Tank ready for fish question

[SaltieG]

My tank is at about the end of its cycle right now.

amm 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 5
ph 8.1

I am about to do a water change on the tank and use the water from that in my QT. I have a canister filter on the tank and inside is some filter foam that I put in to add to the QT for bacteria( im still going to set up the QT and test for a few days though to make sure its seeded enough). Anyways once I get my QT up and ready for fish im going to start out with a couple of green chromis. The QT period will be atleast 4 weeks. My main question is what should I do to my display tank to keep the bacteria going now that its cycled? Should I add food to the tank everyday to keep it going or will the live rock inside do that?

Also another question. I want to put in some snails and shrimp. When would you suggest doing so? Everyone always says to add a clean up crew first but theres nothing in my tank to clean up yet and I don't want the things to starve. So should I add some and feed the tank myself so they don't starve or wait until some funk builds up in the tank?

[thegrun]

I would go ahead and add the CUC. The snails and crabs will eat algae which you need to keep in check. Adding a small amount of fish food daily will give you additional bio-load to keep the bacteria levels up and provide some additional food for your hermit crabs (if you decide you want them).

[lordofthereef]

You probably will not have to add food daily. Remember that 100% of the food you add will decompose in this situation, unless you do add the CUC first.

[SaltieG]

Well to update, I added a small clean up crew today which consists of 10 blue leg hermits, a few nassarius snails and three turbo snails. I know its not much, but this should be good for awhile once I know for sure that they survive. I added some fish flakes last night before the CUC was added and today my amm and other levels were at their right levels so I went and added the snails and hermits. Im going to put in some flakes every other day and maybe pick up some dried seaweed as additional food. I just don't want these guys to starve. It just seems like their isn't enough to sustain them but then again I do have some algae and diatoms and these guys are very small right now. The diatom algae is mostly just on the back glass so hopefully some of the snails will find their way there.

Would it be a good idea to add some empty shells along the sandbed for the hermits as they grow larger or do they grow out their shells like the snails do? Any other input on the feeding situation would be good too. Thanks

[thegrun]

Yes, add some shells slightly larger than the ones your hermit crabs are currently living in or they will be tempted to kill your snails for their shells. What size tank do you have? General rule of thumb is one snail per 3 gallons of water. A nice variety of snails is good, each type tends to favor different areas of the tank to clean.

[ryanls5]

Originally Posted by thegrun

Yes, add some shells slightly larger than the ones your hermit crabs are currently living in or they will be tempted to kill your snails for their shells. What size tank do you have? General rule of thumb is one snail per 3 gallons of water. A nice variety of snails is good, each type tends to favor different areas of the tank to clean.

+1 most hermits="where'd my whatchamacallit snail go..???"

[SaltieG]

I have a 75g tank so im definently understocked as far as snails go. Everyone in the tank seems to be doing well today which is good. With all the rockwork I have though, its darn near impossible to find any of them because they are all so small. I can say this though, I do enjoy watching the crabs much more then the snails.

[wooden_reefer]

Originally Posted by SaltieG

My tank is at about the end of its cycle right now.

amm 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 5
ph 8.1

I am about to do a water change on the tank and use the water from that in my QT. I have a canister filter on the tank and inside is some filter foam that I put in to add to the QT for bacteria( im still going to set up the QT and test for a few days though to make sure its seeded enough). Anyways once I get my QT up and ready for fish im going to start out with a couple of green chromis. The QT period will be atleast 4 weeks. My main question is what should I do to my display tank to keep the bacteria going now that its cycled? Should I add food to the tank everyday to keep it going or will the live rock inside do that?

Also another question. I want to put in some snails and shrimp. When would you suggest doing so? Everyone always says to add a clean up crew first but theres nothing in my tank to clean up yet and I don't want the things to starve. So should I add some and feed the tank myself so they don't starve or wait until some funk builds up in the tank?

Nitrification bacteria dies from lack of ammonia and nitrite but slowly. You generally have more than a month before half of them die. That is also why it pays to have very dense and active nitification bacteria population at the end of cycle.

Second, THE MOST CRITICAL, you have to think of nitification in QT. Your QT should be cycled, if even more robustly than the DT. Just by adding DT water you cannot hope to have any significant nitrification in QT.

You have to have nitrification for easy and thorough QT.

You have to specifically cycle for the QT, otherwise you will have to do VERY much more work during QT and/or you may cut short your QT and may cause frustration, perhaps even complete defeat of the purpose of QT.

Water change and/or Amquel for eight weeks in QT is not a plan. A lot of work.

[SaltieG]

I know that there isn't much of the bacteria in the water column at all and thats why I wan't to seed the QT with filter foam that has been in the DT which should have more of that bacteria for the QT.

Now, is that a good idea or are you saying that I should let the QT go through an actual cycle on its own? I understand that a robust cycle is the very best as opposed to a weak one where little bacteria is present, and therefore cannot handle a larger biological load.

[SaltieG]

ttt

[lordofthereef]

Originally Posted by wooden_reefer

Water change and/or Amquel for eight weeks in QT is not a plan. A lot of work.

I think that is more a matter of opinion than anything else... if your ratio of water to fish is pretty high you won't be having to do a WHOLE lot of water changes. To some it might be easier and LESS stressful to just go with the water changes than to maintain another tank as quarantine.