All clowns have died. Wth!

[SaltyJZ]

Well guys the show is over. My clownfish finally died. Not encouraging. Just to recap. Purchased a 70 gallon tank. Octopus protein skimmer. Have about 60 pounds of live rock. Did two water tests the last two weeks and the aquarium store said it was perfect. Did my own and it looked great. So. Two weeks ago purchased two clowns from store and they both passed away. Will take blame for that because I was in 3rd week of cycle. However the store said it would be okay yeah right. When those died I picked up a fire shrimp a domino damsel and two blue devil damsels to help cycle the tank. I am beginner so I listen to the sales people. Not working out. Last Saturday picked up two more clowns and put it with previous listed fish. First two days great. From Tuesday till Friday smaller clown did not eat and died. I then noticed white string on bigger clown. String went away and this morning big clown was dead. What the hell is going on. Don't know what to add. Need suggestions. Have lost for clowns and all damsels are alive and well. Fire shrimp good. And oh I added a star bleeny. . .....

[chrisfont23]

Listening to sales people (in a down economy nonetheless) just lines their pockets. re-Start off by reading Lees stickies.

[chrisfont23]

Also...if you don't have any test kits you should invest in them. This puts everything in your hands rather than that of some local merchant looking to make a buck. To play it safe I would be adding my next fish somewhere around Labor Day if I were you.

[leebca]

You are getting poor quality advice, sorry to say. Hobbyists today don't need to risk marine fish's lives in the cylcling process. Its an effort to reduce fish loss and in removing fishes from the ocean/sea/reef unnecessarily.

Giving the new systems time is the most important ingredient and following recommendations that have worked for decades. I'd suggest following this process in the future: Setting Up a FOWLR Aquarium as I think others have suggested to you.

For now, just take it slow and give it all time to settle. For a FOWLR system, if that is what you're interested in setting up, the usual is about 2 pounds of LR per gallon of water. This depends on the density of the rock, of course. Substrate is usually no more than 1.5" deep.

You should probably review at least the above linked post to compare that which the advice you've been following and given. Good luck!

[Reefing Madness]

2lbs of Live Rock per gallon for a FOWLR? Hmm. Thought that was for a Reef Tank.

[Original Fin]

I agree with Lee on this since you're likely to stock a FOWLR heavier than you typically would a reef. The more natural biofiltration the better. If you are running additional wet dry filtration, you could go lighter on the rock, but why mix it up?

[leebca]

As Original Fin has said. . .If the LR is the biological filter source, then for a FOWLR system, the 2lbs/gallon is the formula. If there will be ancillary biological filtration, then this isn't important.