TANK CYCLED-FISH ARE IN

[StartMeUp]

I celebrated the new year by adding my first seven fish to my two month old live rock cycled 30 BioCube. All my CUC’s had been doing their job for several weeks and the numbers were right on.
I purchased all fish, non-quarantined, from a very trusted well known Tampa area LFS, yeah I know I I’ll hear about that. My reasoning was to avoid all shipping if possible (stress, further medicating, costs). Also having a one person relationship to go to for problems.
Time will tell!
List:
(2) Black Extreme Misbar Clownfish
(2) Firefish Gobies
(2) Banggai Cardinals
(1) Lawnmower Blenny (my favorite)
(2) Peppermint Shrimp (hopefully to fight recently discovered astipia)
Also added green bubble tip anemone that has retreated into the rock, which I understand is normal.
Have a Happy Fracking New Year!

 

[brandon429]

well done. this is a skip cycle setup, the bacteria have been ready for max fish load since day one

although fish disease management preference ranges tank to tank, cycling biology does not ever range. any miss calls or bad guesses means all fish die overnite.

Your rock has telltale signs of age even before you owned it/attached animals and pigments and fanworms etc. from that we know it can handle as much fish as you want to throw at it; disease protocols determine upper amounts and ability to sustain.

 

[StartMeUp]

well done. this is a skip cycle setup, the bacteria have been ready for max fish load since day one

although fish disease management preference ranges tank to tank, cycling biology does not ever range. any miss calls or bad guesses means all fish die overnite.

Your rock has telltale signs of age even before you owned it/attached animals and pigments and fanworms etc. from that we know it can handle as much fish as you want to throw at it; disease protocols determine upper amounts and ability to sustain.

Was out of town for 2 weeks for holidays. My Christmas was New Years!
One fish I did not purchase, (not available at the time) was a Longnose Hawkish. I like fish with character and between the hawkfish & the Blenny, it should be entertaining.

 

[brandon429]

it is written in the fish disease forum that the mix you are about to have/ fish will die without disease care protocols, how is your tank going to avoid that now that cycle is not an issue

 

[UCF Alum]

it is written in the fish disease forum that the mix you are about to have/ fish will die without disease care protocols, how is your tank going to avoid that now that cycle is not an issue

So you’re saying that his fish will all have diseases because of the types he chose?

 

[brandon429]

specifically Id say 80% chance of a loss of one or more fish in six months due to no protocols in place. source for data, all the posts in the fish disease forum. They're thinking its not likely at all to pull off mixed LFS fish without protocols, but he's got a 20% chance so there is at least some possibility. See if you think the percentages are lower or higher for him based on work in that forum

*in my opinion checking forum patterns is helpful compared to personal testimonies for fish control. I notice that advocates of no protocol approaches dont run work threads/fish disease cure and prevention threads. They're always a statement about what works at home, but, in that forum there's such a pronounced need for fish disease control (in marine fish) it seems anyone dealing with the public needs to have some ability shown where the work is needed. if no protocol approach works 80% of the time, start a thread in there and guide a bunch of new setups to the six month mark and keep it updated. if your participants gain 80% control over disease mixing lfs fish, the tank transfer/fallow/quarantine methodology will die off.

Im not raining on anyones parade lol ya'll read the forum, consider this arrangement, and make predictions based on your reading

 

[UCF Alum]

@StartMeUp
Nice tank!
If I can offer some advice it would be to slow down. Slow way down. Your tank is very new to be housing an anemone. Don’t be upset if it doesn’t make it. The star polyps and zoas are good. Keep with soft corals for now until your tank matures more. If this LFS guy told you an anemone is ok for a 2 month old tank, tell him to take a hike and don’t take any more advice from him.

 

[brandon429]

the live rock was not two months old though when the anemone attached to it.

his system is actually as old as the live rock is, so maybe fifty years old/not sure/however long the live rock was under water when he relocated it home brought all the constituents of the reef with him. *we're not counting the sandbed, lots of mature reefs have no sand. the rock makes the filtration and feed basis....moving to a new tank wont harm his live rock for sure, it brings all the maturation and pod and worm and sponge diversity it originally had in the prior tank.

food webs and bacterial support arent the issue for sure in my opinion. I dont gather from reading ten mins in the fish disease forum how this mix of fish can fare without specialized approach and prep.

 

[UCF Alum]

the live rock was not two months old though when the anemone attached to it.

his system is actually as old as the live rock is, so maybe fifty years old/not sure/however long the live rock was under water when he relocated it home brought all the constituents of the reef with him. *we're not counting the sandbed, lots of mature reefs have no sand. the rock makes the filtration and feed basis....

food webs and bacterial support arent the issue for sure in my opinion. I dont gather from reading ten mins in the fish disease forum how this mix of fish can fare without specialized approach and prep.

You can move live rock from an old tank to a new tank and the tank will still cycle. It is not a turn key operation when switching over. Is there enough fauna in the water column yet to sustain an anemone or acropora? I’m putting my bet on no, there is not. This is why nems and stony coral do not do well in new tanks, regardless if live rock was moved from a mature system. There’s bacteria in/on the rocks to complete the nitrogen cycle, not feed a mature system.

what I’m essentially saying is that there is more to a mature tank than having phosphates and nitrates in your water. There is a lot of other life that needs to exist when housing delicate species

 

[brandon429]

here's two threads to consider for alternate options on those points:

quick anemone on day 1 with updates, dry start rock skip cycle:

Bio-spira works great

I just started a new tank a little over a week ago. I started with all dry rock and new sand. I added a bottle of Bio-Spira and put fish and coral the same day. Never saw any ammonia and fish and coral seem healthy.

www.reef2reef.com

using live rocks to make skip cycle tanks for 4 years all in one thread, not a single mini cycle or reset:

The microbiology of reef tank cycling.

You can skip your cycle. Ive been reefing online for twenty years and have never waited one second for a tank to cycle, because I buy rocks that are already cycled and move them home. Here's two: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/...

www.reef2reef.com

so if I take my reef which is 14 years old, and remove all the guts and transfer into a new vase

just because its new glass...glass isn't feeding and controlling the whole system. the guts/things coated in coralline run the system. the sand wouldnt matter either way if we removed it or not, corals grow for years without sand either way. transferring live rock is harmless, that was an old adage that it somehow challenges them or kills off portions. they're used to much worse in the wild

we can tell by his anemone surviving how his transfer went...it went in such a way as to preserve all bac and feed systems for the anemone/ you still need creative feeding to continue on the life however. Im setting a 6 month reminder to check this fish load for updates

a neat disease protocol option here: you were about 15 days shy of a full fallow period before you added fish. could have completed the fallow, bought only pre quarantined fish/paid more/ and then you'd have something the % would agree with