Am I ready for a fish?

[igoRluse]

Hi guys,

 

My 6 g nano has been at 0 amonia, 0 nitrites and very close to 0 nitrates for 2 week now. 5 days ago I chucked in 6 astaea snails and 1 small hermit who have completely eridicated all traces of algae and diatoms that were building up. Since I added them, nitrates haven't budged and are still very close to 0. Can I go and get myself a percula now or do I still need to wait a bit?

[Mugs]

i would personally give it 3 - 4 weeks of constant 0's(or close to) before adding fish/coral, especially in a 6.

give it a week. or after your next water change.

[darwin604]

How many weeks have you had the tank set up total (including cycling) ??

 

d.

[igoRluse]

The tank's been up for a month now.

 

Mugs: Could you explain your point? As far as I see it if the bacteria is established, and it appears to be as amonia and nitrites have been absolute 0 for 2 weeks now and addition of the clean up crew didn't make the params budge at all, then the tank should be ready to move the bioload up with addition of a fish. Nitrates are between around 2 ppm on salifert test.

[jaguilar]

you're good to go.... you could add that perc right now if you wanted. if your plans were to keep a pair, i'd put them both in at the same time to prevent any territorial battles. but once you add a fish(or pair), wait at least two weeks before you add anything else to give your system time to catch up to the new bioload.... good luck....

[Aiptasia]

He probably just wants you to take things slow, which isn't bad advice. Fish are ammonia machines, but if the tank has balanced out nicely, you should be fine for adding a few corals and/or the fish.

 

I like to go slow with my bioload, so don't add 50 corals all at once. Going gradual is a proven key to success. Add the fish this week, then test the next weekend, see how things are going. If everything's still o.k., add a few corals. Wait a week or two then test. Repeat.

 

This is one of the hardest things to teach new reefkeepers as by the time the LR has cured and the tank has cycled, they want to rush right out and stock the tank with a lot of amazing stuff right away. The truth is, that LR contains a lot of biomass you don't even know exists inside of it yet, and contains the seeds for a lot of life that will grow and develop over time. LR is constantly evolving with new life, so just go slow and you'll be much happier in the long run.

[igoRluse]

Originally posted by jaguilar

if your plans were to keep a pair, i'd put them both in at the same time to prevent any territorial battles.

 

Now that's interesting. My original plan was to keep 2 percs in the tank but after reading around a bit and asking questions I was told that would be too much for a 6g. I'd really like to keep a pair of percs, is it possible?

[MGXsport]

I think it would be too small.

[darwin604]

I'd say your good to go on adding a fish. In a 6 gal I'd stick with one perc. As for adding corals, I found that once you add up the price of all the corals you want, you kinda get forced to add them slowly anyways

 

Looks like you're being pretty careful and patient with you water parameters and cycling so based on that I think you'll have no problem adding that fish right now.

 

d.

[jaguilar]

igor, please disregard my statement on keeping a pair of percs. i had completely overlooked your tank size. all that i was paying attention to was your water parameters, which were fine. but a six gallon tank is way too small for a pair of percs. one by itself would be just fine.