Things going too good?

[kramleigh]

Hi all!

I've had my tank set-up for around 6 weeks now and it's all going a little too well. I used fully cured live rock and never really had a spike of anything - nitrate got to 2ppm for a day or two. Anyway - I've gradually added 7 corals - 1 leather finger, a toadstool leather, pussey coral, polyp rock, maxima clam and 2 mushroom rocks. Have also gradually added 2 ocellaris clowns, a algae blenny, a leopard wrasse, 2 cleaner shrimps, 3 sexy shrimps, 20 turbos and 5 red legs. The thing is that I know the tank is way overloaded for its age and yet after a week with this stock, these are my parameters:

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Phosphate 0ppm
Calcium 420
SG 1.026
Temp 78 - 82
KH 10

So my question is - how are things going soooo well? My lfs hold their LR in very high regard. They're quite arrogant about how good it is. Thanks, K

 

[cdangel0]

4 fish isn't really over-loading your system in a 100g - corals, snails and hermits don't really add much to your bio-load. Using fully cured LR will prevent any real spikes in amonia, and nitrite as you already have all the benficial bacteria.

Don't tempt fate by questioning how things are going too well - or they won't - trust me.

I would recomend slowing down a bit though - that is a lot to add in only 6 weeks - especially considering time you waited to see a cycle. Rushing in this hobby will almost always result in catastrophy. We all know how hard it is to be patient sometimes, but we really can't stress it's virtues enough.

Congrats on your new system and I hope it continues to go well for you.

 

[ebauman75]

Sometimes we just get lucky! Mine only cycled for about two weeksI've been adding fish since then @ 1-2 at a time and have yet to see any additional spikes. I work part time for a LFS and just from stories I've heard there cycling a tank can go in as little as a week or up to six months. My belief is that it depends on what you start with. If you start with completely cured live rock and get lucky enough to have very little or even no die-off, it's gonna' go fast. But if you start with uncured rock with loads of die-off it's going to take quite a while longer. In all honesty it's partially luck as to what you get and how quickly it cycles! You can't ever be sure, only careful!

 

[papagimp]

Rushing the livestock that like and you have gotten extremely lucky. You can keep playing the chance game like that, or slow it down and take your time. This is not a hobby for impatient people. At 6 weeks, you should just now be thinking about what types of algae crew to add, not what kind of fish to add after adding all the corals. corals should be the last thing going in there, not the first. And as CDAngle0 said, dont tempt fate! For gods sake dont' tempt em!! The last time I bragged about how well my tank looked I went home to find a cyno bloom. Ya don't want that now do ya!?!

 

[techigirl78]

Is the leopard wrasse eating prepared food? I wouldn't put one in a newer tank or in a tank with sexy shrimp. I also agree with the others to slow down. Things can look real good and then go downhill real fast.

 

[kramleigh]

Leopard Wrasse at the mo is eating frozen brineshrimp, not touching the sexy shrimp. Constantly nipping at the rocks for food but feeding really well - giving the clowns a run for their money.

So, with the parameters as they are, do I wait a while before adding anything else? or can I expect a spike soon? Everything in the tank seems really happy - corals in particular are looking sweet. Thanks

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

I would sit and wait for 1 month min to see if you "re-cycle" from re-spiking your nutrient load.

4 small fish SHOULD be OK in 100gal, but the truth is, you haven't had any fishload/foodload in there yet, so you may not have much nitrosomonas and you'll need the extra water for dilution if a cycle happens.

 

[techigirl78]

I'd suggest switching to mysis over the brine for nutritional reasons.

Probably try waiting a few weeks between each fish addition. I'm not sure when you last addition was, so it is kind of hard to say. Definitely consider QT for new additions just to keep you going without problems. Corals and inverts can be added with less of an issue, but waiting in between fish gives the tank more time to catch up.

BTW - You should post some pics.