LFS said do it this way

[nafracsana]

I need to know if I can add live rock and soft corals to a tank that already has cycled and has fish in it. I have 2 striped dams, 3 yellow tail dams, 1 blue dam., 1 gold band clown, 1 flame angel, 1 snow eel, and 12 turbo snails in a 55 gal,w/ wet dry. All the rock and coral I have in there now is dead stuff. I do have live sand though. LFS said I had to put live rock stuffin first, then add fish later. How do I go about doing this? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[bencc]

Yes you can add live rock and coral after your tank has cycled. That is the best time to add coral. After your water has stabilized and your tanks biological filtration has been established. I would not add a large amount of live rock at once because it may cause a mini cycle. It sounds like you have a pretty heavy bio-load "lots of fish". Also how old is your tank and what kind of lighting do you have. Most coral require more than your normal lights. What are your water parameters Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Salinity and PH.

 

[rwhite]

How long has it cycled? I dont think adding LR would be a problem, but I'd wait on the corals. Thats quite a selection of fish, you do understand how aggressive all those fish are? I wouldnt be surprised if a few started dying off once one decides to claim its space. Are you planning to keep those types of fish? Or were they selected for cycling purposes? If you are planning on diff. types of fish, you may want to consider taking the damsels out before you add any rock.
Try to give us more info about the tank, it will help us help you.

 

[nafracsana]

I have cheap lighting right now. A 40 watt marine glow bulb, and a 25 watt flourescant. The tank was started on March 15th. I added live sand on the 16th, and 10 damsels on the 17th. Since then 4 dams have died and the 6 left are doing fine. The trates are good. I did a water change on April12th. The trites are also good. Ammonia is also good. I clean the filters every other day. What other info do ya'll need.

 

[nafracsana]

Also the gravity fluctuates between 1.021-1.024. The salinity is between 28-32. PH is in range of 8.1-8.4. The dams will come out on my next fish purchase will be a sand sifting goby, and then in May, a Powder Blue.

 

[cindyski]

IMO your already pushing it with the flame angel in your size tank. adding a tang is going to be a problem. tangs need at least 125 gal. both tangs and angels need lots of swimming room and lots of rocks. dont forget to consider their adult size also.
gl:happyfish

 

[cindyski]

oh, and i dont ting the eel will be compatable with corals, but i could be wrong. someone else may comment on that also

 

[fishstix]

a powder blue
I think your talking about A powder blue tang.
if you are A powder Blue tang is not a very good fish in your tank because its to small.
of course your talking about a tang.Just my suggestion but dont add one trusy me I learned the hard way

 

[buzz]

One thing about Live Rock - Many places sell uncured LR. They may not tell you this unless you say you all ready have fish in the tank.
You DO NOT want to add uncured LR to an established tank. Make sure you add only fully cured LR.
Incidentally, if you have live sand and dead rock, your dead rock will become live in a short time. You may not even need to buy LR.

 

[bencc]

IMO, As long as all your readings are good "Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0, Ph 8.1 8.4 and you keep your nitrates down less than 20 0 being the best you should be fine to add what you want fish wise. I would definetly recomend getting rid of all the damsels. They will get very teritorial and stress out whatever other fish you put in. You can add live rock whenever you want. I would make sure what ever corals you get are not very light demanding, but you can add them whenever you want. There are a few you can keep with that lighting but I would recomend a lighting upgrade if you want to do corals. Also young tanks take a while to really stabalize to where you can keep very sensitive corals.

 

[phreakemup]

Sure... U can add LR and corals to a tank that already established, key is to do it very slowly.. There is going to be die-off from the rock (most likely) and u dont want too much polluting ur tank..
Plus, from the sounds of it, ur tank is already pushing some heavy organics.. U have a decet fish load in that tank, and I would reccomend thinning out the population for the time being.. Take some of those damsels back, and trade them for some credit, that u can use towards more LR, or chem's for the
tank. Key to this hobby, is to start slowly, and work ur way up (live stock wise, anyways.) It'll take longer, sure, but it will give u more pride towards ur tank, and a better sense of what an ecosystem is, and how fragile they really can be.....
Phreak

 

[nafracsana]

Phreak,
Alright a lot of good info, I love this site. I will be trading off the dams for credit, good idea. I also read that the dead rock will become live if I have live sand, how is that possible? The Powder Blue Tang will not go in since the tank is too small. How about a Racoon Butterfly? Will adding one piece of LR speed the dead rock up to becoming live?
bencc,
On the lighting issue. What wattage should I go with when I add LR, and coral. Should I keep the Marine glow but up the wats, and what should I replace the flourescant with?
Buzz,
I will take the advice and get the cured LR for sure.
Thanks
Fishstix,
No PowderBlue Tang, how bout a Racoon Butterfly?
CindySki,
Again the Powder will not be going in. I was wondering if The Snowflake will be OK with corals since I've heard they are the least aggressive of the Eels?

 

[bencc]

I really would not worry about the lighting when adding live rock just with corals. Something to thank about before you get your lighting is what do you want to put in the tank eventually. If you plan on just having softies then power compacts are fine maybe like 2 96 watt power compacts and use your current flourescant for actinic "blue" this brings out the colors in the coral. If you want more light demanding things I would go with Metal Halide. Either a dual 175 watt or 250 watt. If it were me I would just do the Metal Halide so you will not need to wory if your lighting will be adequite for what you want. Metal Halide is as far as I know the best you can get. I have a 54 corner and I have a 250 watt metal halide with two 55 watt power compacts for actinic. Look on ---- for metal halide you will find all kinds of stuff. Hellolights.com is another place. I personally just bought a metal halide ballast and put it all together myself to save money.

 

[nafracsana]

bencc,
I'll do some searching on the lighting that you have mentioned. Try to do some price comparison shopping with my budget. Maybe ---- will work. thanks for the help on this issue.

 

[bencc]

No problem, I would look into buying the metal halide ballast, mogul, reflecter and bulb seperatly and putting it together yourself this can save you lots of money IMO. I did my Metal Halide system for around a $100 However you will have to find a way to mount them above your tank and you will probably need a fan of some sort to keep everything cool they do get hot. I use a 4 inch fan from radio shack it was about $20. Anyway good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[beachbumtx]

Hiya!,
First off, take what anyone says with a grain of salt...whether the LFS or on here. Don't rely on what others say. Do the research.

Ok, I know you decided against the powder blue tang, that was a good choice. Powder blues are ich magnets. Many tangs do not do well in a small environment. However, I would avoid butterflyfish as well. They can be nippers on corals.
As one has mentioned, do small moves when adding LR. Even with cured LR, you can still have a die off of organisms because it is moving from one evironment to another.
I would upgrade the lighting before considering adding corals. Match your light needs to coral types you are interested in. Another thing to consider is bioload with corals. Water quality is important. More fish you have in a small place, the easier the water quality can go sour.

 

[nafracsana]

BeachBumTx,
A fellow Texan, alright. Well, I will do the research and take into consideraton everything everyone has told me so far. I know I started out with a lot of load on the system, and now I have to deal with it. I will be slowing down the process of adding new items into the tank for sure. My first priority is to get my protein skimmer this week and get rid of my damsels. Then get the sand sifting goby, and let the system settle down before I add any LR. Do you have an answewr about dead rock becoming live after being in a tank with live sand? Just curious as someone said that to me earlier.

 

[beachbumtx]

Originally posted by NAFRACSANA
Do you have an answewr about dead rock becoming live after being in a tank with live sand? Just curious as someone said that to me earlier.
Yes, dead rock will come alive after being in a tank for some time...even without live sand. However, without LR, the most you will have on those rocks is algae (filiamentous) and bacteria.
What is LR? Many people I talk to at work (I work at a LFS) think the the rock itself is alive. It is not the case of the rock being alive, but the organisms that can be found on it.
With LR, you will get bacteria and algae (fileamentous and coraline)...as well as pods (isopods, amphipods, and copepods), polychaets worms, and numerous of other organisms. Pods and polychaets are important for a tank. They will help break down detritus. They also serve as a food source for the fish in the tank. A healthy tank has a lot of them.
I believe actual LR is an important part of a reef tank.

 

[cindyski]

eels are not reef safe, check them on this site and it will give you a description of them.
happy fishing!:happyfish

 

[beachbumtx]

Originally posted by CindySki
eels are not reef safe, check them on this site and it will give you a description of them.
happy fishing!:happyfish
HIya!,
I agree, not reef safe. The reason why, they will cause rocks to shift when digging under them and corals could be knocked over and damaged.. With this reasoning, perhaps diamond gobies and engineer gobies are not reef safe. :notsure:
Another thing about eels, if you do not keep them well fed, they will go after fish...especially the smaller ones.
Finally, eels will eat any shrimp you have in the tank. Many people like peppermint, cleaner, and fire shrimps in their reef tanks. Eels will try to make a snack of them.