Wrong Direction?

[TheBalance]

Hi im Fairly new to saltwater fish keeping! i have a 46 gallon bowfront with stand and a 36' nova T5 HO with 4 bulbs. 2 white and 2 blue. i got a brand new FLuval 306, fluval heater and a proteain skimmer. i filled my tank with 40 pounds of live sand and and about 2 pounds of live rock. i let that run for about a week and then a frined of mine bought me 2 nano clown fish. i couldnt say no! so those little guys are in my tank happily. for now.... i have been reading up on cycling fish tanks and realized i didnt cycle mine. should i stop what im doing, return the fish add a raw shrimp and let it do it's thing? or should i get some filter medea from a friend of mine and place that in my filter and go from there? im really confused what i should do and would love some help! thanks a lot
-Aaron C

 

[Donya]

Have you been testing ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate? If not, you should do that ASAP. With only 2lbs of live rock in that volume of water you will probably see waste start to build up despite the live sand. It won't be a mature sand bed at this point (a process that takes a few months usually), so it's denitrifying ability will be pretty minimal. You need to get more live rock in there pretty quickly if you want to keep the fish. Ideally there should have been around 1lb/gallon (so in the 45lb neighborhood) before the fish went in. That's the whole point of buying the live, since it is your biological filter and usually only undergoes a mini-cycle as a result (unless it gets badly overheated in transport or something similar). There's no point in trying to start a cycle with other media when you have live rock.

If the levels aren't too bad right now, you could start adding more rock while the fish are in there if you are careful about monitoring ammonia and nitrite. However, doing so will mean more work for you in the form of daily testing and regular water changes. If you don't feel up to the additional work and testing at this stage, then you should return the fish and work at your own pace (and make it clear to your friends that they shouldn't rush you into things you're not ready for). Usually the order is rock, then some CUC, then the first fish.

I'm going to move this topic over to the marine chat section where most tank startup questions go. The hardware section doesn't get much traffic/attention as it is mainly used for fairly equipment-specific questions like DIY things and modifications rather than general tank setup-related topics.

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Dosent always work, but will help... Instant Ocean Bio-Spira. Helps speed up cycle. Used in all my Marine tanks, works great!