My new buddies

[Saltwaterman]

Got some new fish. After my water has been checked and everything has been going well I decided to get my first set of fish. I went and purchased a flame angle, two captive clownfish, and just to help my algae problem a lawn mower blenny.( he's pretty smart and cool looking) and a piece of coral which I don't remember what it was called. I'll try and post a picture of it up when I get home. Good bunch or not?

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Im sorry, but why would you add 4 fish at once??????? Bad idea, expect an ammonia spike

 

[crister13]

Your supposed to wait like a month between fish.... Unless its a pair. This could be bad ;(

 

[Flreefer]

I've always gone with one a week, at max. If a pair then I would wait 2 weeks. Especially just starting off.
I agree with the other posters, you could see some ammonia, and possibly lose some fish.
Best of luck, hope you don't suffer any losses.

 

[scottayy]

If he fishless cycled with ammonia he could have an incredibly strong biofilter. Depending on the size of the tank there could be some agression issues.

 

[Schism]

Got some new fish. After my water has been checked and everything has been going well I decided to get my first set of fish. I went and purchased a flame angle, two captive clownfish, and just to help my algae problem a lawn mower blenny.( he's pretty smart and cool looking) and a piece of coral which I don't remember what it was called. I'll try and post a picture of it up when I get home. Good bunch or not?

Expect losses. Way too fast. Regardless of bio filter your asking for problems. Slow down. Impulse buying gets reefers into the biggest trouble.

 

[Newfiereefer]

I have to agree I haven't added more than one fish at a time to have ever experienced this problem. But there could be issues. If you have lots of LR for hiding it may help the aggression possibly if they can find a place to hide. I would think a ammonia spike is gonna happen , do get extra water ready in case or some Ammo-lock , I keep a small bottle on hand and my tank has been going for over 6 months. I think if you keep and eye on you water and be ready for a emergency water change if need you may survive this with just a lesson learned .... And that should be
" Nothing good ever happens fast in a marine aquarium "
hope this helps .

 

[Saltwaterman]

This tank has been running for about 6-7 months with just some hermit crabs and one cleaner shrimp. 72 gallons with and emperor 240 filter and a filstar XP3 canister filter along with a protein skimmer. I have do e this before and no losses. Why would this cause a huge spike of ammonia? I have hiding places. (70 lbs of live rock so far)

 

[Flreefer]

Because all these new introductions create more waste, that your BB is not used to handling. When the BB can't handle the waste the ammonia builds up.

 

[crister13]

Exactly. It doesn't matter how old the tank is, it matters how much bacteria is in it. You have to give it time to catch up. It's used to filtering the couple of inverts, then right to many fish. They will not be able to catch up fast enough, resulting in ammonia and probably death.

 

[Flreefer]

One thing that may help, is to feed very sparingly for a little while. Give them a little bit of food, every other day or so, for the first week or two. This would limit the amount of waste being produced, and limit the amount of wasted food going into the water. Therefore helping to keep the ammonia down, best you can.
They may look hungry to you, but fish can go for like two weeks without anything. They won't be starving. Better a little hungry, than dead.
Good luck with them!

 

[scottayy]

Yeah going from a few inverts to 4 fish is a big difference. Your bio filter (the bacteria needed to convert ammonia into less harmful substances) needs time to catch up to handle the load of the new fish.

Keep an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels and do water changes if it gets up to about .5.

Even if they don't die from the ammonia build-up, it will be very harmful for them.

You're kind of doing a fish-in cycle now.

 

[Schism]

You're kind of doing a fish-in cycle now.

That is a perfect way of describing it. The advice given on how to handle this is solid, just keep an eye on it. Ammonia over .25 can become extremely stressful for fish, almost like us being in a room of tear gas to paint a picture. And for a fish with new tank mates and aggression new parameters etc, it can all become too much too fast. Big changes usually means bigger problems.

 

[Saltwaterman]

Well they have been in there for 3-4 hours and doing fine. Parameters are good but ammonia is a 0.25 I'm gunna do a water change tomorrow. Do lawn mower blennies like to hide cause that's all he's been doing.?

 

[Flreefer]

Sounds like a good plan, just stay with it and you could be alright. I don't have one, but yeah, I think they hide quite a bit.

 

[Schism]

Well they have been in there for 3-4 hours and doing fine. Parameters are good but ammonia is a 0.25 I'm gunna do a water change tomorrow. Do lawn mower blennies like to hide cause that's all he's been doing.?

Hiding is part of the acclimation process but usually they find a spot in the rocks and stay there when not grazing. Atleast mine usually does.

I would get some Ammo-Lock as suggested earlier if it goes up double or triple that, warerchanges wont help much. Also test your nitrite and nitrate to see how your biological filtration is keeping up.

 

[Saltwaterman]

Hiding is part of the acclimation process but usually they find a spot in the rocks and stay there when not grazing. Atleast mine usually does.

I would get some Ammo-Lock as suggested earlier if it goes up double or triple that, warerchanges wont help much. Also test your nitrite and nitrate to see how your biological filtration is keeping up.

All fish have survived the night! Algae is still not cooperating. I have 6 T5s and 20 moonlight LEDS. I'm thing my algae increased drastically over the four day because it was used to running on 2 T5s and one T8. I ordered a phosphate remover which hopefully that will help. Here are the pic of the tank.

 

[Flreefer]

Glad to hear it! Stay with the ammo test, waterman!