After all the help/suggestion/advice threads here it is... My 29g build

So let's start from the start. It was mid October and I was half way thru the semester of my junior year of high school. I took marine biology as one of my electives, I want to study that in college so it was the natural start. As part of the corse my class mates and I were split into groups called fish tank groups. Each group is given a 29 gallon tank, 4 bulb t-5 lighting maxi jet power head and a canister filter. Basic setup but it works. We were also given dry sand/ crushed coral dry rock and 1 price of live rock. We were told after the cycle we could add fish coral etc. We were taught water vchanges water test. The beginner works. Our teacher however was perposly vague on some information to help us learn about the hobby and ultimately fish. We were given 100 dollars per group and were told that anything over 100 is out of our pockets. I was excited I have had a fresh water tank briefly before but never had any ideas on salt water. I became hooked

I would spend ally free time looking at fish coral inverts.. But I would soon find out that my group had different ideas than I did. So I made a deal with my mom.

Good grades on mid term posting she would help me start a tank. Sure enough grades come out and I pulled a 3.6 gpa. So we went to pet smart. Got a 29 gallon, figured it would be good since it's the same size as my tank at school, a HOB filter a small heater. Small power head. Salt. Bucket. Siphon tubing, crusted coral, some fake rock etc. At the check out we asked he clerk what sort of saltwater fish the store had. We we're told no salt water fish was sold at pet smart and were reffered to a LFS about 20 mins from our house.

I had never seen a store that only catered to fish. At this point I was in full obsession of the hobby.

We got to the store...2 stories of heaven! I was amazed at the fish, the stores displays all the equipment. Later I would find out that this store the prices are high and the people are jerks and only out for money.

Well to sum up my first trip I bought 20 pounds of live sand to mix with the CC and 30lbs of live rock.

I set everything up rocks sand water fake plants filter going. Pics to come.

Well I watched the levels rise and fall brown algae bloom and then added 2 ocell clowns, 2 pepermint shrimp, and a fire shrimp at the request of my mom. All bought from that store that would turn out to be jerks for the stories sake I'll call it johns.

So we came home and I placed all of the inhabitants in the tank after acclimation, no QT, well the fire shrimp died before he even got to the tank. And johns wasn't giving us a refund. But we bought another...

To speed up the story my tank at school was a tank that had to speak to everyone but I made my tank for me, found a new store, Nemo's Reef, and now I'm ready to roll.

 

Early tank spot set up

My 2 clowns(Colton and Remmington)

Fire shrimp(kid cudi)

 

I had a blue spot jawfish that I bought from johns the jerk store didnt tell me they like to jump he was unnamed died the day after got him, he jumped out while I was at school

And my potters angle,Harry, he was added 2 days after the jawfish jumped and died a week later. Before I even knew about QT and certain fish I would just drop them in willy nilly and I payed for it the potters had some sort of parasite still waiting 3 weeks later before adding fish.

Now I don't justify my mistakes I should have done more research and. Made sure I knew what I was doing. I was jut so excited, I have since then calmed down and researched about EVERYTHING

I now have a QT and plan on QT The fish I get.

 

Fast forward 8 weeks and I have learned alot and made lots of changes

Canister filter
T-5 4 bulb lights are ordered and on the way
Bigger power head.

Now here is the set up as it stands

 

Repost these pics, they are small

 

Looks good, just food for thought that jaw fish needed fine sand thats a few inches deep to be happy. idk what kind of substrate your using looks to me like freshwater gravel. Not ideal for saltwater tanks. Specially if you want some fish that use it as a bed like gobies. all fish can jump so just keep it in mind... The angel prolly died cuz your moving too quick!! slow down and add fish slowly. new tanks need time to develop beneficial bacteria to help process nitrites and stuff. Are you running a skimmer? whats your water change schedule look like? your canister running anything in it?

 

Also, Make sure not to name the fish until at least a month into it's own survival.........It makes it all that much easier to send it toilet surfing.....LOL

 

Lol it's more of my mom hah but I kinda liked them.

 

Oh and the substrate is fairly fine, the pick is blurry, it is live hawaiian volcanic black sand mixed with some crushed coral. The ratio is roughly 3/4 black sand to 1/4 coral. I know I moved to fast for the potters. The canister is running sponges 2 carbon pouches and 2 stages of bio max ceramic rings

 

+1 Couldn't have said it better. Especially the bacteria thing. They won't grow over night, but you seem to have a patient mindset. You'll do fine, even better now that you're doing more research before moving ahead. Good luck.