What order to add these fish?

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YourPalCM

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
May 15, 2004
Messages
56
Location
Pennsylvania
I'm coming down the home-stretch of having my 75g FOWLR set-up ready for fish. I barely saw a cycle spike with all of the live rock (and a little live sand) in the tank. At 4 weeks I added a bunch of various types of snails and a few hermits, and they did an amazing job on the bit of obvious algae that had built up. The snails and crabs have been healthy and happy for over a week.

Today I'm setting up my quarantene tank, and will let that cycle for another few weeks - I think I'm just going to throw a few mollies in there.

So, the question now is, in what order do you guys recommend I add the following?

> (1) Percula Clown
> (1) Regal/Hippo Tang
> (1) Auriga/Threadfin Butterfly
> (1) Flame Angel
> (1) Black Cap Gramma
> (1) Cardinal Banggai
> (1) Golden Head Sifter Goby
> (1) Yellow Headed Jawfish

I'd also like to add (2) Cleaner Shrimp, (1) Fire Shrimp, some Peppermint Shrimp, (1) Chocolate Chip Starfish, and (2) Pencil Urchins.

Is there any reason the shrimp, starfish and urchins should wait?

Any obvious compatibility issues that I'm overlooking? The urchins maybe?
 
YourPalCM said:
Today I'm setting up my quarantene tank, and will let that cycle for another few weeks - I think I'm just going to throw a few mollies in there.

Why? :?:
 
Just a newbie myself, but I think you'll want to give your tank plenty of time to mature before adding the angel or butterfly. Looking at your list, I'd probably start with the smaller ones and work my way up to the bigger ones. That also seems like it'd follow the "add the meekest fish first" rule.

No reason to wait on the shrimp in my opinion. Not sure about the starfish. And yeah... use a shrimp (no more than a 1/2) or some fish food. Not only is it nicer on the mollies, it's cheaper!
 
I have a nice, raw/unseasoned shrimp, from my grocery store rotting in my QT. This will provide the ammonia to kick start my cycle. Most folks here find cycling a tank with fish very inhumane. During the cycle, they go through sewage like living conditions....oh yeah, the raw shrimp is a lot more less expensive. I also have 4 of the same shrimp cycling my 125G.
 
Well since no one answered the initial question and in first to last order:

Jawfish, clownfish, goby, cardinals, gramma, angel, butterfly, tang
 
OK, I went with the raw shrimp to cycle the QT tank. I didn't see the first suggestion to use just part of a shrimp for a tank that small, and I used one single "medium" sized shrimp.

Today makes it 3 days, so I started testing thinking I wouldn't see much the first 2 days until the shrimp would start to decompose.

However, on Day #3, I'm already seeing...

Ammonia = 4.0
Nitrite = 0.25

That was certainly fast. I was prepared for this to take 3-4 weeks or more...but I'm already seeing Nitrites on Day #3? Should I remove part of the shrimp? Or is the full shrimp going to speed up the process?

Thoughts?
 
It looks like you are in good shape, the initial LR may have helped. I saw ammonia within the first 5 days or so. I think, you can probably remove the shrimp or at least what you can get of him and let the cycle complete. Props on the fishless cycle!
 
Yes... definitely remove the shrimp. Too much ammonia will slow things down - it did for me. And don't use a net to scoop out the shrimp. It may look solid, but it isn't! Yuck! Try to get under it with a baggie or something.
 
melosu58 said:
It sounds like you are on your way. Where are you at on the cycle today?

Differentiating the colors of a liquid against the colors on the cards has always been difficult if you ask me...especially as the nitrates peak, the card shows blue, and then 5 slightly different shades of purple.

At any rate, this is what I think I've seen...

Day #1 -
Day #2 -
Day #3 - Ammonia 4.00, Nitrites 0.25
Day #4 - Ammonia 4.00, Nitrites 0.25
Day #5 - Ammonia 4.00, Nitrites 0.50
Day #6 -
Day #7 - Ammonia 3.00, Nitrites 3.00

The ammonia is coming down, and the nitrites are peaking.
 
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