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- Fluval 13.5 set comes with LED marine light and pump - Fluval Mini Skimmer - Solid type cabinet Used ard 9mths and recently upgraded to a bigger Redsea Tank hence selling this one. No livestock, just the above mentioned equipment. Will throw in some marinepure media. $280 for this plug & play set Self collect from my place @ 563588

Hi guys I bought one of those all-in-one tanks to start my first marine aquarium. 25 gallons, with a black plastic cover and three flourescent tubes (2 white, 1 red). I added an additional air pump and was patient and listened to my LFS who said no fish till at least a month. So I put the substrate (crushed coral), added 14kg of live rock and let the system cycle. I've had the tank now for three months and in it I currently have 2 clown fish, 1 neon damsel, 1 firefish, 1 bubble tip anemone, 1 fan tube worm, 2 peppermint shrimp, 1 banded cleaner shrimp and 1 skunk cleaner shrimp. They all look ok, but I suspect that things in my tank are not going too well. The reading on my tank are: pH 8.3 Nitrates 0.1 I change about 10% water every other week with salt water that I make up myself. The reason why I suspect things are not too well are that in the short three months I have had many deaths and I want to make sure that it's all ok with the current inhabitants before I go and change or add anything. Snails just don't seem to live more than a week in my tank. They eat like their hungry hungry hippos and then just slow down and then die. I've lost 2 bubble tip anemones - they were fine and healthy when I bought them, looked fine when I first put them in the tank, then after about 2 weeks they lose all their colour and or just don't open up and then died. 2 fan tube worms have dropped their crowns and I don't know if they are still alive and I want to find out what stressed them so much for them to drop their crowns. The shrimp all leave them alone BTW. I have lost one firefish completely. It was there one day and not there the next. No signs of it being ill - no spots, eating well etc, but one day only one firefish emerged from their usual bolthole. I get algae in the tank - of the red variety. It seems to disappear when the light is off and once the light comes on, after an hour, all the rocks are covered in it. I removed one of the white flourescent tubes (white aqua sun 24W) at the advice of my LFS who said it was too hot and it's a bit less, but still happens. SO after that lengthy explanation, my question to this forum is: Any thoughts or advice on what I am doing wrong ? My LFS says that a marine tank takes about 6 months for the water to mature before it becomes healthy. Am I just experiencing teething problems ? What do I do with my lighting ? I wouldn't mind changing to a system where I can use metal halides or compact flourescents, but nothing I read says flourescents are bad for tanks. Why do I get so much algae ? What water do you use when you do a water change ? Every online forum says you MUST use RO/DI water but I can't even find these at the fish shop and the ones I see online are super expensive. Overall, I just want to have a healthy tank with happy inhabitants !