Tank cycled, stocking commenced!

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axepilot

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Jan 10, 2005
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Twenty five days after setup, and fourteen years since my last saltwater tank, my 75 FO tank has cycled. :) The brown diatom is about done and the water chemistry is good to go. So today, I added a Flame Angel, a Percula Clown, a Coris Wrasse, and two cleaner shrimp. All are doing well and are eating well as I type this. The cleaner shrimp went right to work as soon as they left the bag. The wrasse is neat - the first wrasse I've attempted to keep and a real beauty. It's good to have another Flame Angel.

I was expecting open territorial warfare with my damsels, but the damsels don't know what to do. :) For now, they're content to pick on each other and leave the new intros alone.

It's GOOD to have another tank up and running after all of these years!
 
unfortunately your damsels will not continue this behavior... they still are acclimating to the other fishes presence... as soon as they feel comfortable they will get bolder... Flame angels need a lot of live rock to do well... also they are more for well established tanks... (over a year). Best of luck!
 
i started a tank with 3 damsels, when i decided to put in some clowns i had already had all my LR in the tank. the damsels will most likely start to fight, it took about a month before mine did. so if you plan on keeping the other fish if they start to fight it would be a little better to rid the damsels now. the more stuff you have in the tank the harder it is to get them, the longer you go the more stuff you usually get in a tank. and a point i think alot of people miss is the fact that when you attempt to capture fish out of a tank, unless a trap works good, you usually put stress on all the inhabitants in the tank. moving stuff to get the fish out, swiping with the net, stuff banging against the glass, it all causes alot of stress to the other fish. i am by no means telling you what to do, just saying that it might save a little aggrevation and maybe a couple of fish on down the road. i hope you tank does great, hope anything i said helps.
 
Actually, the wrasse and the angel are in a tie for "Big Fish" in the tank now. The damsels want nothing to do with either. I wanted to get rid of the damsels, but my friend balked at our agreement at the last minute and I'm not inclined one bit to euthanize them. I'm going to stay pat for a longer while on any more fish to see what happens. I'm feeding Spectrum pellets mixed in with a small amount of frozen brine shrimp and they all like them. In a past tank, I kept a blueface angel happy for 6 years on a variety of frozen and flake foods before I gave him away when I shut down the tank.

I'm guessing, but can I put in small pieces of live rock for the fish to nibble on? I can't see the harm in leaving a piece in for a day or two.
 
sure why not get rock and just leave it in there. it reduces stress by giving fish a place to hide from time to time. it helps act like a natural filtration system for you tank. sometimes you get nice hitch hikers on it. i really dont know a downfall to live rock. i have 175lbs in my 135 tank. just make sure that it is cured rock, if not you will need to cure it before you put it in the tank.
 
jessie said:
just make sure that it is cured rock, if not you will need to cure it before you put it in the tank.
Click to expand...

Can you explain "cured" to an old dog learning new tricks? :)
 
the best thing i can say is if you order rock online, it takes a few days to get to you, in that time some of the stuff liveing on the rock will sstart to die. when you get it, if you put it right into your tank, its kinda like starting a cycle again, you can get spikes and stuff like that because of the dead debris on the rock. if you buy rock from a lfs then you can always ask them if its cured. from all the rock that i have bought most of it was cured. i know some web sites say their rock is precured, but if you plan on putting it into an established tank it may recycle, might kill some stuff. im not the best at explaining it but i hope you have an idea of what im saying. and if you need to cure your rock, all you need is a rubbermaid full of saltwater, put in your rock and something to circlate the water. test, and when everything is stable its ready to put back into your tank. i changed about %50 of my water everyweek when i cured 30 pounds of it.
 
Thanks, Jessie!

I went to the LFS tonight to finish buying the gear I need for water changes. I asked them, and they said that they carry cured live rock. I'm going to start adding it as soon as they get some cured.
 
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