adding fish after 1 week?
- Thread starter jhataway
- Start date
C
capschamp
Guest
if your readings have all come down to 0, then I would add 1 maybe 2 of the hardy fish. damsels are hardy but they are aggressive, and a lot of people wind up taking them out after they catch them picking on their other fish. A clownfish or 2 would be good.
malounsbury
Member
Most people on this board would suggest not adding a tang to a tank this small, unless you get one that is fairly small (around 1") and you plan on upgrading your tank within a year to a bigger tank. Generally, tangs needs about 6 feet to swim horizontally or else they will get stressed easily.
As for the clowns, I would suggest waiting a couple more weeks. Some of your numbers may be at zero, but you still may have a die off from your LR and you may have an amonia spike.
As for the clowns, I would suggest waiting a couple more weeks. Some of your numbers may be at zero, but you still may have a die off from your LR and you may have an amonia spike.
sw65galma
Active Member
Originally posted by ViPeR_930
I agree, you should get a clean-up crew first. 15-30 turbo snails and 15-30 hermits would be great. The algea will really start to grow after the cycle.
And what do your test say (numbers please)?
I think 15-30 turbos is wayyyy overkill.
I thought the rule of thumb was 1 turbo per 20 gals?
They zoom around so fast, that 30 would end up starving ver quickly.
Mine did.
ophiura
Active Member
WHOA there! First, did you see an ammonia spike?
Before wasting ANY money on animals I would "force" the tank with a few raw shrimp from the grocery. After a few days, if there is no ammonia spike, you may be OK to go. Otherwise, the tank may cycle with your animals, and they may die. A cycled tank should not show significant increase in ammonia; one that isn't will...and so you have some confidence in the stability of your biological cycle. I am not convinced that your tank cycled unless you have some nitrates or saw some sort of ammonia spike.
A tang is not recommended for such a young tank. Please do some research on them and let the tank mature for a few months, at least. They are a very delicate fish and need to be taken care of. Most do not survive going in so early. Also, they are a territorial fish anc can cause trouble for fish going in later on.
Before wasting ANY money on animals I would "force" the tank with a few raw shrimp from the grocery. After a few days, if there is no ammonia spike, you may be OK to go. Otherwise, the tank may cycle with your animals, and they may die. A cycled tank should not show significant increase in ammonia; one that isn't will...and so you have some confidence in the stability of your biological cycle. I am not convinced that your tank cycled unless you have some nitrates or saw some sort of ammonia spike.
A tang is not recommended for such a young tank. Please do some research on them and let the tank mature for a few months, at least. They are a very delicate fish and need to be taken care of. Most do not survive going in so early. Also, they are a territorial fish anc can cause trouble for fish going in later on.
viper_930
Active Member
Originally posted by sw65galma
I think 15-30 turbos is wayyyy overkill.
I thought the rule of thumb was 1 turbo per 20 gals?
They zoom around so fast, that 30 would end up starving ver quickly.
Mine did.
I thought it was 1 snail to every 2 gallons. Says on the turbo/astrea description on this site.
gallatea
New Member
I put fish in my tank after a week and I have a 29 gallon. I put a blue damsel, a domino damsel and an arrow crab. It's been a few weeks and they are still doing fine. I'm not sure what the hype is about test kits. As long as you're not overcrowding, do regular water changes and make sure your specific gravity is good and you have proper lighting and bedding, I think it's kind of silly. I guess the risk is low because they were 3 dollar fish though. I've always heard blue damsels are very hardy and live through everything. They did in my last tank too when I was too much of an eager beaver to put fish in early. I suppose if you're going to spend more than 3 dollars on a fish, I'd just wait the 6 weeks and let it cycle naturally ...forget test kids, and all that. Mother nature will do it for you.
sw65galma
Active Member
Originally posted by gallatea
I put fish in my tank after a week and I have a 29 gallon. I put a blue damsel, a domino damsel and an arrow crab. It's been a few weeks and they are still doing fine. I'm not sure what the hype is about test kits. As long as you're not overcrowding, do regular water changes and make sure your specific gravity is good and you have proper lighting and bedding, I think it's kind of silly. I guess the risk is low because they were 3 dollar fish though. I've always heard blue damsels are very hardy and live through everything. They did in my last tank too when I was too much of an eager beaver to put fish in early. I suppose if you're going to spend more than 3 dollars on a fish, I'd just wait the 6 weeks and let it cycle naturally ...forget test kids, and all that. Mother nature will do it for you.
Ahhhh no...
This is a closed environment, there is no mother nature....
Think of it like having a full bank acct...
You don't really need to track all your expenses...you know you got tons of money...
But like money....minerals get used that are in the water...
Mother nature isn't going to fly salt over from the ocean and drop it in your tank....Or add Calcium that the fish, corals, and inverts use...And as your money gets low, you have to start watching your balance...which is what the test kits do..
Your Tank is new and is HIGH in all these things...As time goes on, they get used and without them, you'll have dead fish...
You can be as hard headed as you want about it...but such as life you can't change things...
1+1 will always =2 try as you might you'll never get it to equal anything else...
You can try doing it your way...but as soon as your mineral "balance" gets low...You will go bankrupt trying to keep fish...that just keep dying..
Good Luck...and when you are ready for real advice on how to do things right...we'll be here..
gallatea
New Member
that is why I said if things are set up right with the proper lighting, bedding, water changes, etc...I had tanks before for years..never a problem mr. test kit. Obviously you check the spec. gravity when you do water additions and add salt accordingly. You have proper mechanical and biological filtration, etc.etc..
...don't buy into the pet supplies industry so easily..they are always ready and waiting to sell, sell, sell and put the fear of god in you if you don't use their new and improved product . Leaving things to cycle naturally with the proper substrates and NOT over crowding your tank with fishes that pollute and set off the chemistry is key...no one uses a 'test kit' on the great barrier reef last I heard...Mainly, my personal opinion is to just let the tank cycle for 6 weeks when it's new and don't add fish. Just be patient. I got my 3 dollar fish, but like I said, it would be no great risk, I've done it before, but if you're going to get expensive creatures, just wait 6 weeks and let it cycle naturally.
...don't buy into the pet supplies industry so easily..they are always ready and waiting to sell, sell, sell and put the fear of god in you if you don't use their new and improved product . Leaving things to cycle naturally with the proper substrates and NOT over crowding your tank with fishes that pollute and set off the chemistry is key...no one uses a 'test kit' on the great barrier reef last I heard...Mainly, my personal opinion is to just let the tank cycle for 6 weeks when it's new and don't add fish. Just be patient. I got my 3 dollar fish, but like I said, it would be no great risk, I've done it before, but if you're going to get expensive creatures, just wait 6 weeks and let it cycle naturally.
ophiura
Active Member
Originally posted by gallatea
I put fish in my tank after a week and I have a 29 gallon. I put a blue damsel, a domino damsel and an arrow crab. It's been a few weeks and they are still doing fine.... Mother nature will do it for you.
You were saved by having relatively small bioload with 2 tough fish. But overall, this is not the best advice. Most people don't have the self control to put two fish in a 29g tank. Even if cycling the tank with damsels, you would be told to put 5 or so in a tank of that size. You did something very similar to what I did, coincidentally on a grad school budget too, but I learned when I tried to keep more difficult animals. It doesn't really work so well. Some animals survive not because the tank conditions are OK, but because they can tolerate a very wide range of water conditions and may show no signs that there is trouble. Put another more delicate fish in at that same time and it may be dead in hours. Some animals will suffer and why do that if you could so easily get water tested? You don't even have to buy kits...most good stores will do it for you. But this isn't particularly good advice...we've reached a point where we have to test mother nature's water quite frequently too for things we've done to it.
malounsbury
Member
Originally posted by gallatea
...don't buy into the pet supplies industry so easily..they are always ready and waiting to sell, sell, sell and put the fear of god in you if you don't use their new and improved product .
I'm fairly sure that some people on this board, such as the BangGuy's and others that have been in this hooby for years, are using test kits on their tanks, and I don't believe that they're in the pet supplies industry when they're recommending that you use a test kit. But then again, I could be wrong.
Originally posted by gallatea
no one uses a 'test kit' on the great barrier reef last I heard...
True enough. But the Great Barrier Reef didn't just have 100lbs of uncured live rock dumped into it either. Nor are they dealing with 100 gallons of water there either. Mother nature works things a little differently in the real world. Your tank is a very small percentage of what is out there in the real world, and therefore has more room for error. It's not very hard to take the proper precautions to make sure everything is right ahead of time then trying to go back after you made the mistake and make everything the way it should be.
gallatea
New Member
Testing the water alone does not make it better. simply setting up a tank for a day and then testing the water and adding chemicals will not make it balanced, and if this is what you're recommending to new tank owners, you're wrong. The biology needs to grow - that takes time.
What I'm saying is set it up with the proper equipment, proper addition of substrates, when water evaporates add water & salt accordingly..let it cycle naturally. That's all I'm saying.
Testing it and messing with chemicals on a 1 week old tank is not going to make as if it's a natural part of the ocean. You seem to want to justify doing a quicky and adding what you want on a virgin tank 'just because you tested it'. what about the next day when levels can dip & dive because you didn't allow the right microorganisms to grow naturally with time.
What I'm saying is set it up with the proper equipment, proper addition of substrates, when water evaporates add water & salt accordingly..let it cycle naturally. That's all I'm saying.
Testing it and messing with chemicals on a 1 week old tank is not going to make as if it's a natural part of the ocean. You seem to want to justify doing a quicky and adding what you want on a virgin tank 'just because you tested it'. what about the next day when levels can dip & dive because you didn't allow the right microorganisms to grow naturally with time.
malounsbury
Member
I don't recall anyone in this thread advising him to add any chemicals to the tank. The reason about asking the test results was to find out if he had an ammonia or nitrite spike. Most of the people that give advice on this board usually will suggest against adding chemicals in the tank.
ophiura
Active Member
If you haven't tested the water, there is no way of knowing if you did cycle the tank with fish in it. If they went in after a week, they might have. Just because they didn't die doesn't mean that the tank didn't cycle. But you didn't "cycle" it in the classic sense of adding a high bioload early on.
We test very few things in water testing and I am not a big fan of the jar of chemicals to add idea. But tests are important measures of the stability of the tank. You have pointed out critical things you do that are important...frequent water changes, salinity checks, proper substrate, set up, etc. Not everyone does this. When problems arise, water testing can turn up major factors that might cause the problems.
There are a lot of different ways to run tanks and you have found something that works for you. Some people never do water changes. Some people don't use skimmers. Just about everyone "swears by" their way of doing it. You don't appear to be keeping particularly delicate fish but have admitted to an error in overstocking. This is a common one which sometimes people don't believe until the get a water test...which can show the affects of overstocking and overfeeding quite clearly.
As an aside: scientists do test the water on the great barrier reef. I've tested water on Caribbean reefs. Scientists test water all the time. You think people just talk about coral bleaching and don't do research into various water quality questions? But I am biased. I used to do water quality tests on 30 systems every day at a previous job. And we saw troubles brewing days ahead of time by watching interaction of pH, ammonia, etc and could take steps to correct it.
We test very few things in water testing and I am not a big fan of the jar of chemicals to add idea. But tests are important measures of the stability of the tank. You have pointed out critical things you do that are important...frequent water changes, salinity checks, proper substrate, set up, etc. Not everyone does this. When problems arise, water testing can turn up major factors that might cause the problems.
There are a lot of different ways to run tanks and you have found something that works for you. Some people never do water changes. Some people don't use skimmers. Just about everyone "swears by" their way of doing it. You don't appear to be keeping particularly delicate fish but have admitted to an error in overstocking. This is a common one which sometimes people don't believe until the get a water test...which can show the affects of overstocking and overfeeding quite clearly.
As an aside: scientists do test the water on the great barrier reef. I've tested water on Caribbean reefs. Scientists test water all the time. You think people just talk about coral bleaching and don't do research into various water quality questions? But I am biased. I used to do water quality tests on 30 systems every day at a previous job. And we saw troubles brewing days ahead of time by watching interaction of pH, ammonia, etc and could take steps to correct it.