Am I Ready?

KimberlyMary · May 15, 2020

I have a 60 gallon that has been cycling since April first using first raw shrimp and now ghost feeding.

I have set up a quarantine tank Using 50% tank water, 50% fresh saltwater and took some biomax from my main tank to add to my quarantine filter.

My levels on my main tank are
- Ammonia 0ppm
- Nitrite 0ppm
- Nitrate 15ppm

my levels in my quarantine are
-Ammonia 0ppm
- Nitrite 0ppm
- Nitrate 10ppm

At the moment I’m having a diatom bloom in my main tank with some algae building up on my glass and everything. It’s now Friday night and I would like to intriduce my CUC to my main tank on Monday and begin the quarantine of a clownfish pair. From what I have read I should be safe to do so but I wanted to double check. I’m a little nervous as it’s my first saltwater tank. Thanks!

JonoB · May 15, 2020

Sounds like you are ready to me. Not a bad idea to keep testing for ammonia once you start adding fish, though!

HM3105 · May 15, 2020

I think it's OK. Usually if you have nitrates the system is ready for stuff like CUC. The QT is the system id be more concerned with, in not if you cycled it or not.

KimberlyMary · May 15, 2020

HM3105 said:
I think it's OK. Usually if you have nitrates the system is ready for stuff like CUC. The QT is the system id be more concerned with, in not if you cycled it or not.

That is also my bigger concern at the moment. From what I have looked up, it should be okay since it is temporary and just for the purpose of observing any possible disease before potentially contaminating my main tank. Worst case scenario, if I see issues presenting with the QT I’ll transfer my fish over to my main tank and just have to lengthen my timeline before adding more livestock to ensure a more established QT and a safe main tank environment. Thanks for your input!