New Tank - When to add fish/corals?

[David B]

I recently started up my first reef tank (65 gallon). I did a lot of things my self (made an oak canopy, installed lights/ballasts in canopy, custom-made sump, etc). Here's my current setup:

 

65g AGA tank

 

2 x 14,000K MHs

10,000K VHO

Actinic 03 VHO

 

AquaC EV-90 skimmer

 

Mag-7 return pump

 

2 powersweep powerheads

 

60lbs of live sand, 65 lbs live rock recently obtained from a guy who just broke down his tank (had the LR in his setup)

 

My MAIN QUESTION:

When is it OK for me to add fish/corals??? I've checked the ammonia/nitrate levels and they're pretty much at zero. It's been a number of days since the live sand has been in and the LR was added recently as well, but again the levels stay around zero.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

[chefthomasr]

How many is a number of days? Generally speaking the bare minimum I would wait from adding live rock to adding corals is 30 days. As with all things in this hobby, nothing good happens quickly. The longer you can wait, the better your system will be overall. Have you had any algae blooms yet?

 

Thomas

[emissary]

So I'm going to make assumptions. Please correct them.

 

 

You started your tank recently, added rock sand, and you've had the whole thing running for some period of time. During this time you've had a "standard" lighting cycle with the lights coming on in the morning and going off at night for a photoperiod of 10 hours or so. On the day you added the cured live rock you saw no nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, but the next day you started to see an increase. By day 7 the levels of ammonia were really high, so were the nitrates, and the skimmer was pulling out some nice stuff. By day 20ish things seemed to have settled down and since then things have been about 0 across the board. At that point you did a 50% water change or so and the levels have stayed at 0. Right now the tank looks good, no major algae blooms or brown stuff on the sand, levels (ammonia, nitrate, nitrites) are 0, salinity is reading 1.025 temperature hanging steady around 79.

 

Buy a fish now. Put it in your quarantine tank so that in 30-45 days you can add it to your tank. Or go risky and don't quarantine.

 

If all the assumptions in the above are correct, add some snails and crabs. Give them a week. Observe them... especially the snails. Then, try adding a fish.

 

All of this is opinion

[GaryL]

as with everthing go slow! research your fish choice before adding. if you want more of a community tank go for less aggressive. the only damsel fish you want should be a clown or a green chromis. but stay away from fire, goldstripe clowns.

 

i think i went the fish route first. then corals. my 1st fish was a orchid dottyback and that monster is still in there. so far i cant have a royal gramma or a small wrasse.

 

what type of corals and fish are you thinking of?

 

more info please

[Caribbean Jake]

When to add?

Dave you want to assure yourself that the tank has followed the NH3/NH4 and Nitrate cycles. Once your tank has peak and settled in 0 ppm for Nitrate and NH3/NH4 your tank should be ready for adding live stock. Now one word of caution, do not, please do not add livestock all at once. This will prompt you into a NTS = New Tank Syndrom which means a load of NH3/NH4 will spike and 99% of the time kill everything you put into the tank. The phrase Nothing good happens fast is true in saltwater reef keeping. Start slow, research which fish you like, which are compatible, which are reef safe, and then add them based on their aggressiveness category, meaning the less aggressive first and the most aggressive last. For example, a Flame Angel is a very agressive fish and should not be kept with other pygmy angels like Coral beauty, Bi-Color Angel, and so forth. On the other hand a sandshifter starfish is great for sand shifting but when grows up will go after your snails and eat them. Also, blue leg hermit crabs like to kill snails so try to stick with burgundy or red leg hermits. A Dragonet needs an established tank, one with lots of copperpods and amphipods in order to survive and this usually happens when the tank is at least 8 month old. SPS corals need nutirents in the water and good lighting (250W or better) and the nutirents in the water are usually present after 6 month of established tank. Once you add a fish to a reef system with lots of rock formation you will have a hard time getting it out, so make sure you add the right fish at the right time or else you will live with it or break down your live rock to get him out. These are some of the keys you will learn throughout your reef experience, again, take it slow, add one or two fish and wait until the tank starts to settle, in the mean time you can also try with some softy corals. Speaking of whish I have Capnella Kenya Tree FREE to new members if you want some.

Welcome to you Club

Jacob