New and Impatient

[P-Dub]

Wow! First off welcome!

You are proceeding WAY TOO FAST! Nems, generally, need a moderately well-established tank to survive. Two days is not nearly enough for long-term success. Judging the photo of your nem in your avatar is a clue to how your nem is doing. We are in the hobby to create a living reef in our homes not battle with problems and issues. You MUST know and regularly monitor your parameters in this hobby. Nothing good in reefing happens quickly. Disappointment is a certainty when you rush things.

We all appreciate your enthusiasm and encourage it but not at the cost of certain death of tank inhabitants and premature failure of your system. There are TONS of threads to read about starting up a new aquarium and it is strongly recommended that you read and digest them all. Your success and ultimate satisfaction in this hobby will depend on it. Read all the "Stickies" here.

New to Saltwater & Reef Aquariums? Post Here​

 

[dwair]

Hey all, kinda a weird saltwater question. This is my first reef setup. I know I'm supposed to wait for my new tank to cycle before I add other stuff in it but right now I have an RBTA for my one maroon clownfish and am so excited to dress it up more and add more to it but have to wait 6 weeks, right?!?! Right now my bottom is bare (looks super cool) but I'm going to put sand in it. Any other ideas that I could add to it before then without killing them?!

Welcome to Reef2Reef! Patience is key in this hobby!

 

[DKPminus]

Welcome.. lot of ppl here with yrs of experience. They will help along. And we all understand how hard it is to be patient with it but it’s worth it when you see your tank develop.

 

[CoralB]

Welcome !!!
A lot of good advice in this thread . Lack of patience can be costly. Do it right upfront and learn as much as you can and you’ll be on the road to many years of enjoyment in this hobby

 

[Clo]

 

[stewie]

Welcome

 

[Just John]

Glad you are here! This is going to be fun!

 

[X-37B]

No patience and no plan is no way to start a reef tank and one reason so many fail.

How long has the tank been up and cycled?

What are your parameters?

What does your system have for equipment, lights, ect?

And.....

 

[Just John]

No patience and no plan is no way to start a reef tank and one reason so many fail.

How long has the tank been up and cycled?

What are your parameters?

What does your system have for equipment, lights, ect?

And.....

Yeah, welcome to the party. The dance party! (too silly? I'll stop now. I can find the door myself.)

 

[Little c big D]

Well there's 2 ways to learn. This is definitely one of them. I don't think anything more can be said. Id say whatever you have keep and let it ride for a few months and see where that takes you. Get test kits!

 

[Manny’s Reef]

Hi there and welcome to R2R

 

[LiveWire]

Welcome to the REEF!!

 

[Jeffcb]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[MERKEY]

Hello and welcome to R2R!

 

[|Frank|]

Welcome to R2R!!

Patience is key! I rushed into this hobby as well it's so hard not to. But I've lost some money because of that. Lots of knowledge here to help you!

 

[brandon429]

Team

zoom in on his avatar, he’s dealing in pre cycled live rock

see that anemone attached to coralline spotted rock- cycled

Manny, been waiting like a week for the full tank picture, it’s needed to shore up any issues in planning

 

[Salty Rambler]

Welcome to R2R! Lot's of great advice above already. Good luck with your tank!

 

[mannyfish16]

Welcome to R2R!!!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MaxTremors]

Remember this key detail: the patience is around your disease control choices, adding fish slowly has nothing to do with disease planning. Your cycle is done, so there’s nothing to go slowly with, as cycles are not undone by adding more fish we showed above in excess.


don’t confuse cycle doubt with apt disease control, be sure and mind the conditions that matter not the ones fixed and ready.
Any tank with a rose bta and fish not dead in two days is cycled. Post pics of your tank

the way you plan for disease control is not add more fish before reading the stickies in the fish disease forum

reef tank cycles have a close date, a date you don’t look back in doubt and you proceed with confidence in the filter. Any arrangement you used to handle anemone, fish and food for days meets this date of certainty. Your tank carries as many fish as it can carry, now, but disease will be the limiting factor.


****when we add more fish to a cycled reef, more bacteria do not form above going fallow without fish, a steady state forms just by being wet. The surface area holds its max bacteria because its wet, not because you are controlling how many bac by withholding or adding fish and any live rock you use is in excess of the degree of surface area you need to reef. This misinformation about increasing or decreasing bacterial load based on fish spread on forums is overselling bottle bac by millions of dollars. Your cycle is done.

proof of this rule are the thousands of fallow tank posts ran on seneye, when adding fish back after 90 day wait, ammonia control stayed the same. It did NOT get weaker with fish missing from the tank. Opposite of what forums type routinely in response to API variations.

So, I just want to make sure I’m understanding what you’re saying. You’re positing that once bacteria are established their numbers never change and they live indefinitely regardless of how much food they have? That the bacteria, once introduced, continue to exist at the same numbers just because they are wet (so they are sustained indefinitely just by water)?

Because if that’s what you’re positing, I think you’re way off base. From what I understand about how bacteria work, the populations bacteria in our tanks rise and fall depending on the amount of food or nutrients available. The reason we’re able to add a significantly larger bioload to an established, cycled tank is because the bacteria reproduce exponentially very, very quickly, when conditions are favorable and food sources are abundant. The reason that fish can be introduced to a tank after its been fallow, is that there is still organic material breaking down after fish are taken out, which maintains a population of bacteria, how long they’re maintained depends on how long there continues to be food/nutrients available (nevermind people with corals or other inverts that continue to feed the tank).

I agree that there’s no reason to buy more bottled bacteria once a tank is established (at least for nitrification), the bacteria already present will reproduce just as fast as bottled bacteria can reproduce and colonize surfaces.

I could be completely wrong or misunderstanding what you’re saying, ut the assertion that these bacteria populations don’t change in relation to bio-load, and that they exist indefinitely without a food source is at odds with what we know about how bacterial populations work.

 

[brandon429]

Nice post. That is the going way forums think about filtration biology, that is the best summary of how forums see filters in action agreed, in any survey respondents would agree w that

To show my position tell me what you think of this set of posts by MSteven1

Just for starters look at these details:

He creates a functioning filter and proves it by specifically adding zero feed, zero bottle bac

His sole two factors in creating the filter were water and time

If this isn't a perfect caption of the hidden truths in filtration not given to forums, truly if it's not total context for the discussion let me know and I'll find a better example:

Bacteria in a bottle, Myth or Fact

Did the online calc indicate to use one mil in the tank for your gallonage

www.reef2reef.com

We didn't have to provide anything beyond water for bacterial mass to bloom itself and grow. Bottle bac sellers tricked us into forgetting this rule so we centralize our offerings (purchases from them) as the sole method of helping bacteria


They don't want us to know how filtration really works, it lessens clicks on their products and surrounding supports


Withholding feed never strips away or starves a biofilter. We can see positive mass earned there with only water, having feed offered by hand isn't required. It's impossible to starve out a biofilter in a non sealed system.

They self feed forever if kept wet