Tank finished cycling- CUC first or one fish?

[CanuckReefer]

So i have cycled for 6 weeks and now I have been reading through a bunch of CUC threads to see what i should do, but i am still not sure.

90G Reef tank

My results are:
Ammonia 0-0.1
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 2.25
Calcium 500
Phosphate 0.08
Magnesium 1500

I have some coralline from the the 15lbs of live rock i added at the beginning, and pretty much no algae.
So i am not sure if a CUC is necessary as there is nothing for them to eat.
Should i get one small fish and add a CUC slowly?

This is what i figured i would start with from reading some threads:
What do you guys think?

Initially
Bristle worms
Copepods
1-clownfish
5-blue leg hermit crab
3-cerith snails

After 1 week
3-Trochus snails
2-Sea serpent stars
1-cleaner shrimp

After 3 month
4-Nassarius snails
2-Conchs

I have moved the live rock from the sump to the DT tank since taking this photo

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv266/Spoolin335/Aquarium/IMG_8210.jpg

[dg3147]

u could do a fish and light cuc all at once. don't add copepods yet --they need a healthy supply of algae growing first. wait a couple weeks if u are adding those. --though, if u used live rock, u likely already have copepods in there.

[ebacon]

i generally stay away from crabs as they tend to eat snails for the shells. IF you have just established the tank and do not have any fish yet i am not sure what it is you want to clean up....

[bpcass]

Clean up crew is a misnomer, if you just cycled there is little there to clean up. The advantage to adding the "clean up crew" first is that it gives you something to watch while it further delays your adding a large bioload and provides a smaller bioload for the nitrifying bacteria to ratchet up to. I side with ebacon against the crabs. Many of the crabs, shrimp, and stars are counterproductive to add early on. Not only do they eat your snails, they eat the little worms and things that will get going in your sand bed and will be your real clean up crew later on. Once the base of your food pyramid is solid you can add some of the larger scavengers. Personally I only had rock and sand in my tank for the first 3 months. Then some snails for the next 3. It was 6 months before I added my first fish and I had so many amphipods, copepods, spaghetti worms, bristle worms, and other micro critters that I probably could have used it to dispose of a body. In response to your specific timetable I'd do this.
Initially:
Bristle worms
Copepods
Amphipods
Cerith snails
every other day feeding of small amount phytoplankton and/or other small particulate coral food

1 month:
Nassarius snails
Trochus snails
Conchs
1 clownfish (I understand the eagerness to get something to watch)

6 months
Hermit crabs (if you must, get plenty of extra shells to spare your snails)
Serpent or brittle stars
Cleaner shrimp

[SushiGirl]

Personally I only had rock and sand in my tank for the first 3 months. Then some snails for the next 3. It was 6 months before I added my first fish and I had so many amphipods, copepods, spaghetti worms, bristle worms, and other micro critters that I probably could have used it to dispose of a body

I swear by the "3 month rule" I was told when I started this hobby in 2000, even though people tell me it's not necessary and/or stupid. I've had 6 tanks now, and only one I started this past July had livestock added immediately after the cycle. Interestingly, it's the only one that had a hair algae and now a severe cyano outbreak (nitrates are not high in this tank). Even the current 55 softy tank that's always had high nitrates has never had hair algae & only had early cyano in the fuge.

I would add just a few snails, as they will eat film algae, & wait a bit on the first fish. I suppose "a bit" depends on how good your patience is.

[MONSTERUP]

no need for cuc just yet. there is nothing to clean up. get your self some fish firs. add them slowly dont got out and buy 10 fish and dump them all in. your tank is still delicate

[chrisfont23]

I swear by the "3 month rule" I was told when I started this hobby in 2000, even though people tell me it's not necessary and/or stupid. I've had 6 tanks now, and only one I started this past July had livestock added immediately after the cycle. Interestingly, it's the only one that had a hair algae and now a severe cyano outbreak (nitrates are not high in this tank). Even the current 55 softy tank that's always had high nitrates has never had hair algae & only had early cyano in the fuge.

I would add just a few snails, as they will eat film algae, & wait a bit on the first fish. I suppose "a bit" depends on how good your patience is.

+1. I probably would wait for a diatom bloom for your snails to survive on before you add them. I saw a starfish on there too... please don't throw a sand sifter in there or anything that relies on a live sandbed to live. Patience is key.

[CanuckReefer]

Ok, so the only reason i was going to put a CUC in the tank was from reading this in the newb section. I thought i just want to slowly increase the bioload on my tank, but since there is no load, i read that i should just add one small fish to give the CUC something to clean up after.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2181342

SO---if they're not there to eat up all the algae, what ARE they there for?

One real reason, besides being cute: they poo. They poo gentle, usually non-high-protein veggie-based stuff into your baby sandbed, which right now has never handled high-volume fish poo. Over about a month (time for you to safely quarantine your first fish) they will slowly bring that baby, weakling sandbed up to strength enough to handle a fish's greater, more protein-based output. And believe me---fish can poo. A lot.

Once your tank matures and you have waste floating around, your CUC is still important: it re-poos the poo in micro-size that can slip down through the sand to get to the bacteria, who process it into nitrogen gas, which floats up as occasional bubble: that's why reefs don't use filters---their sandbeds break it all down. Fish-onlies may need a little more cleanup, and may need filters, because they're a bit more bare-bones and their sandbeds usually can't keep up. Not saying they couldn't with backup sandbeds, but they often don't.

Anyways, i can be patient, i just want to do it the right way. There is 1000's of CUC threads and everyone seems to have their own way of doing it. Just want to do thing right the first time with minimal issues.

Also, the only reason i want a shrimp in the tank is to eat my aiptasia that is slowly spreading.

[hollister]

yea i would add a fish . just control your feeding. I would feed 2 or 3 times a day and no more then they can eat in around 1 min. The food and fish waste will help unseen critters and bacteria.

then i would wait a week or so and add a coral then wait and add a fish or coral and a few CUC and then wait and ect... ect ...

[CanuckReefer]

So i went out and got a cheap Blue Green Chromis to test in my tank. I put him in and right away he was just hiding in a corner.
I acclimated him to the tank by dripping water from my tank into a bowl with the water from the fish store. I then took him out of the water and put him in my tank.

Today i found him stuck under a coral and not moving but still breathing. Moved the rocks to let him out and he is barely swimming, just spinning out of control. About 30 min later dead!!!

Any prognosis on why he died?
I tried to feed him flakes but since he would hide the whole time, he probably didnt eat any...

[hollister]

Man it can be confusing at first but if done right then youll say ,that was easy.

Adding CUC in a new tank means no food for them. Same with coral but 1 easy coral would be fine. But a chromis is aggressive and may make adding other fish hard to impossilbe. So maybe a silver lining.

In the pick i see 1 powerhead and not sure the size. Your salt water recieves oxygen from surface exchange and good water movement is needed for this.
What size powerhead is that?
And a good reef startup book is worth its wieght in gold.

[zeebies]

Canuck, you seem to have done some good initial research in planning your tank. I'm sorry about your first fish dying.

IMO you MUST have a quarantine system/plan in place and make a pack with yourself to use it each time before you add something to your DT. Your fish need time to chill out in a separate tank so you can watch them, observe for signs of disease, treat if needed, etc. There are lots of sticky's and excellent threads on RC to show you every step of the way.
Many people treat all fish prophylactically for ich and other parasites. This is what I do and I also quarantine all rock, inverts, corals before adding to the main tank. Some feel this is overkill, but I think it is necessary for long term health of a reef.

Don't take a chance, quarantine next time! And, good luck :thumbsup:.

[CanuckReefer]

Man it can be confusing at first but if done right then youll say ,that was easy.

Adding CUC in a new tank means no food for them. Same with coral but 1 easy coral would be fine. But a chromis is aggressive and may make adding other fish hard to impossilbe. So maybe a silver lining.

In the pick i see 1 powerhead and not sure the size. Your salt water recieves oxygen from surface exchange and good water movement is needed for this.
What size powerhead is that?
And a good reef startup book is worth its wieght in gold.

I did some reading on Chromis and i thought they were pretty tame. I found this guy to be a total pu55y. He wouldnt come out at all, not even to eat.
Anyways, he gone now so onto another fish once i do my samples again and make sure everything is still in order.

I have 2 Koraila 1050GPH power heads(one on each side of the tank) and a 500GPH pump(~350 after headloss). That should be good for my tank from what i have read. The flow in the tank almost seemed to much as the Chromis seemed to be fighting the powerheads when floating around.

Canuck, you seem to have done some good initial research in planning your tank. I'm sorry about your first fish dying.

IMO you MUST have a quarantine system/plan in place and make a pack with yourself to use it each time before you add something to your DT. Your fish need time to chill out in a separate tank so you can watch them, observe for signs of disease, treat if needed, etc. There are lots of sticky's and excellent threads on RC to show you every step of the way.
Many people treat all fish prophylactically for ich and other parasites. This is what I do and I also quarantine all rock, inverts, corals before adding to the main tank. Some feel this is overkill, but I think it is necessary for long term health of a reef.

Don't take a chance, quarantine next time! And, good luck :thumbsup:.

I have spend endless hours reading to try and make sure i understand everything before i go to the next step in setting the tank up. So far everything seems good, all my parameters are well within spec so i figured its time to start slowly adding to the tank.

I did lots of reading on quarantine systems before buying the first fish. From my understanding you really only need to quarantine fish if they are right from the ocean as you have no idea what they come with. The Chromis i bought was from a tank farm. The LFS said i wont need to quarantine any of my fish from them as they are already pre quarantined and guarantee they are safe. So this was the only reason i didnt quarantine him for 30 days or so.

Anyways thanks for the tips. Ill do my water tests and if everything is still good ill try another fish i guess.

[Gregs138]

Check the basics. Alk/PH Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. Those are really the only things that can kill the fish. Check salinity.


With chromies I would say add 2-3 simply because they like to school and if it was just one swimming by himself he may have just got over stressed and went "where the heck is everyone!?!?" then freaked out and died. Not all fish acclimate the same. Think if you were abducted by aliens, put in a bag, droppped off in a big empty room and no one was around. You might have an anxiety attack as well lol.

[CanuckReefer]

Check the basics. Alk/PH Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. Those are really the only things that can kill the fish. Check salinity.


With chromies I would say add 2-3 simply because they like to school and if it was just one swimming by himself he may have just got over stressed and went "where the heck is everyone!?!?" then freaked out and died. Not all fish acclimate the same. Think if you were abducted by aliens, put in a bag, droppped off in a big empty room and no one was around. You might have an anxiety attack as well lol.



haha sounds good. I just didnt want to over do it right off the bat. Ill go for 2 next time and see how it goes.

My tests have been rock on, ever since i started the tank so i cant see how they went to sh1t overnight.
Anywho, ill update on the weekend!

[xunknownx]

Hi,

i'm in the same boat. not trying to hijack your thread canuk but i figured we can keep this in the same thread since its the same topic. maybe others can benefit from this as well.

i finished cycling my tank the other day and i have just started to run my tank with lights on. tank is about a month old, using ro/di water.
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 5 to 10
salinity: 1.023
ph: 7.9 (kinda low. currently using instant ocean salt. just ordered some redsea max)

there is some algae but not much, i do see alot of copecods but not much else. not sure if i should put in my clean up crew first or add 1 clownfish or add both?