Second day Chromis question

[Kendall_inc]

Hey everyone,

I am pretty much brand new to salt water fish so this may be a dumb question. I have a 45 gallon tank and I bought one Chromis the other day to start out. When I woke up this morning my Chromis was going forwards and then reversing over and over again at the bottom of the tank. Just back and forth over a six inch space. I turned the tank lights on and with in five minutes he was back to swimming around like normal and no problems eating. I'm just wondering if that's my fish sleeping or if there is some sort of problem?
I am cycling the tank with the Chromis. I have live rock as well which has been in the tank a few days prior to the fish.

Temp 26 °C (78.8 °F for my American friends)
Salinity 1.020 (I will be raising this very slowly through water changes as I was using a terrible swing arm that was telling me I was at 1.025. I now have a refractometer)
PH 8.2-8.4
Ammonia .25 ppm
Nitrite .25 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm

The last four tests PH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are all done with the test kits where you match the color. It's not the most accurate in my mind so if it's between two shades I usually pick the higher one if it's not obvious.

Thank you for your time and patience with a newbie!

PS

I tried uploading a photo but it just doesn't want to load. I might try with IE instead of Google Chrome later.

 

[lmforbis]

Never cycle a tank with fish. It is cruel to put a fish in that position. Some survive some don't. The ammonia is toxic and you never want detectable ammonia. If possible return the fish. Continue cycling with out it. Feed the tank as if it has a fish and wait until ammonia and nitrite both reach 0 and stay there. Only then are you ready for a fish.

 

[Kendall_inc]

Never cycle a tank with fish. It is cruel to put a fish in that position. Some survive some don't. The ammonia is toxic and you never want detectable ammonia. If possible return the fish. Continue cycling with out it. Feed the tank as if it has a fish and wait until ammonia and nitrite both reach 0 and stay there. Only then are you ready for a fish.

Gee I wish the gentleman at my LFS told me that. I had read online that this was fine and he told me it was okay as well. There's so much conflicting information.

Thanks for the information.

 

[lmforbis]

Fish stores are out to sell. Unfortunately many aren't very concerned about the fish just the bottom line.

 

[Jesterrace]

Agreed. Putting a fish through the cycling process is akin to exposing a human to a biochemical attack. Sure some might make it depending on their level of exposure but you definitely shouldn't do it willingly. Ammonia and Nitrites at any levels are toxic to fish. Imforbis is correct that fish stores like car salespeople only care about the sale. They sell you a fish to cycle and it dies either during or shortly after and then you return for another fish. Wait until your brown algae bloom is well underway before adding fish, crabs or snails.