all fish dying in one day?

I would recommend a good book on reefing or saltwater aquariums. I don't have one to recommend but just go down to your local Barnes and noble or whatever and pick on up. It'll help a lot.

 

your tank looks to be nice ,however from the pics I would say you dont have enought flow (watermovment) in their , bye the amount of cyno algea on your coral(candy cane) in particular. also I would imagine that you need to reduce the amount that you are feeding the tank as you also have green hair algea , most algeas will do well when their is a high nutrient level in the water.
as your tank is not that old you also need to slow down your stocking of the tank looks pritty full for 4-5mths.
#1 thing I would suggest is a water change maybee 25% but TAKECARE to add the new water at the same salinity,PH and temp. as this is a large amount for a unstable tank.
#2 thing put a airstone in the tank or break the waters surface tention with a power head
to allow gas transfer to the tank.

good luck to you.
The start is always the hardest , reserch your hobbie and reep the rewards

 

you can get a marine test kit at petsmart (the reef kit will contain most everything you need to test for). The ones where you add the chemical to the test tube are the favorites i think. (make sure it is for salt water/marine).

I started out with saltwater tanks for dummies (the yellow dummies books). GREAT book to start with. Very non confusing and explains the whole cycling process. Also has good lists of do's and don'ts. Use this book in conjunction with asking questions on the forums and you'll be good to go.

Also a good rule of thumb is to never completely trust something your LFS tells you. If you want a fish, put it on hold and then come search it on the forums and on google so you know what you're getting into. Just yesterday my LFS tried to sell me a tang knowing i had a 28 gallon; to which i was like are you serious? I know it sucks but better safe than sorry.

 

After some thought, I doubt they do water changes considering they don't have any testing equipment.

 

by the way, im really pushing that dummies book . It wont explain everything, but it will definitely pull you out of the dark on almost all subjects related to reef and fish keeping

Ive had my tank for 8 months now and i still refer to it on occasion

 

I have that book as well and recommend it.

 

i do a 20% water change every 2-3 weeks.

and thanks everyone you have helped a lot!
im definatly going to get that book.

thanks again!!

 

Be VERY sure as to not get vol. 2 of that book (I hope thats not what you guys are talking about). I have Saltwater for Dummies Vol. 2 and it is absolutely horrid. A reason I personally made as many mistakes as I did.

 

the other thing I would ask....is do you add fresh or saltwater when you top off the tank? You should only add fresh water when you are refilling water loss to evaporation as it is just the water that evaporates and not the salt. You might want to check your salinity.

I would recommend getting basic saltwater test kit..I use API but you just mainly need a kit that tests Ph, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. API is an easy kit IMHO to use. Based on the type of tank you have you should not have any other corals but softies...(mushrooms, zoos, etc) so you likely will not need to test for Ca and Kh at this point.

I would also suggest you get a bottle of Prime....any good LFS and I think Petsmart sells it. It is a GODsend for things like this, or for when you do not have saltwater mixed for emergencies like this...it will buy you time until you can do a waterchange by lowering ammonia and nitritates in your water.

I would suggest getting rid of the tang first thing..they do require a lot of swimming room. Also the seahorse should be in a species only tank (I had a seahorse in my first tank also) so you are not alone! Unfortunately there are some salespeople who will sell you whatever knowing that it will not work....I was lucky and found some good people to help me out.

The first thing you need to learn is about the nitrogen cycle...nobody should have a tank without the basic understanding of that cycle. This site is an awesome site to learn from.

I would remove the fish that was recommended and sell back ASAP. Do the waterchange and get the above stuff. I would caution adding a powerhead at this point until you remove the seahorse...otherwise the horse will get sucked into it...they are HORRIBLE swimmers. But once you remove that I would also suggest adding a powerhead. Make sure the surface of the water is moving...should have movement to increase oxygenation.

Then fight the temptation to add anything for a while until everything settles down.

Good luck and hang with it. It will get easier once you have a basic understanding of the chemistry of saltwater

 

no , i think its just the first one. What do you mean by volume two of the dummies book? Just curious.

well regardless of the book you get, you can always reaffirm anything you find out in the book by searching the forums. Its a good place to start and will give you the right and more specific questions to ask.