sick ciclids and brackish water tanks

Question
Hey Mr.Chris Robbins , I have some quetions about brackish water fish tanks. I just started this hobbie about 3 and a half weeks ago I have my tank setup about 2 weeks before I put the fish in it. I have a 30 gallon tank and at the begining I was not sure what kind of fish I wanted to put in it so I went with ciclids. I purchased cruch coral and got some stress zyme and a stress coat in which I was suppose to put 10m for every 10 gallons on the 1st , 7th and 14th dayz. I did that ! Then for the stress coat I put in three 10 ml per us gallon. Did that, and waited a week after before I even got any fish. My tank in the begining had a tuff time to clear up before I got fish then I got so clear water solution and added that and it cleard up in a couple of days. Sounds like I put too much chemicals huh , lol ? I was just doing what the " so called experts and the pet shops knew " told me to do. SO when I got the ciclids they were already kind of big I didn't go with the normal little baby size ciclids I went straight for the big guys , but whatever. I was super hyped and wanted my tank to look good right away. I bought about 6 ciclids and they were fine for almost a month the I notice some fluffy white cotton type of stuff on their bodies some people said that it was ick or something like that,and they started dying.   Now I dont know what to do! I did what everybody told me to but I failed my poor fish. Tell me all you can and leave some well informed information like all I need to know about brackish water and ciclids and brackish puffer fish so I can not do the mistakes I did the first time. The PH in my tank is exactly around 7.6 . I also added a fish cure medicine and the tempature is at 82f so the three remaining can possibly survive. I need help ASAP what should I do about ciclds my brackish water set up and how to clean it and how to keep it healthy and cyrstal clear. Thank You a new hobbiest in fish tanks Peter.  

Answer
Hi Peter;

There were probably just too many fish in there to get it started without poisoning from "New Tank Syndrome" toxins from the break-in period. You have to start very slow to keep the starter fish from getting sick and/or dying. If they are still alive, make a 25% water change every day for the next 4 days. This will reduce the toxins so that hopefully the fish can tolerate them. You will have to keep doing them about twice a week after that to protect them until the break-in period is over.  

Here is a link to my article on new tanks;

http://www.xanga.com/Expert_Fish_Help

They might also be fighting. Are you sure the fish are compatable? Are there plenty of caves for hiding? Do you know what types of cichlids they are? Scientific names would probably have been given when you purchased them. Let me know what they are so we can check it out.

Puffers should not be mixed with most other fish, even cichlids. They have very sharp teeth and will take chunks out of your other fish if they can't eat them whole. Cute, but not friendly at all. Here is more info on them;

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile31.html
http://puffernet.tripod.com/
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/4742/puffer.html

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins