Advice on adding fish after cycle

[Ryan1190]

Hi everyone.

So I cycled my tank with the raw shrimp method and my ammonia is 0, Nitrite 0, and nitrate around 10ppm (up from 5 a few days ago). I never had an algae or diatom bloom but I also was not running any lights. Since cycling finished a week ago I added a pair of clowns (No CUC since there was nothing to clean...). Well one clown didn't make it, it was sitting on the bottom of the tank almost immediately after acclimation and died 24 hours later.

I talked to my LFS and he essentially told me my tank was too new to have fish and needed to see a diatom bloom before adding fish and that's why he died... Intuitively this does not make sense to me, all of my levels are still reading 0 with a red sea kit, except a slight bump in nitrates after adding the clowns. The other clown is doing great and eating, very active.

I would like to have a pair of clowns and I know introducing a new clown can be problematic if my current clown has the time and chance to change to female. What's your advice? Is it really too early to add fish like the LFS said? Was that particular fish just too stressed out? Add a 2nd clown to pair? Cause of death?

 

[CHizer]

How did you acclimate them?

 

[Ryan1190]

Actually acclimation is the top of my differential for cause of death. I followed the "floating method" on live aquaria, http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=157

The problem is about half way through the bag with my fish in it flipped and let the fish out. Lesson learned, I'll drip acclimate from here on out.

The LFS also told they'd be OK just doing temperature acclimation since they are "hardy fish" but I don't buy that. Salinity difference might have done him in.

 

[jrr98002]

Not having an algae bloom doesn't mean you can't add fish. If you're sure your readings are correct, it could have been a bad acclimation or the fish may have not been the healthiest. It's hard to know for sure. As far as adding a second clown, you could risk it I suppose if it hasn't been too long of a time since the first was added. I've done it before and had no problems...I've also done it before and had the other clown attack the new one. Up to you really.

 

[firemountain]

Ryan....if your tank is fully cycled, the lack of an algae bloom is ok. You should be able to add a fish with no problem.

I suspect your acclimation is the cause of the fishes death.

Few questions....

How long was the fish in the transport bag before you opened it up to acclimate? Also....how long did it take you to acclimate the fish before it went into you tank?

Did you add an air stone to the bag water once you opened it up to acclimate ? If so... The quick rise in ph will cause non toxic ammonium to covert to toxic ammonia that will spike and can kill your fish. This is a HUGE mistake that people make. NEVER add an airstone to the bag water that the fish was transported in.

Did you test the bag water for SG? If so....how big of a difference between you tanks SG and the bag water's SG?

Did you float the fish for temperature in the closed bag?

Here is a good post to read ....

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17979343&postcount=10

This one is the full thread about acclimation....

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1939508

Read closely to all of Sk8r posts....he is a RC moderator, and knows his sh**

 

[Reef Frog]

It sounds like your fish went from the store straight to the display tank. If so, chances are the store's salinity was probably low (1.017 or so) and went into your display tank at normal reef salinity (1.026).

If this is correct, this is what probably did your clown fish in. It's best to put the fish in a quarantine tank matched to the store's salinity. You then raise it slowly while monitoring the fish for disease and parasites.

 

[Ryan1190]

Thanks everyone, it seems acclimation was probably it. I did not test the stores water salinity unfortunately.

The fish was in the transport bag for about an hour before I opened it up. I floated the bag for 15 minutes to get the temps aligned before opening. Then I got about 30 minutes through the floating bag acclimation method before the bag flipped on accident. No air stones.

I am curious about my recent test. For the first time since before adding fish I saw a very faint positive nitrite reading. Any ideas? Over feeding? Just adjusting to the new bioload?

As of just now using all red sea tests:
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0.05 ppm (very faint, 1st time I have seen any color since before adding fish and I check every other day)
Nitrate 5-10 ppm
Alk 3.2 Meq/L
Ph 8.2-8.4
Salinity 1.025
Temp 79

 

[BriGuyRN]

Ask your local fish store what they keep their salinity level at. I am doing a fish only tank, and although I have not added any fish yet I did match the salinity in my tank to that of my LFS, just to avoid that problem.