Fish Help? Should I do it or not?

[music4life87]

So here's the deal.... My JBJ 45 gallon rimless tank is going to show up in the mail today. Everything else is all set and ready to go. ill start building the stand first thing tomorrow morning and by the end of the weekend ill be back in business with my new reef tank. But.... we have a brand new LFS opening up in my town and this weekend is the big grand opening and everything is 25% off. So I stopped by there last night just to check it out and they have a really awesome mated pair of Black Snowflake Clownfish that I absolutely love. Well either the kid does not know what they are or this store has the best prices I have ever seen. for the pair and after the 25% off it will come to $40. AND I WANT THEM SO BAD!!! In fact the whole reason I decided to get back into to reefing was so that I can have a nice cube reef tank with a pair of black snowflakes. In my spare bedroom I have a 10 gallon tank, HOB filter, lights, power head, heater and everything else that I need. I was planning on using this as a frag tank/QT tank later on down the road after the main tank is all set up and running.

 

So here is my question... If I set up the 10 gallon with fresh salt water, no sand, no rock and a couple 3" PVC elbows to use as hiding places do you think the 2 clownfish would be ok in that until the main tank is cycled? I certainly don't want to do anything to harm the fish and I promised myself that I wouldn't rush anything this time but this seems like to good of a deal to pass up.

 

Do I go for it or not?

 

And if so how much and how often should I do water changes on the 10 gallon?

[Mariaface]

Go for it? Just use the 10 gallon tank as a quarantine tank while the main tank cycles.

 

Daily 50-100% water changes (or at least whenever you see ammonia building up above 0ppm), prime to bind ammonia into ammonium, stability or another bacterial additive.

 

And if they show any signs of illness, perfect, you can medicate outside the main tank. And if they don't, you can still medicate in case they're carrying something.

[lkoechle]

So here's the deal.... My JBJ 45 gallon rimless tank is going to show up in the mail today. Everything else is all set and ready to go. ill start building the stand first thing tomorrow morning and by the end of the weekend ill be back in business with my new reef tank. But.... we have a brand new LFS opening up in my town and this weekend is the big grand opening and everything is 25% off. So I stopped by there last night just to check it out and they have a really awesome mated pair of Black Snowflake Clownfish that I absolutely love. Well either the kid does not know what they are or this store has the best prices I have ever seen. for the pair and after the 25% off it will come to $40. AND I WANT THEM SO BAD!!! In fact the whole reason I decided to get back into to reefing was so that I can have a nice cube reef tank with a pair of black snowflakes. In my spare bedroom I have a 10 gallon tank, HOB filter, lights, power head, heater and everything else that I need. I was planning on using this as a frag tank/QT tank later on down the road after the main tank is all set up and running.

 

So here is my question... If I set up the 10 gallon with fresh salt water, no sand, no rock and a couple 3" PVC elbows to use as hiding places do you think the 2 clownfish would be ok in that until the main tank is cycled? I certainly don't want to do anything to harm the fish and I promised myself that I wouldn't rush anything this time but this seems like to good of a deal to pass up.

 

Do I go for it or not?

 

And if so how much and how often should I do water changes on the 10 gallon?

The clownfish will be fine. We did the same before my 85 was even up and kept them in a 10. I did water changes every day for a while and then every other day and then once a week while the biofilter was getting built up. I also purchase 10 pounds of live rock to reduce a spike. You can do the same. I think my water changes were over kill, but I didn't have a reliable test kit at the time so I did as a preventative measure. They were in the 10 from October to January. Then that live rock went into the display as well. As long as you're not medicating, I would buy some liverock for them too.

 

If you're super paranoid, you can also see if you can pay the LFS to hold them for you. My LFS will QTfor $25 a week.