Fish-in cycle #'s

[noob reefer24]

Hey reefers,

I started a 100 gallon tank with 33 gallon sump 2 weeks ago. I chose a fish in cycle with 2 clowns and put a full bottle of dr tims for my tank size. I used 60 lbs of aragonite dry sand and approximately 90lbs of dry rock. Daily feeding with hydra32s running 6 hours a day. My ammonia had not gone above .025 with the api test. 0 nitrites and nitrates.

I had my LFS test the water 4 days ago and came back with the following.

8.0 PH
1.25sg
78F
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
6.9 alk

They said I should add a clean up crew so I got 20 tiny hermits, 5 snails and 2 emerald crabs. I also added an 8 x 8 x 4 ceramic bio block in the sump. Dosed the tank with seachem reef phyto plankton and added a pistol shrimp, blue spotted goby and a rear fanged blenny. This was 4 days ago with continued daily feeding. Now testing with salifert kits and still 0 ammonia and 0 nitrates. 0 nitrites with the api test.

I know this was rushed and I'll get flack for it. But it's the route I chose and all seems good so far other than 0 nitrates. Should I be prepared for any issues with this???

 

[Spare time]

If the clowns are tiny, the ammonia may not be noticeable at this point in such a big tank. How often are you feeding them? I am not sure who recommended the fish in cycle ignore that advice next time. You also need to make sure the hermits, snails, and emerald crabs have food. I think they all will likely starve and die at this point. Again, there is no point to adding them until they have something to eat.

I am not sure what the point of dosing the seachem (dead) phytoplankton.

 

[jabberwock]

Yeah, you got a bunch of bad advice.

 

[noob reefer24]

The clowns are medium size, 2 inches in length. I feed twice a day right now

 

[brandon429]

This isn't a cycle risk at all, no harm to fish is done with bottle bac cycles. Copious studies are online showing day one ability to handle their waste easily

You have a disease risk now that has nothing to do with cycling fast or slow due to not prepping the tank for disease.

 

[noob reefer24]

Thank you everyone for the feedback thus far. Can you expand on the disease risk?

 

[Spare time]

This isn't a cycle risk at all, no harm to fish is done with bottle bac cycles. Copious studies are online showing day one ability to handle their waste easily

You have a disease risk now that has nothing to do with cycling fast or slow due to not prepping the tank for disease.

Dr Tim's can take a while to start working. If I were ever put a fish in immediately it would be with biospira or fritz turbo, not Dr Tims

 

[brandon429]

Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis

A forum for discussing treatment and diagnosing saltwater reef fish.

www.reef2reef.com

It will take a few days self directed study there. Start with the stickies on fallow and quarantine then move down to the help threads and read a few pages worth to see how Jay begins to undo the losses associated with no or incomplete disease preps, it’s quite a job for sure to be ready for disease.

Focus on doing preventatively what he has them do way after the fact after losses are mounting.