Why are these fish still alive??

[Supernova26]

I am venting now. I am no reef expert by any means but I know some stuff. I got my buddy involved in the hobby and he got a 90 gallon tank with a wet dry filter about 3 weeks ago. I went on and on how you got to be patient and careful in this hobby and what not. Anyways, he filled it up with tap water (against my advice) and added salt. Let it run for about 2 days and went to the local fish store and bought a yellow tang, a niger triggerfish, a hippo tang, 3 demsels and 30 lbs of live rock. I went ballistic on him for not letting the tank complete the cycle and how the ammonia is going to kill is fish etc etc. 3.5 weeks later the fish are all happy and eating. He feeds his fish every day. I can tell that his tank is going thru the cycle because there is diatom blooms and all kinds of algae everywhere. I know that the hippo is not the hardiest of fish and I was expecting that to be the first to fall. He obliviously did not do any kind of water parameters testing but I would assume that at least ammonia would be present at 3 weeks. It's a little surprising to me.

[The Kerrnel]

Maybe he's a Tide fan.

 

Could be he treated the tap water with some of that stuff that makes it safe for aquariums. There is a BioSpira product out there that will artificially complete the cycle in a 24-48h period...it could be he's using some of that, or doing something he's not telling you about.

 

I agree though, if he isn't doing anything other than what you describe, its amazing the fish are happy.

 

Mike.

[Amuze]

With these practices, tankpocalypse is inevitable. Give it time...

[Chad]

Just curious, but was it nice live rock? There is a potential that the LR was cured enough that it minimized the cycle. Other than that, how do the fish look? There is a huge difference between being alive and being healthy.

 

That being said, I agree with audible.

[Supernova26]

Maybe he's a Tide fan.

 

 

Mike.

 

That is probably it. Tide fans are famous for doing retarted stuff. . Than again it would not be my friend.

Ok so Chad made a good point. I got to the bottom of the live rock situation. It has been running in a reef for a long time prior to purchase. So probably is already well cured and its taking care of the ammonia and nitrites.

[zygote2k]

What you described is really how 90% of people start a fishtank- fresh or salt.

This is why proper education is a must in this hobby.

[Chad]

I kind of doubt that it is completely taking care of the ammonia load since six fish at one is a pretty big step change, however, it does sound like it is being mitigated by the LR.

 

Any chance of convincing your friend to become a WAMAS member? And perhaps it would be a good idea to give them a good marine book such as Fenner's The Conscientous Marine Aquarist.

[Supernova26]

I doubted it myself but ammonia should have started to affect the fish gills and at least I would have noticed some distress in one of the fish. Maybe is something that I can't see but they are all lively and the tangs are grazing on the live rock and everything.

[extreme_tooth_decay]

I have seen this type of aquarium set up before.

 

I am not surprised the fish are alive.

 

We often get carried away with the "best" way to do things. This is not the "best" way, but it does not guarantee failure, either. Plenty of times a sub-optimal approach works just fine.

 

That isn't to say that later on he won't make some mistake and have a nuked tank...

[treesprite]

There are things that do keep away or lower the severity of cycling. Biodigest is one of them - indicates that use on the packaging. I have done it before using Biodigest (not tap water though)

[zygote2k]

Why use Biodigest? Use the FREE nitrifying bacteria that came with your fish tank! It works better than any snake oil found in a bottle- you just have to develop patience to make it work.

[Origami]

The fish are alive because the water is apparently not toxic.

 

If the water was treated with a ammonia detoxifier when he mixed it, then that could have bound up any ammonia that may have been in the water. If there was not much to start with, it probably would have been processed out by the live rock when he put that in.

 

If the live rock was truly "live" and fully cured, and did not have any die-off, then it may be picking up the biological load of the new fish and keeping the water tolerably free from toxicity.

 

After 3 weeks, I wouldn't expect that much in the way of ammonia. I think his LR is picking up the job of processing that.

 

That doesn't mean, though, that the water quality isn't slowly degrading. He could be seeing increasing nitrates and phosphates which he can, with his FOWLR system, perhaps manage with bioballs or water changes. While it may be OK for fish, it may be a toxic soup for more sensitive corals.

[F&Fmgr]

What you described is really how 90% of people start a fishtank- fresh or salt.

This is why proper education is a must in this hobby.

 

nm

[Grav]

Well, if he has a wet dry as you describe, I can't think of anything better at reducing amonia. Only 30#s of live rock, not a lot of bio load even if it is not 100% cured. Some times we get hung up on our reef tanks and forget how a "fish tank" runs.

 

It isn't what we would do today, but years ago working for another local service Co. What you just described + a de-chlor was how we would install a "FOWLR" tank and it worked fine. Keep in mind aquarium professional vrs "newbie" helps, but especally if the rock is well cured and out of water for a limited time, really this isn't to bad.

 

That said, I agree with Tom, things could go downhill from here. Skimmer? More rock? Sand? Fuge? Carbon? Phos remover? all things you didn't cover and if they are sub-par, expect the results to be poor.

[Origami]

Well, if he has a wet dry as you describe, I can't think of anything better at reducing ammonia.

Yep. I hadn't caught the fact that the OP mentioned that the buddy had a wet-dry installed....