Bio load
 

Hey guys. So after my tank cycled I started to add in fish at a rate of 1 per week as suggested by my LFS... I just joined this site and was reading some posts and almost everyone suggests 1 fish PER MONTH. But now there is nothing I can do because my LFS has a no return policy and they are the only saltwater store withing 2-3 hours. About 3 days after I put in the 3rd fish I got hit with a terrible diatom bloom and hair algae was starting to really come in, with the addition of some green algae on the windows and a very minute patch of red slime on the rock... Today I did a water test and noticed that my ammonia levels were 0.25 ppm... maybe a little less, nitrites were 0, and nitrates were around 5-7.5ppm. Ran out of salt so I have to pick some up tomorrow to do a water change. Any advice of what else I should do other than a water change... if there is anything to be worried about. I may be just overreacting, but just want to be safe. My 2 clowns and scooter blenny are doing great. Thanks for the help!

Most will say one fish per month so your system can keep up with the new load. algae blooms are very common and normal with a new tank, but ammonia is a killer, I would do a water change as soon as possible. Also on a new system you do not have enough pods to keep your scooter blenny from starving, it's only a matter of time before it dies if you do not return it back to the store.

scooter blenny eats frozen mysis and pellets. and store doesnt take anything back lol. gonna do the water change as soon as i get the salt

You are probably just overreacting. The one fish per month thing is outdated and generally reserved to people who knows nothing.

Ammonia measured at 0.25... I assume you have an API test kit? They generally always measure that much, once an aquarium gets going.

So long as you have cycled properly, then it'll be fine. The bioload your aquarium can handle will also depend on how you cycled as well. Many people add multiple fish at once, and definitely a lot more often than once every month. It all depends on the filtration system setup itself, and how one cycled one's aquarium.

Unless you have the ability to feed your blenny mysis shrimp constantly not just one, two or three times a day it will suffer. Dragonets need to eat constantly to be healthy and happy.

he has some live brine he can eat all day

yup i am using api. sounds good, everything you said eased my nerves lol. thanks so much