new tank, first fish choice

[stephish]

My 90 gallon has finished its cycle and is "ready" for its first fish. I have decided on a golden headed sleeper goby as the first fish, my favorite LFS got beautiful one in about 3 weeks ago and is holding him for me. He's eating brine, mysid, flake and pieces of sand eel so i'm not worried about feeding him.
I'm a bit nervous about putting him in and wonder if I should do the inexpensive damsel/chromis to make sure the tank supports life. opinions?

 

[40 galons]

if you have liverock in i probly would not put in unwanted fish because it coud be a mess trying to catch them. maybe put in some snails or something like that and see if they live. be sure to check youre parameters also, good luck

 

[confusedfishy]

How long did your tank cycle and what did you cycle it with? I would buy the fish you want to have in there instead of adding a fish you don't really want in the long term. If you just add one fish at the time you will not cause cycling to start over and bacteria will continue on the growth path correctly. A larger fish might cause a problem but IMO one smaller one would be fine.

 

[gatorwpb]

if you havent added a clean up crew, I would do that first. I prefer to use just snails, but many here use hermits as well.
Expect an algal bloom plus diatoms which is typical of all new tanks. The clean up crew will help to keep it clean during this time. Once that period is through, a fish could be added. Having the CUC survive is a great indication that a fish would do fine!

 

[coralreefer]

wats a CUC?

 

[teresaq]

clean up crew=CUC

 

[stephish]

Tank has had water for 34 days now 80 gallons of new saltwater and 40 gallons from 2 of my other tanks, 40 pounds of base rock, 30 pounds of live rock, live sand and sand seeded from the other 2 tanks as well. The ammonia spiked about 1.5 19 days ago and within a week was gone at which point I added a soccer ball sized clump of chaeto to the refugium. I have dosed weekly with Thera P since adding water and also dosed with Stability every other day for the first 2 weeks. I've had no diatom outbreak or algae bloom but my ammonia and nitrites have been gone for 8 days and my nitrates are down to 20.
Current paramaters are as follows
pH 8.27
ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 20
calcium 420
phosphate 0
It just seems like the cycle went a little fast. I know I used sand, rock and water that were well populated with bacteria but I just feel like something is missing.