Cycle finished - now what?

[Aggie1978]

Here is my tank: Red Sea Peninsula 500. DP - 105 gal, sump 32. 160 lbs of dry Marco rock. 60 lbs CaribSea Special grade sand, 60 lbs CaribSea Special grade live sand. Filled tank on 1 Nov. Used Fritz Turbo start 900 + Ammonia Chloride to 3 ppm (accidently overdosed). Goal is to have a mixed reef aquarium. For the past 7 days my parameters have been stable:

Salinity: 1.027
Temp: 79
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates:0
Nitrites: 50-60

You can see from the pics that the tank is clean, almost too sterile looking but ok since only 2 weeks old. I could add a couple of clownfish now, but I would prefer to give the tank another 3-6 (or 2 or 3 months?) weeks to more fully mature. I am in absolutely no hurry and would like to wait until the tank is more mature in order to set the stage for long term stability. So..what does a mature tank look like? Yes, I know that this takes sometimes years, but for a new starter, what should be a "minimum" period of time and stable parameters? I know I will get a wide range of answers, but that is good, there will be a "theme" pattern of answers develop. Main question: During this period should I be ghost feeding or periodically adding some ammonia chloride to "feed" the bacteria population? Or can I just sit back and watch/monitor? THANKS!

 

[daybreaksky]

add the clowns, there is no reason no to. don't add corals for a couple of months. over time start adding more fish/cleaners.

 

[daybreaksky]

also you mixed up nitrItes and NitrAtes in your post i assume, otherwise do not add fish lol
enjoy your beautiful tank and don't overfeed the fish, clowns are pigs and will constantly beg for food

 

[Aggie1978]

add the clowns, there is no reason no to. don't add corals for a couple of months. over time start adding more fish/cleaners.

Thanks, so you think if I add 2 clowns, between feeding them and them poopoing that will be enough to keep the bacteria population

also you mixed up nitrItes and NitrAtes in your post i assume, otherwise do not add fish lol
enjoy your beautiful tank and don't overfeed the fish, clowns are pigs and will constantly beg for food

Oops yes, I did mix up the nitrates & nitrites...ugh. Nitrites: 0, Nitrates 50-60

So maybe add the clownfish, monitor weekly, and then after another 2 months begin slowly adding other livestock? Also - I was planning bi-weekly water changes 20% during this period?

 

[ScubaFish802]

You need to do a large water change to get the high cycle nitrates down.
Then you can add fish and proceed with things as normal

 

[laverda]

Double check your nitrites, they need to be zero. Nitrates should not be very high. If these are accurate numbers your not done with your cycle.
Take it slow especially if you started with dry rock. I highly recommend adding some live rock from a well established tank. A few pieces will really help add to the bio diversity in your tank. They can always be removed later if your happy with your aquascape. There is a big difference between cycled and stable and established.
I will also mention since your talking about adding clowns, not to add an anemone preferably for 6 months. Anemones almost never survive in new tanks unless set up by experienced reefers with established live rock.
Good luck and enjoy the learning experience.

 

[daybreaksky]

all sounds like a good plan. the bio filter will scale to the bioload. so it will be as big as it needs to be to handle clown poop/food and will grow as load increases.
the tank will go through ugly stages of diatoms, blooms, etc until things get stable and balanced.
10% biweekly changes would take care of it, just monitor Nitrates and wc accordingly, don't let Nitrates get too low

 

[Jeffcb]

Add the clowns. Maybe a few small blue legged hermits. Water change is a good idea.

 

[daybreaksky]

DO you plan on quarantine future additions? what's you plan down the road? do you have a hospital/treatment tank setup and a dedicated quarantine for inverts corals? these may be important in near future as QT may take as long as 75 days so you would need to plan additions accordingly.

 

[daybreaksky]

My 100g display is arriving next week but i already have a 30g running for fish, they have been dewormed and observed for parasites. I also have a 10g setup with some sand and rocks where I have a pistol shrimp and some hermits. these were also cycled with sponge filters prior to adding these guys. its a process, don't just add anything to your tank without QT. some do but it's always rolling the dice

 

[Aggie1978]

DO you plan on quarantine future additions? what's you plan down the road? do you have a hospital/treatment tank setup and a dedicated quarantine for inverts corals? these may be important in near future as QT may take as long as 75 days so you would need to plan additions accordingly.

Oh yes, I have a 15gal quarantine tank set aside to use before I add anything - including the first 2 clownfish. I am about to get this tank set up - question: when I do water changes from my DT can I use this water to fill the quarantine tank? Of course I would then monitor test for another week before adding fish, but was thinking why throw out water change water if I can use to fill my quarantine tank?

 

[daybreaksky]

I would use it since you don't have to worry about long term nitrate issues in qt like algae controll. I do use lower salinity in my fish qt to take some stress off the fish.