Just a quick question :)

[-Pingu-]

Hello

My 22L tank has been cycling for the past week and a half, it's looking really good and in about 3-4 weeks time I'm going to the local shop to have the water tested for free. I have a couple of tiny aiptasia's growing on 2 of my live rocks and I have a snail who shows himself every now and again.

So, I'm basically looking at adding my 2 tiny clownfish (who are from a smaller tank than mine) in about a months time, and wondered if that seems like a good time to start adding things?

First I will add a shrimp and see how he goes though before adding anything else. I just wondered what advice you may have.

Thank you very much!

Charlotte

 

[thincat]

Sounds like a plan. It is always better to go slow with the addition of stock.
But really a shrimp would more then likely be more sensitive. So be sure to acclimate it to your water conditions and temp.

 

[-Pingu-]

Thanks! I'll acclimate the glass shrimp. I thought I only had one aiptasia but I just found that I have at least 4 and one is really big! I know they don't harm fish and add some invertebrate life to the tank and so I'm really not bothered that they're there, but I was wondering what it means, I'm guessing it means the tank is cycling well?

 

[thincat]

If you ask me, aiptasia can live in battery acid, so it is not an indicator of cycle progress. The only way to really know the progress is to test your water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Don't worry about PH because in a new tank it will be all over the place.

 

[austinsdad]

How did you cycle? I always get nervous when folks speak about cycling in terms of just time. You really should get a liguid nitrite and ammonia (at minimum) test kit and watch what's going on. Like how high did your ammonia actually go?

 

[-Pingu-]

Hey sorry for the late reply, i've been ever so busy! Ok, I have had the tank running for a month now, And just recently had my water tested by the guys at the local fish shop. They tested it twice, and they're very good, they said the water is all perfect, just the ph is a little bit off which can be solved with a ph buffer etc. But as far as the water goes, it's really perfect at the moment.
Water change next month, and will do regular check ups at the Fish shop.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Water change next month, and will do regular check ups at the Fish shop.

With a small tank like yours Pingu I recommend water changes of 2.2L (10%) weekly or 4.4L (20%) bi-weekly because of your small tank size. The smaller the tank the harder to maintain parameters. Also I recommend you buy the essential water test kits (Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate are the most important IMO) and test every week, a spike of something in a small tank can be disastorus. Also if you want to get rid of the Aiptasia (which you will if your gonna get corals) try either a Peppermint Shrimp (for a critter solution ) or try injecting a solution of Calcium and Kalkwasser right onto the Aiptaisa.
Lots of info in one shot, sorry! Good luck and post lots of pictures!

 

[austinsdad]

You really do need a test kit of your own and not rely on the guys at the local fish shop (lfs). Things can change in a small tank real fast and you need to be on top of it with immediate testing sometimes.

 

[-Pingu-]

yeah, im thinking of getting a really good test kit of my own when i can

 

[austinsdad]

OK, but it's not a huge expense. Especially not so when compared to the losses you can incur in your tank from not knowing if there's a problem with the water until the lfs checks it for you.

 

[thincat]

5.8g's must evaperate really fast. Be sure to just top off with RO/di water.

 

[-Pingu-]

Yeah im making sure its always topped up, got a hydrometer as well.

I have my little Clowns in there now!! And a little peppermint shrimp. Acclimated them all for 30 mins before putting them in yesterday morning. So they have all been doing fine for the past day, night and this today

The shop didn't have their test kits in so I had to order one, hopefully it will come soon!

It's all going very smoothly! I'm really happy with it all and all I can do know is keep an eye on things and keep on top of it.

Thanks for the advice!!

 

[Mitchell0605]

Got any pics for us?

 

[-Pingu-]

Hehe yep!! I just put them up http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f19/my-21l-nano-tank-new-ocellaris-clownfish-124513.html