One week is up, I can get fish now? What else aside from clownfish?

[makofury]

Hey, I went to my LFS about 5 days ago and I told him that I had the Nature's Oceans Live Sand in my tank for about 2 days and he told me to wait a week, I knwo he's a good guy cuz he turned down business for the well being of my tank, he told me "be patient" which is hard for cuz im really impatient. I have a 65 gallon tank and is this ok for a starter tank, 3 fish, maybe a percula or two, and im wondering what my last fish could be. I really don't want a damselfish, is there anything else that is hardy that can be put in the tank with perculas? Thanks!
MakoFury

 

[blueberryboomer]

Am I understanding you correctly, your tank is only 1 week old? If that is the case, it is way to soon to add fish, there is no way your tank has cycled in one week.... Drop in some raw shrimp, with in a week or two you should have an ammonea spike, then you should see nitrites go up, they will start to come down some and then you will have a nitrate spike, you should not add any fish until the nitrates are down. Buy a good test kit and check your water a couple times a week until your cycle is complete...Most importanly GO SLOW & BE PATIENT, you need lots of patients in this hobby, if you rush through you will only be sorry. Remember to read and post lots of questions...Later Lisa
[ August 17, 2001: Message edited by: BLUEBERRYBOOMER ]

 

[viking]

Lisa did you happen to catch the part about his tank having live sand in it isn't that a almost instant cycle??

 

[makofury]

Well, the Nature's Ocean live sand says "instant cycle" but I know that that is probably not true. Well, I've cycled my tank with damsels before with no problems, actually, I've resetup my tank a lot and after each setup i've NEVER had nitrite/ammonia spike minus the very first time I setup the tank. I thought perculas were good for a new tank?

 

[beth]

A tank MUST cycle. Don't you have live rock in the tank too? If so, then that must definately be left to cycle, even if it cured.
Use the fresh shrimp to work on the cycle, not live animials.

 

[broomer5]

I don't think that this post has enough information. MakoFury, can you tell us a little more about your tank set up, how old it is, how you set it up ?
I agree with Lisa, that if it's only a 1 week old tank, it is way too soon to add any fish other than damsels, and even that may be premature.
If you take a tank of saltwater and add live sand ( or vice versus ) what you have is just that .... a tank of saltwater with live sand. There may be enough beneficial bacteria present in the sand, but what is sustaining them ? There is no waste or ammonia or nitrite present to allow the presumed bacteria to eat, reproduce and grow.
You still need to add something, fish or raw shrimp, to cycle the tank.
The nitrogen cycle is not instant - never has been and never will be. It takes time.
Assumptions in this hobby will most always lead to unfavorable outcomes.
Brian
Edit - was replying before I read Beth's reply. What Beth said too !
[ August 17, 2001: Message edited by: broomer5 ]

 

[makofury]

Ok, basically I've had horrible luck with this 65 gallon tank, just recently i just found out that my broken impeller on my Renaissance Prime 30 filter cannot be replaced because they went bankrupt, so im out $140 on my 2 year old filter + the new filter media I bought for it prior to the re-setup of the tank. I've re-setup this tank (meaning completely cleaning the gravel and tank and replacing filter media) about 5 times in the past 5 years. This happens because we've had bad luck with fish in this tank, careless mistakes and diseased fish...but I bought new live sand to replace the gravel. The tank is a 65 gallon Bioreef w/ overflow to a wet/dry system. There is a powerhead on the inside for water circulation. There used to be an external canister filter but as I said before, it' useless now. The tank has been running with saltwater for about 2 weeks now, and about 1 week with the live sand and decor in it. So I want to add fish for the cycle, so that was my main question. Thanks for the replies!
MakoFury

 

[blueberryboomer]

Viking, yeah, I did catch the part about the "live sand" we started both our tanks with "live sand" and they still needed to cycle....! Lisa

 

[ocellaris_keeper]

Clarification:
First - i am sorry that you have had to tear down your tank 5 times (sounds odd). Get yourself some more Power heads - one is never enough and try to create a good watyer flow throughout the entire tank. Get a protien skimmer - something good enough for a 150 gall tank.
You need to initiate the nitrate cycle - my recommendation is NOT damsels - a pair of clowns do the job (they are heardy too). LR/LS will not make is cycle.
Your deaths sounds questionable. - I lost my first group of fish when I traveled to England - came back and all had ich - I didn't know what to do. When you add new fish to your tank add some Green-X (a few drops) this has been a great life saver for me. If you do end up with ICH - use the correct dose of Green-X and your problem should go away. and Yes - It's Reef Safe.
Brewski

 

[makofury]

Hey everyone, today im probably gonna get damsels, I talked to a guy at a LFS and he said it would be somewhat risky with the perculas...but the tank right above it had a NIIIICE volitan lion that was like 3.5 inches and was $25. I was soo tempted..but i'm doing things right this time around so I didn't do anything stupid like buying the lionfish. He also said it's very hard to feed lions anything but live food so that kinda turned me away from em...anyone else have problems feeding lions anything but live food?
MakoFury

 

[perps]

what i'm doing right now to cycle my qt tank is that i used a dead fish from my live tank.. and now i have CYCLE!

 

[@knight]

i would NOT get damsels, you will never get them out and they become mean. Clownfish are damsels, although not quite as hardy, they are very strong fish. I cycled with a pair of clarkiis and they were fine.
i would even recommend a piece of dead RAW shrimp from your grocery store to cycle with. damsels turn out to be a pest and are no good.