When to ad what???

MyBoxOfWater

New member
I have had the tank set up with Saltwater in it for 7 days.
I added live sand 2 days ago and added live rock yesterday.

How long do I want to wait before introducing live animals like snails, stars or fish?
 
At this point, I'd recommend a bit more patience. Definately no stars, and I doubt snails would live. If you just have to add something, damsels or chromis. However, based on what fish you wish to add later, the damsels/chromis might cause 'social' issues as they can be a bit aggressive.
 
throw a raw table shrimp in there and start monitoring ammonia... when you get a reading, take the shrimp out and start testing for nitrites and nitrates... once the nitrites are gone, do a water change (around 25% or so) and let the tank run for a few days... after that, you should be good to go... just go slowly and you'll be fine
 
and dont add damsels/chromis unless that's what you want to keep long term and understand their needs and behavior... using them to help cycle a tank is cruel to the fish... all you are trying to do with the cycle is introduce organic waste (dead shrimp) so that the denitrifying bacteria have a food source and can populate the substrate and equipment/tank walls
 
There are many was to go about it. I just put in a pinch of flake food every day to get the cycle going. Just like you were feeding fish. Because that is what you will eventually be doing anyway.
 
There were a couple of small snails on the live rock tha I got. Should I take them out and give them away or will they be OK?
Do they need any food that I can add?
No damsels... too aggressive in the end.
Will only be adding a couple of clowns, an anemone, a yellow watchman goby, some snails and a brittle star.
 
you can leave the snails in there... add the YWG first then the clowns... in a tank that small i would personally skip the anemone and let the clowns host in euphyllia or similar... just my $0.02
 
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