put into my 2ft sort of Q tank, but still died the next day.

1 of my other mistake was to wash my lr with freshwater mths ago,and thx to bro deep_end,with his advise everything was fine again

[trevally]

After reading all the bros mistakes here, I got mine too. Went to punggol and caught a few fireworms and crabs. Throw into my 1ft tank and damm it, they killed my shrimps and feather dusters.

Spent $20 on 2 fat cleaner shrimps but became food for my hawkfish in 20 seconds.

1) Bought Tangs, Butterflies and Angels a few weeks after starting the hobby because they looked nice. None are alive now obviously.

2) Always buying new fish almost immediately each time some others die.

--> MAJOR lesson learned is to have PATIENCE !!!!!

[Kohaku]

Dun buy mantis shrimp for your marine aquarium.

I got mine at $5 and I lose 2 porcelein crabs and a zebra shrimp. Now I see the compatiblity of the fishes and shrimps before i buy any of them. And most important, dun see the things cheap or beautiful then buy. think before you buy anything.

As for the mantis, I let go of it. Now concentrating on what is remaining in the tanks.

Originally posted by Kohaku
Dun buy mantis shrimp for your marine aquarium.

I got mine at $5 and I lose 2 porcelein crabs and a zebra shrimp. Now I see the compatiblity of the fishes and shrimps before i buy any of them. And most important, dun see the things cheap or beautiful then buy. think before you buy anything.

As for the mantis, I let go of it. Now concentrating on what is remaining in the tanks.

Hi, just wanna find out where I can look out for information regarding marine fishes and shrimps compatability?

What's the recommended tank size for starting out?

Zero experience,
James