Is it safe to add fish yet

[coralmoral]

My around 155 gallon system (with a 30 gal sump, 5 gal refuge, 30 gal coral tank, and 90 gal display) has been running for around 3 weeks now. It has 6 damsel and 1 mono alive now and 3 damsels have died and haven't been taken out. My skimmer is not running and the lights are on a timer. I haven't seen a peak in nitrates (has been around 3 for about a week now). I am wondering if it is safe to add fish even though the nitrates haven't peaked yet.

 

[Stopsignhank]

You already added fish.

 

[mm949]

normally the algae will cycle with the tank...brown for nitrites then green for nitrates, once all the algae is green, wipe the tank, if it doesnt come right back (3 days) your cycled. you should be running the skimmer.

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

CoralMoral, [welcome]

 

[thegrun]

You need to monitor your ammonia and nitrites, nitrates are not an indicator of where you are in relation to the cycle. When and ONLY when your ammonia and nitrites drop to zero can you SLOWLY start to add fish. Please do not subject more fish to ammonia poisoning, there is no need to torture them.

 

[speer]

No matter exciting it feels to set up a new tank you will be much better off in the long run if you go slow.

 

[00Warpig00]

For the best results in monitoring your cycle you should test all three Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate.

When...

Ammonia > 0 and Nitrite = 0 and Nitrate = 0 THEN your cycle has started
Ammonia > 0 and Nitrite > 0 and Nitrate = 0 THEN you are still near the beginning of the cycle
Ammonia > 0 and Nitrite > 0 and Nitrate > 0 THEN you are at/near/over the peak of the cycle
Ammonia = 0 and Nitrite > 0 and Nitrate > 0 THEN you are nearing the end of the cycle
Ammonia = 0 and Nitrite = 0 and Nitrate > 0 THEN your initial cycle is complete.

after you reach the bottom of the list above you can then add a small clean up crew or a small fish or two.

Nick

 

[coralmoral]

@00warpig00 our nitrite is 0 but our amonia is .75ppm and our nitrates are around 3 sooo where does that place us

 

[thegrun]

You are fairly early in the cycle. As the ammonia builds, the bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrites begin to multiply. Once there is sufficient nitrites in the tank, another type of bacteria that break nitrites down into nitrates begin to multiply. Soon after that both ammonia and nitrite levels will drop to zero and the initial cycle is complete. Then you may add livestock. I've cycled numerous tanks over the years and never had my nitrates drop appreciably (and certainly never to zero) at the end of the cycle without doing water changes or growing macroalgae as a nutrient export system.

 

[serion]

I'd wait until ammonia and nitrites are 0 and then start adding in a clean up crew. You already have some fish. Then once the CUC is added and everything still reading good start adding fish..... are you quarantining your new fish? you could get the CUC and a fish in QT.

 

[reeefchief]

I would wait.

 

[00Warpig00]

@00warpig00 our nitrite is 0 but our amonia is .75ppm and our nitrates are around 3 sooo where does that place us

This is just my opinion...

Because you have live and dead fish in the tank giving a continuous ammonia source your cycle is not going to look "normal" and will be difficult to judge exactly where in the cycle you are.

Typically you cannot have nitrate without there having been nitrite that was converted to nitrate. The fact that you have nitrate in my opinion shows that you have some bacteria required to convert nitrite to nitrate. I also would say that normally this would mean that you have cycled. However it would also be my opinion that with a constant ammonia source in your tank that your tank does not have enough of the required bacteria yet to deal with the load your fish (alive or otherwise) are putting on that biological filter at this time. If it did you would also be showing no ammonia even with the fish in the tank.

It would be my opinion that you may have had a small cycle but your biological filter cant keep up. Still not the best situation for your fish that have to breathe that ammonia. It will be especially difficult for your biological filter to keep up on a three week old tank that has dead fish in it that you state above you have not removed.

Nick

 

[bongarone]

. It has 6 damsel and 1 mono alive now and 3 damsels have died and haven't been taken out.

Wait 6 more weeks.

Are you using tap water or RO/DI?

 

[coralmoral]

Ro/di

 

[SushiGirl]

This is just my opinion...

Because you have live and dead fish in the tank giving a continuous ammonia source your cycle is not going to look "normal" and will be difficult to judge exactly where in the cycle you are.

Typically you cannot have nitrate without there having been nitrite that was converted to nitrate. The fact that you have nitrate in my opinion shows that you have some bacteria required to convert nitrite to nitrate. I also would say that normally this would mean that you have cycled. However it would also be my opinion that with a constant ammonia source in your tank that your tank does not have enough of the required bacteria yet to deal with the load your fish (alive or otherwise) are putting on that biological filter at this time. If it did you would also be showing no ammonia even with the fish in the tank.

It would be my opinion that you may have had a small cycle but your biological filter cant keep up. Still not the best situation for your fish that have to breathe that ammonia. It will be especially difficult for your biological filter to keep up on a three week old tank that has dead fish in it that you state above you have not removed.

Nick

Exactly. Take the remaining live fish back to the store, you accomplished the need for ammonia by some of them dying. No need to subject live ones to certain early death any longer. After that, wait out the rest of the cycle as outlined by WarPig.

 

[coolbreeze]

Just wait it out please no more fish