Added cuc, water parameters stable for a week. Can I add shrimp?

[Vilas]

Hi!
I had 0 ammonia and nitrites for three days, hit a tide pool, and added about 7 snails, 2 limpets, a giant chiton, and some zoas. Also ended up bringing home a biiiig mussel that my husband was going to eat, and never got around to it. Man, those things can poop! Who knew. They're local mussels, so happy with my tanks temperature.

Anyways, I've been testing every day, and other than barely readable nitrates (the only big spike I got initially, my ammonia spike was small, despite ghost feeding)
Husband is begging for a pair of clownfish. I want a pair of cleaner shrimp. Would you add anything yet? And which would you go for, the fish or the shrimp? I'd actually think that a clown would be more likely to live in a new tank. Maybe just one, instead of the pair, a juv?

I told him that if he can catch a clownfish, he can keep it. Damned if he hasn't spent every lunch break at the tide pools with a net. I think I'd prefer to buy, however. We get the nosestripe/skunk clowns locally, and frankly, the only clown I am happy with in a 65 gallon tank is a false perc.

Any advice?

[SloppyJ]

How big was your ammonia spike? And what are your nitrate numbers? Give us a timeline please. If you just got rid of the nitrites, I wouldn't be adding anything yet.

[Vilas]

Also, I get the feeling that my tank will have to have a "fridge" section, for hubby to store his oysters and mussels. Going to have to lay down the law about how long they're allowed in. I know they won't live indefinitely in a tank.

[SFish]

My guess is the tank didn't cycle yet. U will get a big NH3 spike. By the way the shrimp can live through more abuse tank wise then fish. When I first started I end up with ick and all kinds of bad stuff and it had no effect on the shrimp.

[Vilas]

Well, I have been feeding big amounts daily. I've used mostly NSW off the reef (collected from a boat) and have 1lb/gal live rock. Plus added live sand that had only been out of the ocean for seconds. Surely if I've been feeding every day, and I've had a nitrate spike but only a small ammonia spike, I have some good bacteria?
I will take your advice, though, and go with a juv shrimp instead of a fish. I'm terrified of going too quickly after my experiences back in 2001!

[Vilas]

Sloppyj, ammonia (in mg/l!) 0.2, never saw nitrites, nitrates spiked to 10, then came down to 1 for the last week.

[Vilas]

I haven't had ammonia or nitrites for ten days, despite daily ghost feeding, to clarify.

[Vilas]

Argh, my post was badly written. I added the cuc and mussel six days ago, no change in water. Ammonia and nitrites still zero, nitrates barely readable after the initial spike.

[Vilas]

uploadfromtaptalk1401389485838.jpg here. Let's make this simple. Nitrates are the spiky one, ammonia is the sloping one at the bottom, nitrites have remained 0.

[SloppyJ]

Nitrates shouldn't have came down at all. You might want to retest.

[SFish]

I'm no expert but the first time I set up a new tank I did the whole food thing like you got a small spike in NH3. I had only live sand in the tank the bag said some BS on it about you can add fish right away if you use this sand. Everything seemed to go back down so I went and picked up two fish. They seemed happy and then a few days later the tank went through a big NH3 spike and killed the fish. After that my NH3 stayed at 0. Maybe someone else will post and give us their thoughts. I would be scared to add fish.

[SwampyBill]

How many weeks since you set the tank up? Since you used live rock & sand, you might've only had a mini-cycle that was barely noticable. Did you use ocean water too? I'd still wait a few weeks before adding any fish. But a shrimp would be fine.

[Vilas]

Wait, nitrates shouldn't have come down? I had a brown algae bloom - figured that was due to my nitrates, and the algae and bacteria were eating the nitrates. Why shouldn't nitrates come down?

[Vilas]

And swampybill, some ocean water taken out at sea, some to and synthetic. The boat isn't very big, you see. I can take from the beach, but I read it is cleaner a few miles out, and anyways, we have six to eight foot surf on a normal day. YOU try to wade out and fill a Gerry can. ;-)

[SwampyBill]

So how long has your tank been running?

[Vilas]

Sorry. Three weeks. Think I'll find a baby cleaner? Smaller = less waste, right? We caught a little goby and a chromis this morning, made my husband throw them back. :-)

[SFish]

Originally Posted by SwampyBill

So how long has your tank been running?

There is no set time your just looking for the NH3 spike as far as I know. 3 weeks seems really long but I'm not sure what would be normal. What scares me is the fact that you hardly saw an NH3 spike.

[SFish]

Maybe you missed the NH3 spike. How often were you testing?

[SFish]

Originally Posted by Vilas

Wait, nitrates shouldn't have come down? I had a brown algae bloom - figured that was due to my nitrates, and the algae and bacteria were eating the nitrates. Why shouldn't nitrates come down?

I think what he means is if you didn't get an NH3 spike then the NO3 shouldn't have gone down.

[SFish]

Could the sea water, live sand, and live rock have stopped the NH3 from spiking? Never used sea water before.

[redheadedgirl]

I only got a small ammonia spike in my tank. I have a 42 US gallon tank with refugium (can't remember how much water in that) which has been up and running for a whole 16 days. I'm not using live rock but Caribsea Life Rock (I don't want the pests). I put 2 dead prawns in the refugium to get the tank started on Day 3 and my ammonia went from 0 to <0.25, nitrites went from 0 to 0.1, nitrates stayed at 0 and after 3 days all the levels reduced to 0 again. On Day 12 my LFS said my tank had cycled (as I had no live rock or live sand) and I could start to put in a few crabs and snails. On Day 14 I bought 2 red leg hermit crabs, 1 rock hermit crab and a turbo snail. Ammonia has raised to <0.25, no change on nitrites or nitrates yet. Still waiting for the ammonia to reduce to 0.

So, after all my waffling, I didn't get a huge spike either.

[Vilas]

I've heard that with enough or, live sand, and seawater (keep in mind, it is a tropical sea, so the same bacteria will be present) that the spike may be low. I may have missed it, there were a few days I didn't test. I'll add a juv shrimp, test like crazy, and if I don't see anything for a few weeks, try a small fish. This sound reasonable?

[SFish]

Originally Posted by Vilas

I've heard that with enough or, live sand, and seawater (keep in mind, it is a tropical sea, so the same bacteria will be present) that the spike may be low. I may have missed it, there were a few days I didn't test. I'll add a juv shrimp, test like crazy, and if I don't see anything for a few weeks, try a small fish. This sound reasonable?

Sounds fine to me. You may not have to wait that long. I'm not really sure.

[Vilas]

We will see how my water does. My first tank, I moved too fast had had 12 weeks without fish. That's why I'm double checking my every move here.

Surely, since I've been feeding every day, that food must have produced ammonia by now? I've been doing a fair sized pinch. My qt tanks cycle went off the chart, though admittedly that is a much smaller volume of water.

[SwampyBill]

Originally Posted by SFish

There is no set time your just looking for the NH3 spike as far as I know. 3 weeks seems really long but I'm not sure what would be normal. What scares me is the fact that you hardly saw an NH3 spike.

I agree there's no set time, but 6--8 weeks is normal cycle time (unless some type of ammonia source was added). Since you used live rock, sand & some ocean water, you may have just had a mini-cycle that was barely noticeable. I'd stop the ghost feeding, move the CUC back in QT for a day or 2; then just throw in a raw shrimp & see if you get a quick ammonia spike. If tank is cycled, NH3 will disappear within 24hrs. Check for when nitrites hit 0, look for when nitrates spike & then do a water change. Then you're good to go w/ more CUC & cleaner shrimp. Wait 2 wks, then you're good to add fish & get to reefing! Good luck!