First off, forgive me for sounding so naive. this is really my hubby‘s deal but he is away on business so I am taking care of the aquarium. We have a (new) 55 gal salt water tank set up, and the fish store people told us we needed to have at least 5 fish to activate the live rock or something like that. So far 2 fish have died and I cant find the 2 crabs that hitch hiked in on the rocks either. I have a feeling at least one of the crabs is okay, just hiding. But I really hate dead fish. Is there any way to start off without the need for starter fish.? Any tips/advice is very much appreciated. Thanks.
Your store is just trying to sell you stuff. I would recomend finding a new one If you have live rock there's no need to activate it. Most live rock is what's called 'uncured' and actually a lot of living material on it (from when it was in the ocean) that dies in shipping and causes ammonia spikes, so more likely than not more fish may die as the tank cycles, sorry.
i wonder what pets store was that that they made you buy fish, first You have to put the substrate wit salt water and live rocks in the tank don't put any fish because they will die due to the high ammonia levels an things like that u have to wait sometimes weeks or even months before u can put anything living i there but there is a trick to speed up the process you can but bacteria which you get at the pets store like pet-smart or petco and u put like 3 caps or something like that it says in the instructions and then add one cap every two days after that u take in a sample of the water to test (most of the times is free) and they will ask you how long have u had it how many fish you have in there and things like that if they say that everything looks fine you can take a fish or a small coral a (soft coral) like the mushrooms or a fish a damsel is really good and cheap but only buy one thing at a time or a fish and a coral then u have to wait like a week before u put in a new coral or two weeks for a new fish and thats because everytime you add something new you change the chemistry of you tank and the fish release a lot of waste so they water and things like that break it down and it takes longer about the crabsyou want to have at least 10 and 10 snail because they are the ones who clean the tank and u will have to buy at least 3 or 4 a month because crabs are crazy and they kill each other anything that dies in the tank dont take it out it sounds grose but it will help ur tank trust me if you ever have to stick your hand make sure it is washed and u dont have any lotion or soap because that will kill the fish, good luck and have fun
Turn the wipers on, while they are in mid wipe, turn off the key, not the switch. If you turn off the switch while the key is on, they will park under the hood.
