Adding first fish - cycling reality check

JHSteepat · Sep 15, 2023

This is just a reality check for adding first fish to system.

I have a 150g total volume tank with Marco rock cycled since June (MB7, NH4Cl). 15 or so snails are fine, pods are fine, and 5 LPS are growing well. I have Chaeto growing well in refugium, and have been ghost feeding for a week or so and feeding corals with Reef Roids. I also have a small bottle of Turbostart 900 to add a day before the fish. Still working though uglies, but they are minimal at this point even with feeding, amounting to small amounts of hair algae and some film algae, with coralline growth beginning.

I plan to add a few small, QT'd fish in a week: royal gramma, 2X ocellaris, banggai cardinal, Tomini tang (small).

I feel that that bioload won't overwhelm the system and I expect I'll be OK, but please let me know if I should be doing anything else at this time, with a week to go.

Garf · Sep 15, 2023

JHSteepat said:
This is just a reality check for adding first fish to system.

I have a 150g total volume tank with Marco rock cycled since June (MB7, NH4Cl). 15 or so snails are fine, pods are fine, and 5 LPS are growing well. I have Chaeto growing well in refugium, and have been ghost feeding for a week or so and feeding corals with Reef Roids. I also have a small bottle of Turbostart 900 to add a day before the fish. Still working though uglies, but they are minimal at this point even with feeding, amounting to small amounts of hair algae and some film algae, with coralline growth beginning.

I plan to add a few small, QT'd fish in a week: royal gramma, 2X ocellaris, banggai cardinal, Tomini tang (small).

I feel that that bioload won't overwhelm the system and I expect I'll be OK, but please let me know if I should be doing anything else at this time, with a week to go.

Doesn’t sound like you need the turbo start but I suppose if you’ve already bought it, you may as well use it. Where’s the pic of the tank? :)

JHSteepat · Sep 15, 2023

Garf said:
Doesn’t sound like you need the turbo start but I suppose if you’ve already bought it, you may as well use it. Where’s the pic of the tank? :)

brandon429 · Sep 15, 2023

your cycle is perfectly matured and will not fail to carry any typical degree of fish you input. disease management is the true risk, and it's significant for dry rock setups ready to house mixed species. that reef will be getting corals over time, and any entrant added that doesn't pass through fallow preps exposes the tank to disease

the only way to benefit from paying for qt prepped fish is to fallow everything wet that you ever put into the tank going forward, or it's the same as not buying qt prepped fish. see Jay's biosecurity article

JHSteepat · Sep 15, 2023

brandon429 said:
your cycle is perfectly matured and will not fail to carry any typical degree of fish you input. disease management is the true risk, and it's significant for dry rock setups ready to house mixed species. that reef will be getting corals over time, and any entrant added that doesn't pass through fallow preps exposes the tank to disease

the only way to benefit from paying for qt prepped fish is to fallow everything wet that you ever put into the tank going forward, or it's the same as not buying qt prepped fish. see Jay's biosecurity article

Thanks!

I’ll take a look at the article. I may have seen it already.

I plan on qt for fish and fallow/growout/observation for anything I add going forward.

I hated the idea of dry rock but got concerned from all the posts about nightmare hitchikers on live rock. I have backed down (calmed down) a bit and I’d like to add some TB saltwater live sand and a few rocks after the fish, but will need to keep that separate for 72 days for disease and hitchiker management.