hello and please help

Hello everyone!! Im excited to be part of this hobby! Like everyone i want to make sure im doing things correctly! So here are my questions, i got a 14 gallon biocube as a birthday present 12 days ago, i put about 16 lbs of live sand, 11 lbs of live rock and a bottle of live bacteria, i let it all settle for a week, then on sat i bought 4 tiny damsels, 2 yellow tails, one all blue and a four stripe! Now when i got the 4 stripe i noticed a couple white dots now they spread all over his fins!! So i researched and i believe its ich, i read that garlic was a good cure i tried it yesterday, i smashed up one clove all the fish ate it up! But Piere (4 stripe damsel) still has the dots!! Also i started getting this green moss like stuff growing all over the tank! what is it and is it harmful? Another question i have is, arrowhead drinking water ok to use and do i need to use conditioner with the drinking water? Then what are some mods i should make to my biocube, so far i just have the biocube protien skimmer, koralia nano and i dont use the carbon filter, is that bad? Also when can i add corals and what types/how many in the biocube 14g? The temp is around 84 F when the lights are on and 78 when lights are off, no heater! then i have the API 5 in 1 strips but they are difficult to read! anything better out there? And finally what chem s should i invest in to help maintain the water quality and health of fish and corals? Deffinetly appreciate anyone who takes their time to read this and respond!!

p.s whats the diff between sps and lps corals? Amd when should i add a clean up crew?

 

SLow down a bit.... You are going WAY to fast.
let your system be stable before you start adding more stuff.. I would recommend to take some fish back but... thats just my 2 cents.:

and welcome to 3reef.

 

+1 to slowing down. With a tank that small I would only have started with one or two damsels. They are hardy fish and can withstand the harsh conditions until the tank becomes stable. As for the water, is that distilled, or bottled? I would strongly recommend purchasing a reverse osmosis/deionizing purifier. The "green moss stuff" is most likely just green algae and it is not good to have and I am convinced that it is probably due to high nitrates/phosphates in the tank because you added so much livestock right off the bat. I would also say a cleanup crew would be good to add right away as they will help clean up the tank which is going to quickly get dirty with everything you have in the tank. As for the ich it is probably because the fish are stressed from trying to "win over" their own territory in the tank. Damsels are very aggressive and territorial so they will do everything the can to pick on the smaller fish until they eventually die freeing up more space in the tank. I would purchase a good testing kit and check your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels in the tank to see if the nitrogen cycle has even completed yet. If you have any other questions or have trouble with the ich/algae bloom let us know!! Pics would be awesome also!

 

Looks like he does just have 4 Damsels total, that is pushing it in a 14g unless you have a really good skimmer and upkeep. I would do a pair of clowns and maybe just one more small fish (meaning it's adult size won't exceed 3" or so).

 

Holy moly you're fast! +1 to the other comments.

I'd recommend reading everything you can get you're hands on. Articles here can be helpful, and I would recommend a starters marine aquarium book. I too am a noobie, but I found going as slow as possible is the best route. I know it's exciting but your fish are already showing signs of stress, something you don't want. I would take the fish back if you can and let your tank cycle and steady out... Get a good handle on how to do water changes efficiently and research each fish as much as possible.

And I know some would say damsels are ok to cycle with but that makes them stressed and often kills them... To me it sounds cruel especially when it's possible to do without hurting any fish.

And about the arrowhead drinking water, I would invest in a small RODI unit to run your own water. We can drink water with TDS in it, but the fish are more receptive to small amounts... You want to eliminate as many particles as you can.

If you have more questions feel free to post.

 

Just wanted to say

Heyyyyy Fonzi - Welcome to 3 reef

Steve

 

Most of my tank water is tap but some is bottled water, is bottled water same as RO or RO is best, and is buying distelled water better idea? I dont have room to setup an RO system! And how do i go about returning the fish, bc the damsel with ich had it before i brought it home, i was just to ignorant to think the white dots were actually not supposed to be there (there were a couple on his tail and then now its all over his fins and tail)! Thanks for all your wisdom and help! BTW Ive tried to upload some pics but it keeps saying error uploading!

 

IF you can get a ro/di system, do it. Me personally, I hate going to the store to buy water. You can use distilled water. I don't know if your LFS will let you return those damsels. The LFS will most likely blame you for the ich.
Upload your picks to tinypics or photobucket. and use the img link.

 

Distilled is much better then tap or bottled,but ro/di is even better,your tap/bottled water can contain phosphates(very good fuel for algea) and heavy metals(just bad for the tank alltogether).And yes 4 damsels is alot of fish for that small of a tank,if you plan on adding coral,you may want to reduce your "bio-load)as the waste from them will make it difficult to keep the tank water stable.You do need a good test kit(api make a decent liquid test kit as well as several other brands)-you'll need to have 0 ammonia,0 nitrites,and less than 10ppm nitrates for the water conditions to be suitable for basic coral.Now for the ich-ich is a parasite that lives on fish,a fish can fight it off if they remain healthy and keep eating,the ich will remain in the tank,even though it seems to be gone,if the fish are stressed or their immune system is weakened(from poor water conditions,a bully fish picking on a weaker one,etc.)it can let the parasite overtake the weak fish,usually killing it.Do not add copper based ich medication to your tank(if you ever want to keep inverts and corals)The safest way to get rid of ich is to go fishless for at least 6 weeks (the parasites will die off if they don't have a fish to host off of).Also after your tank has completed it's cycle,you will want a clean up crew to help with uneaten food,diterious(sp?)and to help comsume algea.I would also add the carbon,it will asorb dissolved organics and help keep your water looking clear.Sounds like you have a good start,just need to do some tweeking.This is a very slow paced hobby,but i've learned the hard way that patience definatly pays off.Best of luck and welcome to 3reef!

 

If you are getting an error uploading to this site it is probably because the pics are too big. You have to use a tool such as microsoft office pic manager to shrink them until they are smaller than the limit this site has.