Question about adding fish

[eidillitih]

Okay, my tank has been up for two months now with no fish. I've had the feeling lately that my tank will not start to getting stronger until I add a fish so it can eats and poops. I've been doing this a while so I know that the longer you waite the better it surpose to be but. Doesn't adding fish make your tank stronger?

[z34fiend]

I don't know about adding fish to a new tank making it stronger, but I know if you add to many fish to a new tank more than likely it will crash

[mod0522]

IMPO, if your tank has run through its first cycle and bloom, and things are stable with good water parameters, you could add a small fish or two now.

[eidillitih]

Thanks for the responses guys. I know that I could put fish in my tank right now if I choose. My question is would waiting make it stonger? Maybe I just want a fish. But I just imagine the fish is a producer and a consumer, then it should serve a purpose in strengthing the eco system.

[bhammer]

If you are not feeding your biological filter, it will get weaker if you wait.

I know some people that cycle for a couple months. After the inital cycle, they add a little ammonia and it's quickly converted. They keep uping the ammonia a little at a time slowley building their biological load. At this point, they can dump lots of fish in.

[ReefTECK]

Well you certainly need some source of ammonia in order to generate colonies of nitrifying bacteria which are of course the foundation of every aquarium. It is very well possible that die off from live rock will provide much of this nutrient source during the first several weeks, but as fixation occurs, ammonia as a resource quickly becomes dwindeling. Dead or decaying matter can provide a source of ammonia, such as a piece of food such as krill or a table shrimp. IMO you could very well add a fish now, and if you're talking about that 190 in your signature, you should probably (pending a healthy water parameter test NH3, NO2, NO3, alk, pH) add a number of small, cheap fish, maybe some chromis.

If you are speaking in terms of micro and meofaunal life and production, then yes certainly waiting longer will help establish more robust colonies of copepods, amphipods, etc. But IME once fish are added these are quickly consumed in the display tank, but hold on pretty well in the refugium for a number of months. They tend to veer toward a mono culture where only one or two species is represented, this limits the variation in particle size from the meiofaunal spawn. None-the-less I think most of us feed with additional packaged foods anyways.

So IDK if that answers your question, but hopefully it does.

ltz,
andy

[engineeronh2o]

a cleaner crew along with fish, IMO will make your tank balance which = stronger. I try make my tank like a little ocean. Got to find a balance between fish, cleaner crew, corals, other filter feeders, etc.

[JeF4y]

Define "Stronger" please..

[goochesfish]

don't add fish yet. Add a bottle of copepods and a clean up crew. Right now your tank has been fallow and hence no ich. QT your incoming fish.

[100%hydrophylic]

i assumed that "stronger" was referring to the level of nitrifying organisms present in the tank. more nitrifying organisms=stronger tank. idk about your particular situation but my tanks have went through the original cycle and reach 0 nitrite and ammonia and stable, low nitrate in about 3 weeks. after 3 weeks i add 1 or two small fish like chromis stated above or, my preference, gobies. you definately need to be putting some kind of food source in your water. once the initial source of ammonia is depleted (in my case after about a month) some of the nitrifying bacteria begins to starve, in turn "weakening" your system in terms of bioload. letting a tank lie fallow too long isnt very beneficial to the system because it will cause a bigger shock to the system when you do end up adding the first fish.

not an expert though, just my experiences.