I May Have Goofed!!!!1

stevedsona

Member
Well lets see... I Started my 30 gal SW tank 6 weeks ago. I have 30lbs of live Tonga rock and 30Lbs of live sand. The tank has not cycled yet and the guy at the fish store told me to add some more life. So I listened and add 2 ocl clowns and 3 turbo snails is this going to hurt the fish and snails? I used RO water.
I also read in some other post that a bio wheel is bad is that true?
Thanks for the help
 

moray345

Active Member
first of all wlecome!!!!!!:santa:
Yea you goofed but not totally your fault get the snails/fish out and take them bcak wait 6-8 weeks for your tank to cycle and then you can get fish and life
HTH,
Moray345
 

ophiura

Active Member
Well I would hold up a bit....
So you added the rock and sand at the time you set up the tank?
Did you see any ammonia at all? Do you have any nitrates?
Because with that much LR, and no additional ammonia source, you may have somewhat of an established system. It may be able to handle the fish.
Now, as I see it, you have two options:
1) return the fish, then "push" the tank with some dead shrimp from the grocery. You may see ammonia, you may not....but you know you have challenged the biological filter. If you do get ammonia, the tank will cycle.
2) Keep the fish, but be slow to add more and watch your feeding. You may be OK, and just need to be careful in overburdening the filter by adding lots of fish. Watch your water quality to see if you get ammonia now that you have an ammonia source (they are effectively like what the dead shrimp are in the scenario above). You may not see any more ammonia...then just be slow in stocking. You may see ammonia and then take the fish back for "holding" until the cycle is completed.
But, IMO, you are not guaranteed at this point to see an ammonia spike with the 2 small fish and 30lbs of rock.
Biowheels are not really "bad" just potentially not necessary. IMO not with all your sand and rock, but the concern is that the pads will trap food and this will basically rot there...so rinse the pads often. The wheels are sometimes called a "nitrate factory" but this is misleading, IMO. Just that they are very effective at breaking down ammonia. I think read up some more on that, wait and see how your tank does, and then make a decision...if you end up with a lot of nitrates, you may wish to remove them and just use the filters for circulation.
 

pontius

Active Member
I agree, if the tank has been up 6 weeks with that much live rock and sand, 2 small clowns certainly aren't likely to push it into cycling. it has probably already cycled and you just didn't really noticed.
 

stevedsona

Member
The rock and sand was added the sametime at start up..
Ammonia did peak at .5 ppm and now is arround 0 ish ( if you know what I mean very little if any... I have seen no nitrates...
 

ophiura

Active Member
That .5 may have been your "cycle." It probably wasn't a "challenged" cycle meaning you didn't force a lot of additional ammonia in there, but you may be OK with the small fish. Just keep an eye on things and wait awhile before adding anything else.
 

mbrands

Member
I started my 55 with 45 pounds of LR. I never really saw an ammonia spike and my cycle only took 10 days. Sounds like you experienced the same thing with yours.
 
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