Questions

[rdwilson]

I just purchased my 29-gallon tank and have a few questions.

1. I have live sand and 5lbs of live rock. I was told that I should have 15 lbs of live rock before I start adding any fish. Is this true? I want to begin by adding a couple of damsels. How long should I wait after adding the other 10lbs of live rock before adding the damsels?
2. Should I wait until the PH and other levels (nitrites, nitrates, etc.) are where they need to be before adding the damsels? The salinity is reading at 1.024 is this a safe reading to add fish. I haven’t tested the other numbers yet.
3. When can I add the clean up crew to the tank? Should I wait until I have added a few fish?


Thanks!

 

[Chris]

I would let the tank sit as is for a few weeks, let it cycle. You have to give benificial bacteria time to grow then slowly add new fish as to not increase the bio-load to fast, you have to give the bacteria time to grow with your bio-load.

Good Luck and Welcome to the forums!

 

[jhnrb]

Welcome to the forum. read the saltwater article forum some new articles have recently been posted that addresses cycling and addition of animals. If after reading these articles you still have questions post here in this thread and we will try a help best we can. for now like chris said just let things balance and cycle. you will want to add a clean up crew when your system is in need of one. remember if you add animals without an adequate food source they will not live and this will put an additional burden on your new system. Hope this helps. again welcome.

 

[minireefer]

Welcome to the forum ,
I would add the rock right away and more if your budget can handle it.You should shoot for a least 1 lbs rock per gallon.If not add the extra 15 lbs now.If you can handle the odor a dead non frozen shrimp or two is a humane way to cycle along with rock.The thing with damsels are you add only two and you most of the time end up with one.Very aggressive fish.maybe add 3 if go that route.Also they are a pain to remove with the rock in place.You will need to get them out when adding new fish.If not they pick on any newcomers