Corals And Fishies Which First.... Oh My

[Nalaundi]

ok....now, confused,, would love some help with this.

so I am at the point where I can start putting Corals and fish into my tank. the problem is I have heard so many different opinnions about which to intoduce first.

on the net from various places I have heard.... stock your live rock,let it cycle, settle then acclamate your fish and inverts and corals... but they never give an order. obviously I did the inverts (hermits and snails) first for the algae.

now what do I do. I am doing it slow obviously... but which is better to start with. 1 fish every 2 weeks ( I have 3 small fishies plannedd for this tank) till tank settles then corals ( If so how many do I do at a time and how much time inbetween? not to mention is there really a limit like fish to how many corals you can put in your tank... I know the space and agression issue is included in planning how many... but really is there a limit?)

OR
the other source I heard was that you do your corals first... ( all of them? ) then start adding your fish. I heard the corals change the chemical makeup of the water... which I understand... but wouldnt you want to put the fish in first because of the added ammonia and nitrates?) anyway

if you did corals first... when in that line up could you start adding fish.. or do you wait till your reef is complete before adding fish.

if you did fish first.... when in that line up could you start adding corals... or do you wait till your fishies are in and stable before adding corals?

phew.... (wipes sweat from brow)

... fyi I am sooooo glad I found this forum... you all have no Idea what help you all have been! I am on here EVERYday and usualy more than once in a day... just surffing past posts... Im learning so much! of corse I have my plethera of books and other sources.. but I will tell you it is so nice o have this forum here!!!!!

 

[brittlestar]

Hey there I am a newbie to marine too! Please dont take the below as given as I am very new to this too, this is just my experience but I'm sure one of the others will have a better way of doing things.

What we did was:

1) set up our tank, finding level place to put (you can use a purpose made stand or a strong table. Checked that it that could take the weight of it full with water and LR, obv reading all the instructions and make sure the lights were working OK.
Use a spirit level to check your floor is level than check again once tank is in your chosen place. Try to find somewhere not right in front of a bright window as you will encourage nuisance algae and could possibly find the sun heats your tank too much. Also don't put it right by a source of heat.

2) if your tank has a rear internal filter, you can put the activated carbon in. Don't bother using any biological media such as sponges, bioballs or ceramic rings. It may become a nitrate factory soon. The Live Rock will be your bio filter. I have just added Fluval Activated carbon bags and some fine filter wool as mechanic filters.

3) Filled with salted RO water from the fish shop, people refer to it as LFS - local fish store.

4) Added the heater, turn the temp nozzle to what you want - about 24-25c as you may find your lights heat the tank more. You can put these submersible heaters anywhere you like with the suction cups provided. If you buy a tank with a false back wall you can affix it in here so you don't see it from the front. Don't turn the heater on until the tank is full of water! You can do this when you've nearly finished setting up.

5) Add your substrate if you are having one. We used coral sand to make about a half inch layer. It has good PH buffering properties and can form part of your biological filter.

6) Now you can add your live rock! Or you could fill t he tank after you've put the live rock in but we did it this way round as we didn't get the rock until the next day. I think the recommended amount is something like 1 pound per gal of water??? That equates to about 1 kilo per 2.5 gals? Arrange it however you like but don't build too high if its unsteady and don't lean against the glass. You can always use plastic cocktail sticks to make it more stable or aquarium sealant to bind pieces together but you can't then fill the tank for about 48 hours until its dry, which is a long time for your LR to be dry.....

7) Once you are happy with your arrangement, switch on your lights and your heater and filter and you are ready!

8) Test parameters daily - check lights aren't making the temp too high, check SG (specific gravity) - the saltiness of the water through the use of a marine hydrometer or refractometer. Range should be between 1.022- 1.025. Also check Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. Amm and Nitrite should be 0 before livestock is added, Nitrate ideally under 15ppm. Ours is 5 at the mo yay!! You can also test for water hardness and check for the presence of copper, which should be 0. Copper is lethal to invertebrates so don't use any medicine containing that or you won't be ableto keep them. Rock etc will still contain traces of it which will leach back into the water.

9) If you have bought cured live rock, you might not see any spike but its worth monitoring it anyway. I'm not sure of the timescales but we have left ours a week and will add some clean up crew later today then I'm sure we'll see an ammonia spike. We'll leave it a minimum of another week before adding one fish. I'll add ours one at a time and remember you really can't have many as marine fish need a lot more water and space per fish than say, malawi cichlids.

10) Not sure when you add coral sorry....... But only go for soft corals such as mushrooms, star polyps and toadstool leathers at the moment as they are supposedly easier to keep than hard corals. I will add some in a few weeks when parameters have been OK.

Make sure you acclimatise your tank additions properly, another thread has been done about this so I won't explain here.

This is probably FULL of errors so you best ask one of the experienced reef keepers to help you too



OMG after typing all that, I've just reread your post, stupid me!!!!!!!!!! I read your post as " I'm about to set up a new tank please help"!!!!!!!!!!!! You've already done all that grrrrrrrrr!!!

My fault for being awake at 4.20 am!! Ignore me sorry!!! lol! I'm also so tired I forgot to mention skimmer and powerheads and ask what lighting you have.

What lighting do you have? What corals do you want to keep?

 

[Nalaundi]

lol,,, no worries... I just feel for your hands.. must be tired!

my tank... is a 20g Long.. 6 weeks into the cycling.. which the nitrogen cycle has completly completed.. ph, calcium, KH, alkalnity are all stable. Ive got all my algae starting.. diatoms pretty much done.. hair algae.. slowing down, already seeing coralline algea goin pretty good. I have got my clean up crew in place and they are doin a fine job. I know what kind of fish I will put in and as for the corals.. DrsFosterSmithl.com ok LiveAquaria has some good nano packs... if i can I will eventutally have all three of the nano packs (4 corals in each catagory.. Mushroom pack, polyp pack, Soft Coral.) with the added open brain coral. if I can get my tank hold that much. we will see how it goes. I will give a 2 to 3 week interval (maybe 1 month depending on finances) between each a pack.. and play it by ear to see how full my tank gets and more so if it can hold that much...we will see.

as for the fish... Plans are 1 royal gramma basslet, and 1 cardinal (not the pajama) the other one , I can never remember how to spell it.

Here is what it looks like


I will also have a skunk shrimp and a blood red shrimp.

I dont want to overload my system so once everything is in... im done. I dont want to go messing around with the balance of it all. so those will be the only fish and the only corals and the only cleanup crew.....

filtration is Rena filstar Exernal canister (up to 45g) biowheel 30 (wheel is out), with the filter floss changed weekly, Pergin, seagel, and carbon.. though in the process of getting chemi-pure (or biochem zorb made for the Rena filstar) we will see which i decide on. gph 590 x29, lighting 2x65watt pc
Nitrate at 5..... doing a water change tomarrow (had to make a new batch) phosphate0, Calcium 420, ammonia 0, nitrite,0 (for about 3 weeks now) dKH 9.8

a few updated pictures

 

[rhysiboy]

i think the general audience usualy add clean up crew ----> fish -------> corals mainly because by the time youve got your fish in your tank will be pretty much fully matured so no more swings should happen

 

[Nalaundi]

i think the general audience usualy add clean up crew ----> fish -------> corals mainly because by the time youve got your fish in your tank will be pretty much fully matured so no more swings should happen

ah. got it! will do... off for the fishies then