When can I add fish? and how many?

VickyH

VickyH

AC Members
Mar 7, 2007
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Medway, Kent
My amonia levels are going down, my nitrite levels are spiking so now I'm waiting for the nitrate. My tank has only been up and running just over a week but given that it's already going throught the 'cycle' how long would you say before I can add fish? How long should the levels be stable for first?
Also I am looking to have clownfish, 1 algae blenny, gobies and possibly royal gramma but how many of each can I have? .I paricularly like the blue neon and yellow prawn gobies. I know not to add all at once so I assume I should wait for levels to settle in between adding new fish is this right?

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Ammo 0..trites 0... rates some where around 20.....Nice tank....:dance2:
 
depending on what first fish you buy, you may want to wait untill your nitrates are >5 for a week constant...Then start stocking very slowly so the bactria that converts the ammonia has chance to build up the level of the bio-load...

All is looking good there...

Niko
 
How many fish can you add... how big is the tank (it doesn't say anywhere)? It looks like it's about 4' long, but doesn't appear tall enough to be a 55g.

In general, once it's ok to add fish, it's recommended (at least it was to me) to add fish once every 2 - 3 weeks, as long as your parameters are still stable. I've only added multiple fish to our reef twice -- once when we bought our pair of clownfish and the other time was when we got 2 firefish. Other additions have been made individually, usually far longer than 2 - 3 weeks apart (usually dictated by local availability more than our want to add our next fish).
 
Sorry! Tank is 48x15x15, when I set it up I put in 150L.
 
I like your tank I wish I had something that "small" to put in my room :D
 
Did mention in post which fish I'd like but I'll list them again - clownfish, 1 algae blenny, royal gramma and gobies - not sure how many of these I can have but assuming it's only 1 I'd like a blue neon or a yellow prawn goby. Plus my clean up crew which I'm not sure about yet!
 
I've seen many recommendations about clean-up crews based on tank size and what-not, but I found it best to just start off with a small variety and then build our clean-up crew around the type of clean-up required. For example, our tank has quite a few cerinth and nassarious snails (maybe 24 total between the two types), and only a small number each of trochus, astrea, and margarita snails. As hermits go, we have 4 scarlet leg hermits (the somewhat larger, all red with yellow face hermits) besides the common variety of "reef" hermits (the smaller, blue striped, red striped, or solid red hermits).

Fish... IMO, if your goal is a reef tank (didn't see any mention of plans for a reef or FOWLR, so I'll guess reef) a pair of clowns would be fine along with a single algae blenny and a single royal gramma. As far as a goby goes, I'd suggest picking just one and having only one. Not all gobies will get along with other gobies.
 
Thank you! I was gonna do fish only cos I don't think I have the right set up for a reef - I only have an external fluval filter, protein skimmer and 2 fluorescent tubes for lighting (1 of those is blue), according to the books I need more than this to be able to sustain a reef. Baby steps though! I'm sure I'll get my reef tank one day!
 
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