Biological burden

[Mr31415]

What would the biological burden be on a 400l tank with a 4" DSB with about 9kg or LR (cured since it was moved from my main reef tank which has been running for 3 months) when adding one smallish fish - say a lion fish of 14cm?

Would the 9kg of LR and DSP be able to handle this one fish or would there be a significant cycle?

 

[silverwolf72]

Cycleing is usually due to dead meterial being added to the system. Dead stuff on new rocks, sand ect

 

[Mr31415]

Well cycling is more accurately due to excess ammonia in the system, which needs to be broken down in to nitrites and nitrates. Gills from fishes as well as feeding and their detritus all contribute to the ammonia levels. My question is whether the LR I mentioned above and the 400l water volume would be enough to sustain one lion fish - with NO additional filtration.

 

[silverwolf72]

9kg is not very much for that size tank but it should be fine.

 

[Mr31415]

I know it is temporary while I am building the tank. I would just like to purchase the lionfish before someone else buys it, and wanted to know whether that bit of LR would be an OK interim biological filter for one fish.

 

[boxfishpooalot]

What would the biological burden be on a 400l tank with a 4" DSB with about 9kg or LR

Generally, live rock and sand do not export enormous amounts of phosphates. For this reason nitrate will reduce greatly although.

400l is 105.6gallon tank. So I think with this size you would be fine with 5 large fish, and a mix of corals.

But it depends on other factors like protein skimming, a macro fuge, the lighting above it. Supplements used.ect.

 

[reefshadow]

I would think you would be fine, the tank is "cycled", yes? You said the LR came from your last reef, so it should have a good bacterial growth I would think. As when adding anything, just test and be prepared to change some water if needed.

I think lionfish when adapted to feeding in captivity are pretty hardy, and would be more forgiving than many other choices you could make for a first fish. Just make sure it is feeding before you buy and watch your amm and nitrite for a couple weeks.

Good luck!

 

[Mr31415]

reefshadow - thanks. That is exactly the response I was looking for. Have tested NH3 and NO2 yesterday (about 48 hours after the introduction of the lionfish), and it measured 0.02 for NH3 and 0.033 for NO2, which is very low.

So far so good....