Sounds like your LFS was not giving you very good advice. For instance here is an article on mandarins
http://www.reefreaders.com/content/view/24/1/ that can help you see where you went wrong. Here is a free podcast that gives you information about starting a tank. You might want to give it a listen to make sure that you haven't received any other mis-information. If you don't have an MP3 player you can download iTunes for free to your computer and listen there.
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/po...isode-1-a.html