Add fish or no?

[MathewD]

So my fish tank has been set up for a week now. I used cycled live rock and live sand. Ive done water tests every day and I'm pretty sure everything is going well. I do have a little hair algae but other wise all is well. My live rock is a nice purple color and i think its pretty much ready for fish. Ive been told that with cycled live rock and live sand it sometimes won't have to go through the nitrogen cycle. But i just wanna get your say on it. Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, nitrate = 0 and the pH is 8.1.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Add a CUC first to tackle that algae problem. Give it another week or two before adding a fish. What are your stocking plans and how big is your tank?

[Mariaface]

I wouldn't add fish yet. Every tank does have to go through the nitrogen cycle, and evidence of that will be the presence of nitrates at the end. And not a small amount. You want to find pure ammonium chloride (no scents or surfactants), and dose until you hit 2ppm. Every day, if the ammonia and nitrite concentrations aren't 0ppm, dose until ammonia hits 2-3ppm. When you find that the bacteria can convert that to nitrate within 24 hours, you're good to go.

 

It's possible that the algae is using up ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, if you've had the lights on during the cycle. Are there things on the rock that you're trying to keep alive with light? It would be better if you avoided them until you're cycled, because plants are a good way to remove those food sources from the nitrifying bacteria.

 

Good luck!

[Sarashjo]

I wouldn't add fish until the tank has cycled for several weeks or at least a month. If you do add a fish choose a cheap hardy one, it may kickstart a cycle which could end up killing the fish.

[Mariaface]

I wouldn't add fish until the tank has cycled for several weeks or at least a month. If you do add a fish choose a cheap hardy one, it may kickstart a cycle which could end up killing the fish.

 

Don't do this, please. That fish may be hardy, but there's no good reason for it to suffer even through low levels of ammonia. There's no point in risking the fish's health if you can accomplish the same goal with bottled ammonia and a test kit.

[printerdown01]

Nope. Do not add fish. I do recommend adding a little fish food though. It is possible that the reason you are not seeing any movement is that you have not given the tank anything to kick start the cycle... Most people advise a dead shrimp from the freezer section of your grocery store... but truthfully fish food is pretty easy to since you will have to own it in a bit anyway. I just put frozen mysid shrimp in the tank and let it rot. Appealing right?