If fish fry don't last 1 day

So this was my first attempt and I'm sure I did so much stuff wrong lol.
 
Are there any typical causes of death at certain times that you can use to help know what went wrong?  
 
About 10 of the eggs hatched on the night of day 8.  By the time I got home from work, they were all dead.  
 5 more eggs hatched the next night, but same thing, all dead by the time I got home.
 
Here is what I used.  6 gallon black rubber water tub thing from a farm store (CAL Ranch).  Rinsed out but not bleached.
Rotifers from my culture, sieved and replaced with fresh salt water.
Home made green water (Nanno and Tetra) until water showed green (I superglued some white bucket lid pieces to the bottom of the tub).
1.022 SG water, I also did not sterilize the water either.
Walmart airstone, bubbles sent to directly contact the eggs.  Airpump going at full power.
 
The reason I didn't sterilize anything is because I didn't have much time from when I got the tub to putting in the clay pot.  I also don't know what chemical I need (or where to get it locally) to deactivate the bleach.
 
Things I want to change:
Add sponge filter right at the beginning, even if its not connect to an air pump.
Add more rotifers.
Start the water heating for like 2 or three days before.
 
What do you guys think?  Has anyone used these rubber tubs before?  They kind of give off a strong smell so I wonder if that might be poisioning them somehow.  Anything else?
 
Thanks

I would be concerned about the tub leeching something without a good scrub and rinsed with bleach. Just rinse very well and let it dry and the bleach will be gone. Also the air pump being on full blast may be too much for the eggs. You want them moving around well but too much force can be damaging. The larvae will be very sensative to any water parameter changes. Some people actually fill the tub with broodstock water just prior to removing the tile/pot. Depends on your broodstock water quality, I had luck both ways. Matching temperature is critical in my opinion though. I would also keep the sponge filter running in the broodstock system until you are weened onto dry foods.

I just realized you used the word "rubber" to describe the tub. If its truly rubber I would be concerned even once scrubbed. A more accurate description of the type you want is a "plastic" tub.

What stores do you get the tubs from?  
 
With leaving the spongefilter in the broodstock tank longer mean I need to do more water changes in the fry tub while they are still only a couple days old?
 
Thanks

Big box retail stores. Mine have white rope handles. They are 19g tubs. Farm stores may also have plastic ones. I think some are labeled as whiskey barrel liners.

Yes you will need to do more water changes. You do not want a sponge filter during rotifer phase as it will filter out rotifers and would also collect larvae I would imagine. Larvae are very resistant to ammonia effects but they are sensative to nitrates. I have never approached the max ammonia level Wilkerson quotes in her book (3.0ppm I believe). I actually stopped even putting an ammonia alert bade in the tubs because with even minimal water changes ammonia stayed plenty low.

Are the tubs black or do other colors work?

Oooh. Yeah. I killed many animals using a flexible rubbery container once. You are looking for tubs that have the recycling 5 on the bottom. That's supposed to be food safe.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Most people use black. Blue is better for seahorses if I recall.

I have blue tubs. I Krylonned them to black, though. The paint comes off eventually with water changing but that lets you see what's on the bottom better.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Man, I thought the rubber water tubs would be alright since they were made for animal drinking water.  
 
Waste of $16.... sigh.
 
In my defense, I did try to find the round plastic ones first, but nowhere had black, so I just thought that I was mistaken and was supposed to use the black rubber stuff.

I think you might have gotten it backwards.  Ammonia kills, Nitrite not so much in saltwater.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

But he said nitrate, not nitrite.  I would think fry would be harmed by ammonia more than nitrate, too.

Yes Kathy you are correct for saltwater in general but am I crazy for thinking that larvae are the opposite actually? I will have to dig out my book to confirm the exact numbers but the ammonia level that Wilkerson lists is above the highest Seachem badge alert level even. For lack of a better term its a survival mechanism for larvae.

I will leave the previous post for discussion but explain it a bit here. Somewhere in my past readings I read a discussion that larvae are less sensitive to ammonia and it quoted Wilkerson's 3.0ppm guideline. It then discussed that larvae are more sensitive to nitrate than adult fish however. I do not recall the value quoted for nitrate. It all made sense to me at the time and made me much more relaxed on ammonia as I had overlooked the significance of 3.0ppm ammonia. I initially changed tons of water to maintain extremely low levels. Even at worst readings though I was never close to 3.0 on my clown batches.

Of course, I cannot find or recall where I read this info so it looks like I am all wet.

I don't know about everyone else, but I start to lose clown fry around 0.5 ppm ammonia, and significant loss or total loss occurs around 1 ppm.  I use the SeaChem badges (which I find don't actually produce anywhere near an accurate reading) and as soon as they show some color I add ClorAm-X.  I have to use ClorAm-X very heavily from about day 3-21(ish).  After that it seems there is a good enough population of nitrifying bacteria on the tubs' surfaces that I don't have to dose much or at all.
 
I got my tubs at a pond supply store.  They are Laguna brand (Hagen) and are 5-gallon, 9-gallon, and 20-gallon.  They are actually very, very dark green.  I like the different sizes because then I choose a size compared to the size of the batch and I can keep a good depth of water for better circulation without having too much volume.
 
I also find that air touching the eggs is bad.  I put the air stone so the air goes very close to the eggs, but not touching.  It's easier to raise a full batch than a couple dozen imo.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I made the bubbles touch the eggs cause I thought I read somewhere on there that they needed that to survive.  I'll try it the other way next time.

There's a lot of stuff to learn in this hobby. It's easy to get confused. Might want to read that book again.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

That is one of the best parts of this hobby. The more you learn - you realize even more is still out there to learn!

Ain`t that the truth!

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I'm thinking that it's not that the larval fish are more resistant to ammonia, but that larval tanks typically have lower pH levels?  At a lower pH, ammonia is less toxic.

- David Gibson
Denton, TX

I had my second attempt hatch last night (about half the eggs, going to keep bubbling the pot to see if the rest hatch).
 
There are three main differences I tried this time.
First - Used a black plastic round tub instead of the rubber one.
Second - Waited for fish to hatch before adding greenwater/rotifers
Third - Used mostly nanno in my green water instead of tetraselmsis (my nanno crashed before my first attempt, just now getting it back online).
 
At first, the results seemed to be more promissing, the fish were better able to control themselves and say in the same spot.
 
But as the hours when by, I saw more fish floating or on the bottom (I'm assuming all dead) and none in the column.
 
Two questions I have that may or may not have caused the deaths - First, should I not be shinning a bright flashlight into the water to try to find them?  Can this stun/kill them?  Second, I have two white plastic pieces glued to the bottom of the black round tub.  Can this disorient them?  And finally, if they hatch and live for a while, does that mean that the salt water salt content is alright?  I use freshly made (aged) salt water and it doesn't match all the breeding tank parameters.