Help with cycling tank

[itz_jacob4268]

Jacob you‘d pull the remaining fish and fallow the tank

uronema won’t be fixed that way we can just hope it didn’t get in, but that way begins to fix up the several other diseases that early fish use vectors in

So I need to take the fish I have in the tank out?

 

[brandon429]

Yes it’s true. See this thread:

Has anyone done coral/inverts only and no fish at first?

I get what you’re saying about limiting fish pests, but internal parasites and other hitchhikers you get often lay low and don’t show until the fish is at deaths doors. We will still try to blame the less experienced if something goes wrong, it’s just something you will always find in this any...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

This is how it works ideally:

fallow out your current tank with no fish

only add back quarantined fish that you buy or condition yourself

you have to choose how you will maintain the fallow preps for your tank


adding in new corals to stock the tank from a pet store breaks all prior fallow prep…same with snails and crabs etc


that thread discusses building up a reef where fish go in last vs first in a tank build. The rationale is that building a full reef, without fish, then letting the reef run a full fallow prep before adding fish saves you from having to run dual tank setups, one to receive new purchases as a fallow holding tank and the main display to receive graduates from the fallow prep system.

good quarantine does no good if fallow preps are lax. The best fish retention science of the day in reefing is a performance of fallow and quarantine for each home reef tank.

 

[Mschmidt]

Are you in Lancaster, PA? If you want to come down to me, I'll swap rock or media from my sump with you. It's cycled already. Test ammonia, api isn't great, but it's safer than not knowing.

What's your fishkeeping experience? Good things happen slower in saltwater. Bad things, from my experience happen just as quickly.

Always wait for ammonia to be 0 before adding fish. Since fish are in the tank with ammonia, add more bacteria. It'll take a couple of days to drop, but it'll go in the right direction. If the fish were fine, but died quick in your tank, sorry but bits your tank. Make sure there isn't something else going on there too, salinity and temp are the two big ones outside ammonia.

Damsels could have fought too. There are any number of reasons outside a rare disease.

 

[Projects with Sam]

I agree with @Mschmidt. just because a fish died doesn't mean you have to teardown your tank. Too many ready to jump on that (chicken-little) train before even asking for information about the incident.
I wouldn't worry about it and just enjoy the hobby. Get some fish... if more start dying for unknown reasons then look into it.

If you hear hooves think horses, not zebras...

 

[itz_jacob4268]

Are you in Lancaster, PA? If you want to come down to me, I'll swap rock or media from my sump with you. It's cycled already. Test ammonia, api isn't great, but it's safer than not knowing.

What's your fishkeeping experience? Good things happen slower in saltwater. Bad things, from my experience happen just as quickly.

Always wait for ammonia to be 0 before adding fish. Since fish are in the tank with ammonia, add more bacteria. It'll take a couple of days to drop, but it'll go in the right direction. If the fish were fine, but died quick in your tank, sorry but bits your tank. Make sure there isn't something else going on there too, salinity and temp are the two big ones outside ammonia.

Damsels could have fought too. There are any number of reasons outside a rare disease.

Hi I’m in SC unfortunately but my experience with Fishkeeping is great in freshwater but this is my first attempt at saltwater

 

[itz_jacob4268]

I agree with @Mschmidt. just because a fish died doesn't mean you have to teardown your tank. Too many ready to jump on that (chicken-little) train before even asking for information about the incident.
I wouldn't worry about it and just enjoy the hobby. Get some fish... if more start dying for unknown reasons then look into it.

If you hear hooves think horses, not zebras...

Alright I was just worried about spending the money to add more fish and they die because of something I’m doing wrong

 

[brandon429]

Does the skip preps advice match anything here:


fallow and quarantine are found below

fish-in cycling with pet store chromis always breaks fallow.

Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis

A forum for discussing treatment and diagnosing saltwater reef fish.

www.reef2reef.com

in that forum, people expect Jay to keep their systems alive, he doesn’t offer the advice to skip preps. In fact his advice centers around fixing methods that involve skipped preps

what works for someone in a home doesn’t always work outbound for others tanks.

Humble.Fish & Reef Community

A diverse reefing community working together for healthy fish and all things reefing.

humble.fish

you‘re not dealing in knee jerk fish keeping lore. Fallow and quarantine are what zoos do, for a reason. Humblefishs entire reef board is centered around the same preps above...it’s the repeatable science. Skipping preps is ruining bucketloads of fish per above. We are lucky that Jay and humblefish develop means of undoing the harm from peers ceasing disease preps as advised.

 

[arking_mark]

You've received both good and bad information here. You'll have to wade through and decide what to trust.

A little guidance I like to follow...

Thread 'The 12 Commandments of Reef Keeping' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-12-commandments-of-reef-keeping.817592/

For your particular case, newly cycled tank and losing a fish.

My thoughts are:

1. Tank is cycled based on your cycling method and test measurements
2. The ammonia reading is just a testing error.
3. Dead fish happen...especially in new tanks. It could be from disease.
4. Best course of action is to observe the remaining fish for a couple of weeks and see how it fairs. If something bad got in your tank (uronema, ich, velvet) you'll know.

I highly recommend you have an observation/qt protocol you follow when adding fish to your tank. After 30+ years in the hobby, I now only buy QT'D fish (...or QT them myself). Prior to this, I've had to go fallow 3 times and lost many and expensive fish to disease.

 

[Mschmidt]

Hi I’m in SC unfortunately but my experience with Fishkeeping is great in freshwater but this is my first attempt at saltwater

My advice is do what you would for fresh water. It'll take longer but you'll get there. It sucks to lose fish, not just because they cost a lot, but we get invested in their living. It's why we're in the hobby after all.

If other parameters are fine, acclimation of fish was adequate, and you didn't see signs of ammonia toxicity which you would know from freshwater, you're on the right path.