Fish Yet?

Are you doing a fishless cycle? you should have some nitrates if you are.

If you are cycling with fish I would get 4 blue damsels, they can stand the water chemistry, even though excellent right now, you will probably have nitrates, nitrities and ammonia later on as it matures, after your tank has cycled sell the damsels,they get really aggressive.

Forget the damsels. They are very aggressive fish and once your tank is cycled it will be next to impossible to get them out of there. Chance are you will have to remove most or all of the rock to accomplish this. Later when you want to add fish they will harrass and kill any other fish that you put in the tank. I would start a fishless cycle that can be done with a piece of raw shrimp and go from there. It sounds like this is a saltwater setup and please remember one thing with saltwater tanks. Don't rush anything. Proceed very sloooowly! That way you will have the most success.

Good luck with the tank and wish your son a happy birthday.

Marinemom

P.S. Over the next several days I would up the S.G. to 1.025-1.026. Generally that is where more seawater is at and the live creatures will like it better. I would also consider getting a piece or two of live rock to help seed the base rock you already have.

Marinemom

this may be more a effective thread if it was in the marine newbie forum instead of the freshwater one.

SW usually takes a minimum of 6 weeks to establish good bacteria. If you know someone with a SW tank, I would get them to give you a cup of their sand to seed the tank. Remember, nothing good happens fast in saltwater. I learned that the hard way and lost over $100.00 worth of fish because I listened to my LFS. I also had damsels as my first fish and even they were dead in 48 hours. If you don't have someone to give you some sand to go along with your live rock (I assume you have live rock in the tank) then I would do the raw shrimp thing or at least dose the tank with some fish food everyday to start a cycle. If your water paremeters are good right now, chances are it is because you have nothing "live" causing the water to cycle. Please do not add fish yet. It is too expensive (as you are fixing to learn) and it is very hard on the fish and there is nothing you can do (other than water changes which often times don't help unless you do them every 12 hours) to help them. How big is the tank and how much live rock do you have in the tank?