Are we ready to add fish???

[SteveNMegz]

Hey guys,

Tanks been up and running for 5 weeks....gone through a cycle with the live sand, and again when adding live rock.....so far we've added 8-9 colonies of zoas did not see any spikes at all, and we have 3 astrea snails and 3 blue hermits.....

the snails have been staying along the waterline where the powerheads hit the top (where theres no film)-4 days from adding them

our skimmers hasn't been on the last week though (due to microbubbles) but will be hooked up once we get our sump running this weekend. could this be why the snails are staying on top?

This weekend we want to add prolly 10 hermits, 5-10 snails, and 2 clownfish............Can We???

[an411]

I would say as long as there are no ammonia or nitrites and nitrates you should be fine. Me personally I waited a little longer but that is just me

[ccoral]

film on top of the tank does not seem right I would try to remedy first but if no ammonia or nitrite add a couple of fish. However the film on the top of the tank will cause poor gas exchange.

[SteveNMegz]

and the poor gas exchange might cause snails to stay at the top???

The hermits seem to be doing fine, theyre constantly cleaning the rocks!

As soon as we have our overflow set up to feed the sump the film should be taken care of, right? So we are hoping that is all that is wrong.

[an411]

ccoral I think that they are talking about the film at the waterline not film on the water. my snails stay up there sometimes too. There was a post on here recently that someone was asking why snails stay up there I am going to have to follow up on that to see if anyone had any good reasons

[ccoral]

Ok that makes sense.

[SteveNMegz]

there is film covering most of the water surface

[-=Efrain=-]

I would think that its the closest source to light and algae would form at the top of the water line. So the snails are trying to get to some food. If the tank is new then there wouldn't be much to feed on.

[SteveNMegz]

Well after we let them drip we put them in the tank by letting them stick to the top by the water surface(hearing this is a good way to let them acclimate themselves)
We haven't seen them go further than a 1/3 down the glass yet (18 inch high tank)

[SteveNMegz]

but the snails staying at the top of the tank, is this a sign not to add fish or should we be fine?

[Ritten]

Maybe add a powerhead up there to get water moving. Clowns should be fine as long as water parameters are in check. You can also supplement your snails food with dried seaweed.

[SteveNMegz]

well we will have our overflow setup within the next 2 days, that should take care of it correct?

[rustybucket145]

yes, the addition of the overflow should take care of your problem, however it is good to have some surface disruption to keep this from forming in low flow areas (corners...etc) Point a powerhead up a little and it will break the slime up.

[SteveNMegz]

ok cool, when were hooking up the sump maybe weèll try to get the return within a half inch of the water line to disrupt the water