Do you think my tank is cycled?

[hazard345]

My tank has been running for a month and a half, it is 70 gallons, with 40 lbs of live sand, 40 lbs of crushed coral, and 40 lbs of live rock, I only have 4 fish in it right now, 10 hermit crabs and a 2 feather dusters; and using a rena xp3 filter without any chemical filtration for it. I've had 3 other fish die, but they were weak fish, 2 of them died like 2 days after i put them in (good thing they were inexpensive). Anyway I'd like to add a mated pair of clownfish or 2 really young clownfish and an anenome. Do you think it is safe to add them now?

[LittlePuff]

What are your readings for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates?

Kim

[PiNaPLeX]

have you been testing your water at all? what are you readings? that should tell you if the tank is cycled or not.

Also, as for the fish dying, are you sure they were "weak fish"? what was your acclimation process for them?

[TekCat]

(amm = 0, nitrite = 0) => cycled, then you can add clowns. AFAIK, anemone is quite demanding in terms of your tank's stability, lightning, and water circulation. Make sure that your amm/trites/trates/temp/SG are stable for a while before adding an anemone.

IMO, I'd put more LR. You want at least 70lbs of LR total for better bio filtration.

[Hoggn]

Even if your tank has cycled I would wait before you add more fish. Why did the other fish die. If they had ICH then adding more fish will see the same fate. Slow down brother and take your time...

[hazard345]

My readings are, Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - 0, Nitrate 5-10 ppm, Ph hovers around 8.2, sometimes 8.0 (the guy at the pet store says 8.1 though), Temp is 78, SG is 1.022. I bought 3 fish at once, one died 2 days after I put them in, the other died the next day after it, and the third one died last week, after being in for a month, not quite sure why, one day she was healthy, then the next day she was hiding in a piece of live rock, then the next day she died. None of my fish have ich, and I always check the fish at the pet store, besides my buddy won't sell me any fish that have it, as I was going to buy a green clown goby the other day and he wouldn't sell it to me cuz he said it had ich.

I'm also working on buying LR, just short on the funds to add in about 30 more lbs

[Hoggn]

Ammonia 5 - 10 means that you are going through a cycle. Too many fish for the bio load all at once. One fish at a time. and take it easy.

What part of Pa are you?

[hazard345]

Sorry, i meant to say Nitrate 5-10, not ammonia

I'm in Franklin County

[Hoggn]

If you are sure that your tank doesn't have ICh you can add 1 fish to see what happens. I'm still betting on the fact that you added to many to fast. If they did have ICh then you want to leave your tank fishless for 6 weeks to let the ICH die off. The fish could of had another sickness that caught up with them. Post what your fish looked like while they were dying. Rapid breathing, white spots, fuzzy bodies.....

[hazard345]

No spots on the fish, just found them one day laying on their side breathing rapidly, then dead the next day, but I could never find anything on them, I did examine the 2, 3 stripe damsels that died, and I couldn't see anything physically wrong with them, but I also bought them from a different pet store than I normally buy my fish, and the fish were only in that store for a day.

[hazard345]

I still have 4 fish in my tank that are hardy and healthy with no signs of any illness or parasites.

[bertoni]

That SG is very low. I would target about 1.026, especially if you want to keep invertebrates. This article might be a good place to start:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

The temperature is rather low, too, IMO.

Host anemones tend to be hard to keep, so I would suggest staying away from them for a while. The clowns should do well without one for the time being. What kind of lighting do you have? A good set of metal halides would likely help with most anemones.

I don't see anything in your parameters that should cause a fish to die like that. How much circulation do you have? How about a protein skimmer?

[hazard345]

The temp and the SG is the same kept at all 4 local pet stores in my area, and from the hundreds of articles i've read on saltwater fish, inverts and other ocean life, the range from 1.020 - 1.024 SG. I'm not worried about the fish that died because everything else is fine and thriving, I can't remember what light i currently have, but I will check tonight. I don't have a protein skimmer and I'm not worried about one, I do enough water changes to not need one and I don't wanna hear a lot of crap about not having one because I've learned they are not really necessary for my type of tank set up.

[hazard345]

Thanks for all your help tonight guys, I gotta run for now. My buddy at the one pet store has 2 percurla clowns waiting for me tomorrow, but I can always hold off on buying an anenome for a little while.

[Hoggn]

Remember to take it slow. After you add the clowns keep checking your amm to see if you get a big spike... Update us as time goes on...

[reeferX777]

Bertoni, I think I read that he is having fish death... not invert death. A lower salinity wouldn't kill his fish, I have seen tanks that had an overdose of freshwater and dropped to 1.012 and the fish did fine. In fact the lower the salinty the less chance for parasitic infection. Although the higher the salinity, the easier for the fish to process. I do agree however that 1.026 is the perfect target for a reef, that's where I try to keep all of my tanks, reefs anyway. All the FO systems I do keep at around 1.022. Once again, less chance for parasites.