Clownfish on the sand bed on his side

[steveschafon]

Don't you think that shock of moving them from tank to tank to tank in 3-4 days is more harmful then letting them sit in the ammonia(in case it stays under 0.2)? 

[Clown79]

7 minutes ago, steveschafon said:

Don't you think that shock of moving them from tank to tank to tank in 3-4 days is more harmful then letting them sit in the ammonia(in case it stays under 0.2)? 

Get yourself some seachem prime. It will detoxify the ammonia. 

 

Waterchanges and prime won't effect your cycle. The cycle will continue.

 

This is a common recommendation when others have had rhis issue.

 

Get a seachem ammonia badge because liquid regeant tests aren't accurate while using prime. 

 

Biospira might be another good thing to add. 

 

Starting up another tank without a biofilter, will be another tank with ammonia issues. Unless you can get some filter media from an trusted established tank or real established liverock

 

@Tamberav and @seabass do you have any suggestions?

[steveschafon]

Just added seachem prime, 3 bottle caps.

let's hope everything will be ok.

I'll order the badges, the LFS didn't had this.

 

[Humblefish]

I would dose Prime every 48 hours until your tank fully cycles. It's not the ideal thing to do, but what other choice do you really have?

[rough eye]

i'll put in my 2 cents, for what it's worth. do you already have containers to hold 25 - 50 gallons of freshly mixed salt water? you'll need about 25 gallons just to do weekly water changes. having that on hand, matched to the exact same specific gravity and brought up to the same temp before adding it to the tank, is essential.

 

also, you have now 3 clowns? are they different kinds of clowns, because i'm guessing they are. first thing might be to talk through precisely what you have (are there 2 different kinds of damsels too?) and what you might want to return. so if the bio-load ends up reduced to half, that will be much easier on the remaining fish.

 

when i set up my nano tank (in december) the LFS told me it would be ready for fish in a week, or maybe would be immediately after setting it up. i said "thanks but no thanks" and planned to wait 4 to 8 weeks before adding any livestock. i was one of those guys who, back in the 80s, started a tank with a "live cycle," having fish in there while the tank was new. the thinking back then was "put in 8 damsels, and a few of them will probably live through it." and this is what the LFS told people as a way to do it. i wouldn't recommend anyone do that.

 

as for cycle - be patient, take your time and expect it to go very slowly. months. and don't start adding all kinds of quick fix chemicals for cyan and algae and so on, or "dosing" a bunch of stuff you don't need. a well-balanced, natural system is the best.

[seabass]

5 hours ago, Clown79 said:

@Tamberav and @seabass do you have any suggestions?

I just skimmed this discussion.  Sounds like you have pretty much covered it.  I'd probably dose a denitrifying bacteria culture along with Seachem Prime.  Like Humblefish stated, it's not ideal, but it's a reasonable work around for where things are at now.

[steveschafon]

Thanks everyone, I will dose the prime and denitrifying bacteria as needed by the water tests, it seems that we are ok with the ammonia for now.