How soon do I need something in my cycled tank?

[Sandroni]

Hello, I am a rookie as some of you may know lol. I recently purchased some snails and they died, now I am afraid to put fish into my tank because I am not sure if my calcium is too low for them to survive. But, if I don't add anything won't my bacteria die? and then the cycle would have to start again? I really don't want to dose, but if I have to I have too.

 

[Oscar47f]

calcium and fish has little to no correlation in the reef tank... you can have a calcium level of 300 ppm and keep fish healthy.. the snails probably died because of lack of food and or depending on the species they got stuck somewhere like in the sand.. has your tank already been cycled?

 

[Maritimer]

To keep your bacteria alive, you can "dose" fish food. (not _too_ much, just a bit, as though you had one or two fish in the tank.) Often called "ghost feeding", the food will break down and provide ammonia and other nutrients for the bacteria's enjoyment.

Snails can be surprisingly picky about what they'll eat - and if the food is across the length of the tank from where the snail is, it might as well be on Mars. They're snails. It'll be gone by the time they get there . . .

~Bruce

 

[cbutkos]

There are clearly a lot of questions regarding aquarium water chemistry, testing, nitrogen cycle, fish stocking etc, etc that need to be addressed here...And that's okay, there are a lot of great articles online to learn all of the stuff you need to know in this hobby so I won't try to summarize them all here...To answer your question, the bacteria in your tank will last a long time without food, even looked her now that your dead snails are providing food for them, don't rush out to get fish to keep the cycle, if you're really worried about it feed them once a week or two with a small piece of food/flake/pellet or a drop or two of clear ammonia...After that, every forum has newbie threads, this one has a particularly good sticky with links to a lot of great articles, read them all, multiple times, in fact I have the page open on my desktop now I read them all the time and I've been reefing for more than a year, I'm no veteran by any means but further from rookie than most

 

[Sandroni]

calcium and fish has little to no correlation in the reef tank... you can have a calcium level of 300 ppm and keep fish healthy.. the snails probably died because of lack of food and or depending on the species they got stuck somewhere like in the sand.. has your tank already been cycled?

yes

 

[Sandroni]

To keep your bacteria alive, you can "dose" fish food. (not _too_ much, just a bit, as though you had one or two fish in the tank.) Often called "ghost feeding", the food will break down and provide ammonia and other nutrients for the bacteria's enjoyment.

Snails can be surprisingly picky about what they'll eat - and if the food is across the length of the tank from where the snail is, it might as well be on Mars. They're snails. It'll be gone by the time they get there . . .

~Bruce

thanks Bruce! I will surely try this