Salt water people- advice please?

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.Salt water people- advice please?
The fish store isn't all that wrong here. Most live rock purchased is already what they call ';cured'; which simply means all the die off which would add ammonia to your tank is gone. They are having you start the nitrogen cycle with fish. Either way works the same just some do not like to use fish for this others do.





Live rock simply means it is live with bacteria and creatures.





Your fish more than likely died due to an ammonia spike from the live rock and the addition of fish. Water tests are needed to determine this. Your husband should have a testing kit, even if it is a simple test strip. At least you will know when the spikes are happening. Then a water change is needed to bring the levels down (between 25%-50% no more ) of the water. The crabs are more than likely hiding here.





Also, you need to acclimate the fish well prior to adding them to a tank especially a new tank. Honestly the live rock could have started the tank by itself and one or two of the fish. 5 is a bit much with rock to start again the ammonia spikes more than likely got them.





Cured rock always has critters on it that is the beauty of live rock. Never know what you are going to get as a hitch hiker.





How are your star fish doing? If the water is high in ammonia they won't last long so you may need a water change.





Quite simply everyone has their own ';WAY'; of starting a salt tank. Rock or no rock, live sand or regular dolomite fish or no fish. Personally I have done all possiable ways of cycling. The main thing to remember is if you are using fish you need to monitor the water closley for the first few weeks. This is the old school and many fish stores still use the fish cycling technique since it is faster and a well monitored tank leaves no scars or causes little to no harm to the fish.





Just imagine if you tried dumping in your ';real'; or centerpiece fish and they died? Using common fish like damsels is like using feeder fish like common guppies to cycle. (not that that is a good thing)





You can simply use the live rock and the fish that are left to finish cycling the tank. To cycle will take about 1 1/2 months to mature will take about 6 months there is a difference here.





http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/bionitr鈥?/a>





Check this site out for more info.





Again they were going with the 10% of the volume in fish for cycling. Typical.Salt water people- advice please?
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.
Live rock does NOT need fish to activate it.


Since this tank is new.


Your fish WILL die without being cycled.





On this website it shows instructions on how to cure, or ';activate'; you live rock to a new tank.


Look for method B





http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/gener鈥?/a>
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