OK, Water change underway so I can take a minute here. I've calmed down considerably since my first post and the toadstool looks like it's coming around, I had a bad day at work and then came home to this mess. I shouldn't be so hard on the store right off the bat. It's always easier to blame someone else.
So lets see where the problem might be, I'll walk through the whole thing again to see if I screwed up somewhere.
My system:
10 Gallon Display with a 5 gallon sump
~90watts of lighting.
~24lbs Live rock
~10lbs Sand (not necessarily live yet)
~750GPH in powerheads, etc.
Up and running for about 4 weeks. Just got an RO unit on monday at Gold's, (great deal under a hundred bucks but I gotta grab a water tank and faucet for it), so I've been using tap water (dechlorinated with prime) for 15%-20% water changes every week.
On Sunday, I checked my Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, PH. (I check these weekly, I've been using the aquarium pharmaceuticals master test kit with liquid reagents) My levels were: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, nitrate 0, ph 8.4. Assuming that this meant I was cycled (have had all that liverock in there since day 1) I decided to play cautiously and took a sample in to have it tested at the store, the staff confirmed my results so I felt confident in starting to stock this tank.
On Monday I got the 2 Coral's home and acclimitised them to my tank using the drip line in the bucket method. I've had a ton of success using this method in my freshwater tank. Monday night, everyone was happy. Tuesday everyone was happy as well, the coral's were both looking good.
On Wednesday I was back in the store and picked up the 2 clowns and a new powerhead. I left the store with the fish in a bag in a cooler in the trunk of my car and got home about an hour and a half later or 2 hours later.
Once I got home, I put the 2 clowns in the small pail I used to acclimatize the Coral's. I emptied the bag water into the pail and ran a drip line from my tank into the pail. As the clowns were acclimatizing, I pulled the old powerhead out and farted around for about an hour getting the new one put in and adjusted so it moved everything around the way I wanted it. (As I did this I would empty water out of the pail periodically) After about an hour, hour and a half of acclimitizing this way I put both fish into the tank.
They cruised around for a second and then hid under an arch. I kept the lights low and threw in a small pinch of food to help them settle in. Just before I went to bed my wife said they were lying on the bottom, I went and had a look and sure enough they were both lying on the bottom, sort of cuddled together (not curled or anything like that) in a little nook. Every now and then they would wiggle or move and it looked like they were just getting comfortable. I know some freshwater fish will lie on the bottom so I didn't think a whole lot of it and decided I'd check tonight to see if that was normal behavior or not. Coral's looked fine as well.
This morning, checked on them before work, 1 was swimming around and didn't look too stressed out or anything. I couldn't see the other one, I assumed he was hiding behind a rock and I was late for work so I didn't comb the tank for him, just remember thinking at least he's not floating at the top. Don't remember what the Coral's looked like this morning.
Came home from work and the fish were both dead, the rest of the story you guys know.
Any help, advice is much appreciated. Thanks and keep it coming!
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