Cycle....fish....feed

[Darrin45]

Hello R2R folks,

I'm a newbie to the saltwater aquarium world. Been thinking about doing a saltwater tank for years and finally took the step. I have a 35 gal bow front corner tank with a Penguin 200 power filter, 500w heater, 2 Voyager nano 2000 power heads. Large crushed coral bedding and dead rock. Tank cycled for about 5 days until the biologicals seemed to doing their thing. Ammonia .04, Nitrate .10, Nitrite .00. I added a 3.38oz bottle of Bio-Spira and two Green Chromis. It's been 3 days, fish are doing great and will be testing water tomorrow.

Question how much should I feed these guys and not run into a Ammonia rise?

Imv feeding them frozen Mysis Shrimp by ocean nutrition. If you know this product, I'm giving them about 1/4 of one cube once a day. Would it be safe to try twice a day or wait after tomorrow's water test to decide?

 

[jsker]

Welcome to R2R. I would feed once a day, and feed dry until your ammonia cycle finishes. Feed the kid mysis once a week as a treat till the cycle is finished. The more frozen the longer is will take to get rid of the ammonia.

 

[Scottsquatch]

Welcome to R2R. Have you posted in the meet and greet section yet? I 2nd jsker, wait till the cycle is done, then you can resume the mysis. You gonna do corals or FOWLR? There are a ton of people here that can give great guidance. Good luck with you tank.

 

[120reefkeeper]

 

[Darrin45]

Welcome to R2R. Have you posted in the meet and greet section yet? I 2nd jsker, wait till the cycle is done, then you can resume the mysis. You gonna do corals or FOWLR? There are a ton of people here that can give great guidance. Good luck with you tank.

I have not posted in meet and greet section. I was told my cycle is was done. Ammonia reach .05 then started dropping. Nitrate went to .10. I added in the spira to give it nitrate boost about 2 days before the fish. Everything is still looking good. Will do that water test tonight. As far as the food I have been taking about a 1/2 cup of water from tank and shaving about a quarter of one of the cubes into the water to thaw out. The 2 greenies consume it in about 2 minutes. Not really sure which direction I'm going with eco. I atleast know it won't be a coral tank. I like to have a variety of both coral, flower and fish. If there is a ratio chart for this I love to see it. I'm not looking to consume the tank with coral and flower. Just simple but appealing with a good eco balance. I enjoy seeing the fish swim and the looks of the reef, but I don't want to have to haze into my tank for 5 minutes trying to find my fish hiding in every crack and hole.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Scottsquatch]

Your welcome, good luck!

 

[Darrin45]

Just ran test.
74°
Salinity 1.0225
PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 20-30 somewhere in between. Darker pink then 20 but not quite 50.
Nitrite 0.2
Alkalinity 7 dkn, 2.5 Meg/L
Fish still kicking and eating.

So how long should I wait before adding a new member to the tank?

It's been 3 days with the two Green Chromis. I'm thinking another week or so before adding another fish or 2.

Also not running a timer yet for light. I have been turning it on about 7am-4pm. The sun hits the room pretty good from 3pm-6pm but no direct light on tank. I'll turn it off about 4 then back on about 6pm-10pm. So in all about 13 hours on. Man that sounds like a lot.

 

[Untamedrose]

your a third of the way through the cycle want
Ammonia 0 Nitrate 0 Nitrite 0

Id say you added these to early....they might make it pretty tough fish but dont add more for a while.

and the Penguin 200 power filter will be fine for a cycle...but isnt going to last long. (can be upcycled into a cute HOB refugium though)

 

[Darrin45]

your a third of the way through the cycle want
Ammonia 0 Nitrate 0 Nitrite 0

Id say you added these to early....they might make it pretty tough fish but dont add more for a while.

and the Penguin 200 power filter will be fine for a cycle...but isnt going to last long. (can be upcycled into a cute HOB refugium though)

Thanks for the bad news. Lol. I thought nitrate was OK at certain levels and depending on your set up. Hopefully the fish will make it. So I don't want my nitrate to go any higher. For the fishes sake I don't want the nitrite to get higher then they can handle. Should I cut back on feeding to once every other day? It's kind of early for a water change. Tank has only been running for almost 2 weeks.

 

[Untamedrose]

Your welcome :)

Ok yes some nitrate at very low levels is ok...it's not like all the fish are done for if there is any. But 20-30 is still really high...20 ppm is really kinda the max your going to want to see long term. ATM with those fish likely ok, if they start looking distressed time to do a water change.


Think of it like a complex immune system...you have built up a tolerance to polio(ammonia, really deadly to fish), your about half way to building up a tolerance to a bit less scary virus like a really nasty flu can still kill(nitrite, can be deadly), and your still working on building immunity to a common cold.(nitrate, can still be deadly with other issues like stressed fish or they are fragile types)
and right now your system is an infant with only the 6 month shots.

Now Some people cycle whole way with fish...and if they loose them, hurt them meh kinda of attitude. Personally I spike the hell out an empty tank with dead frozen shrimp, cure live rock...and then start feeding a frozen cube every day after my ammonia spike starts dropping...until I get the 0,0,0....before adding any live stock. 65 gal I started recently took 3 weeks
Added cleaning crew and 1/4 the fish I plan on stocking into....chem levels stayed them same.

I think you will be fine, but you kinda lenghten the immunity process...instead of getting all those shots you need up front to, limit its exposure and go slower now. (I really hope your a parent, other wise this might not make sense)


Your shaving of a cube is a good idea on the feeding. Them eating it all fast is a good. To much bio load can start whats called mini cycles, ammonia starts going up again.

Phosphates is another chem your going to want to keep an eye on, likely have an algea bloom coming(happens in new tanks, but thats what everyone will ask for).....thought TBH the tests for it is PITA in the middle ranges.

 

[JackDE]

I think you can survive with an HOB filter but you will want one that is meant for larger volume than what you have. I am using Penguin 400 (up to 80) on my 60 gallon. My tank is new at 5 months old but I have had no problems so far. My nitrates stay around 5 and Phosphates at 0.