Finally ready to add fish - how many?

[Shluffer]

Been a long time since I started a tank.

My new 280 has been cycling with LR for 7 weeks. New skimmer and new lights arrive next week. Two questions:

1) How quickly do I add fish? I was planning on starting with 4 (minimum to get free shipping) but I don't want to cause a tank crash.

2) how long do I wait to add a cleanup crew? Before or after fish?

I had a tank running for 12 years, and lost it when I moved a year ago strange to feel like a newbie again. Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[Dj City]

Clean up crew should go in before fish. Let them do the work to prep the tank for fish by cleaning up and detritus and or algae from the cycle.

If your tank has completed the cycle, you should add 1 or 2 fish depending on the size of the fish. You want the bacteria to be able to keep up with the bioload the fish will create. You will overwhelm it adding 4 fish at the same time in a newly established tank.

Welcome back to reefing!

 

[Rcpilot]

I always put the CUC in after the cycle -- before the fish.

This might be stupid, but can you ghost feed the tank a couple cubes of frozen food and see how it handles the load? Waste is waste. The tank is ready to handle waste -- or it's not.

Thinking out load here - if the tank can handle a few cubes of food, then it's probably ready for fish. If you drop food in and the tank goes bananas (cyano, diatoms, hair algae etc.. ) then I'd wait a bit longer and I'd keep ghost feeding it until there was no noticeable change to your testing results.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

How quickly does the tank cycle 2ppm of ammonia? If you dose the tank to 2 ppm ammonia and it can cycle it to 0 ppm ammonia and 0 ppm nitrite in 24 hours, then IMO that size tank could handle 4 small hardy fish. I would start with the CUC first, but make sure that you don't get to many and starve them if your tank doesn't have a lot of algae and/or detritus.

Wait to get the fish until the skimmer is broken in. It may take a few days for the skimmer to settle down and start working properly.

 

[Shluffer]

I'm already getting brown algae with minimal lighting (2 x T5 + sunlight). I'll pick up a "small" clean up crew, continue ghost feeding, and wait on fish. Patience isn't fun, but it pays off.

Thanks for the help!