Adding first livestock

dave1424

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Hi everyone,

My tank has finally just finished the cycle - it's a new Waterbox cube 20 (photo below) and is my first ever reef tank. It was a long process (about 8 weeks), but the ammonia and nitrite are now at 0 and I've done a big water change to bring my nitrates right down. It's all looking ready to add some livestock.

I wanted to start with a small clean up crew, but I haven't had any algae appear at all throughout the cycle, so not sure if it's unwise to add inverts without any visible signs of algae for them to eat?

Ultimately, the plan for this tank is for it to be a pretty simple softie/LPS tank with a few small fish (yellow clown goby, pair of clowns, and maybe a tailspot blennie).

What do people recommend to add first? Would it be ok to start with some inverts? Is it best to then feed the tank a little to keep them going?

Thanks for any advice!

Post-cycle.jpg
 

blaxsun

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Agree with the above. When adding inverts, try and get a good selection: trochus and turbos for the glass, spiny astrea for the rocks, nassarius for the substrate and a mix of blue and red hermit crabs. A small conch will also be great.
 

muggle0981

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And addition if empty hermit crab shells is always a plus so crabs can change shells as they get bigger
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Don’t bring in disease, use quarantine

source for recommend:


in the hobby we are pretty much at the agreement (at least there) that to skip disease preps is nearly a guarantee the first round of fish untreated won’t last as long as they can if they were prepped accordingly. It’s the new requirement for responsible reefkeeping, the disease expression rates are off the charts nowadays it’s not like fifteen years ago. Same thing as getting a new puppy, must bring to vet for preps/ parvo etc and skipping preps results in high degree of unneeded loss.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Doesn’t matter, what matters is what I linked. When people give self reports vs post threads of tanks they run for others, they lie, and omit tons of losses to seem better. If disease wasnt a pressing issue to a high degree, the bulk of daily entrants for help there would be fixed by your recommend to skip preps and they wouldn’t be a majority of posts from systems under eight months.

truth in reporting is found there.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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I’m aware the op isn’t going to do preps and that you wouldn’t stretch a tale to any degree to fit a narrative, Im just linking the most realistic expectation we can expect for that mix of fish listed, in a new tank barely cycled.

any five minutes of reading a page or two there shows the real truth of what we can expect. Your pups didn’t need any vax either I’m fully aware.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Dave so the way it works is, if that was dry start rocks that you brought up to cycle there isn’t any disease in that tank. you can simply score some pre quarantined fish and keep that standard, or, as recommended here you can take chances but at least give a decent read of the forum linked to make your choice.


there wasn’t one single mention of fish preps here, and me linking facts from the disease forum and the outcomes of many cycled tanks we’ve produced here in this forum and tracked out for a year was designed to help you enjoy reefing. Nobody enjoys a velvet wipeout, I’m trying to help you.


these issues were not as common in 2005, things have changed, sourcing and holding of fish at the pet store has changed, I’m merely reporting the most up to date % risk info to you that’s all. If your intended stocking was two common ocelaris clownfish (aka most of nano-reef.com where preps aren’t as common and retention rates still pretty high) it wouldn’t be such a risk, but mixed species in a new tank being fed pellets and no qt sure is a direct risk, in my opinion the link directly shows the risk / it’s not made up.


case in point

heres warning of disease preps in a brand new dry start nano


here is the outcome shortly after w no preps


Im telling you things have changed, I don’t know why, but if I’m relaying reef info to a new reefer it’s based on honest trending and sincere want to help. Wasting fish isn’t ok anymore, we have ways to prevent this. Reefb above did a good job at least posting for help there, Jay will make great recommendations for preps. I killed two cherry head gobies in my tank years ago, guilty, so be opposite is the recommend.
 
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mcdrichj

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Dave, I completely agree with Brandon. I personally do a medicated qt. If you dont have room for that or the extra money for a small tank a sponge filter and an air pump see if you can find a fish thats in a tank treated with copper at the least preferably that has been in there at least 2 weeks.

My personal first experience all the fish got Ich or velvet. I have a 15 gal nano and all 3 fish I added devoloped spots and died after about a week or two. I allowed the tank to be fishless for the following three months meanwhile I got 3 new fish from a much better lfs and qt them. I medicated them when they first came in and observed them while I was waiting for whatever killed my first fish to die off. I used my cycled tank to seed the sponge filter with bacteria. After I did this I have not had a fish issue at all. My tank has been running for about 5 years now and has been through many stressor events which would usually set off a sickness multiple long power outages and 2 heater failures.

That being said feed the tank with fish food and turn up the intensity of your light and I would bet you will start seeing algae growth. Also a note I have not experienced any invert bringing any kind of fish sicknesses. Never never never put any of the water from your LFS into your tank.
 
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