My fish keep dying!

Can someone please help, this is my first tank and I am losing fish left and right.

Here are my specs-

29 gallon Hex tank.
Aquaclear 50 Power Filter rated 200 gph(foam, carbon and biomax filters)
Temp 80f
ph 8.2
salinity 1.025

Currently - 2 damsels, one crab, 2 turbo snails, one shrimp

I setup the tank with live sand, about 2 inches in the bottom.

Water change of 25% weekly.

I test regularly for Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite are near 0, but nitrate is around 50ppm.

I have read mixed reviews on how much Nitrate marine fish can handle, so I am not sure if that is the problem or not. Also I have lost a couple damsels, and a clownfish which are both supposed to be very hardy fish, so this leads me to believe the problem may be more serious.

Before the damsels died, I noticed they were becoming 'lazy' they swam funky, even sideways almost and their scale coloration lost luster.

The fiddler crab is still alive, but lost his big claw!

I know there are possible solutions I can throw at the tank (powerhead, protein skimmer, undergravel filter etc) but if I can help it, I don't want to just throw solutions at it if I don't know the problem.

Anyone have ideas? Are there other things I should test for? Any help is much appreciated, my poor fish are paying for my mistakes! Thanks!

Welcome to our forum. We do have some saltwater enthusiasts who can answer your questions, but I'm not one of them. If it were a freshwater tank, I would say ammonia and nitrite should be zero and that fish should not be added until the tank is properly cycled, which usually takes a month or so.

Thanks john... I read that the best way to start the tank cycling was to add one fish like a damsel. I did hae just one fish for a couple weeks, and when I noticed the ammonia rise then fall, nitrite rise then fall and then nitrate begin to rise, I figured it was pretty much cycled.

An aquarium in the process of cycling will have ammonia spikes. After it's fully cycled and properly maintained, ammonia and nitrites stay at zero. In a freshwater aquarium, the way to correct ammonia spikes is a series of partial water changes. Of course, water chemistry is a little more complicated in a saltwater tank.

My ammonia and nirite readings have been pretty much 0 for some time now. Nitrates have been around 50 ppm.

That's pretty close to the unsafe range. Is there left over food on the bottom of the tank? Almost any decaying matter will add nitrogen compounds. Of course, it's sometimes in the tap water, which is one reason i like live plants in my freshwater tanks. Try to make sure that everything in the aquarium is intended for use in saltwater fish tanks.

DO you hav live rock in your tank, if not I would really think about adding it. Protien skimmers are always a good adition to any saltwater setup. Your ammonia nitrate and nitrite should always be as close to zero as possibly. it also take usually twice as long for a salt water tank to cycle than a freshwater (meaning about 2 month), this could also take longer without live rock. I would honestly say your just not cycled enouph yet and like also if you dont have live rock in the tank seriously think about adding it! So I would say john hit it on the head!!!

Welcome to the forum!

Littleman is great with saltwater.

I know very little about saltwater, and what I know is from reading, not experience... But I read an article the other day stating that live rock is a very beneficial add to a saltwater set up.

From what I understand it acts as a filter itself, and if there is debris - like uneaten food... under the live rock, then you're feeding too much.

I read a lot, I hope that's right...

that pretty much right. if you use enouph live rock you, and establish it well you sometimes dont even need a filter ( I dont recomend trying this for beginers). I have a 40 gallon that I havent had a filter other than a protien skimmer on for 3 years now and its doing great. Its even a reef tank!

So should I pretty much start from scratch then?
I've read sometimes that you need a fish in the tank to make it cycle, is this true? Or will the live rock on it's own cycle the tank?
Sad... I lost another fish. Down to one.

I don't know if they have a product that is to salt water like bio-spira (sp) is to freshwater?

Maybe littleman can help here...

In theory, it's live bacteria that you pour into your tank and it establishes it.