New fowlr - stocking

[Carissa]

I have had my new tank up and running for 3 weeks now and after a small ammonia/nitrite spike the first week I added 6 astraea snails. So far so good. My next step is fish. It's a 30g/20g sump fowlr with a small skimmer.

Here is my current idea for stocking:

2 ocellaris clownfish
1 shrimp goby and shrimp
1 lawnmower blenny
1 or two other brightly colored fish of some type - maybe a pygmy angelfish as one of them

How does this sound? Also, should I add the two clownfish as my next addition? If not, what?

 

[pat8you]

Lawnmower blennys feel largely on natural algae off of your rock. They can be tricky to get to eat prepared foods. It is probably best to take this one off your list. They do better in larger systems where they have more space to graze.

In general you want to add the most aggressive/territorial fish last. Clowns can be very territorial once they find their "spot" in the tank. I would add your goby first since they tend to be more timid.

As far as the 1 or 2 other fish i would probably plan on just one. It will depend on what fish you end up putting in but in general i would guess that 5 fish in that sized tank will be setting your self up for trouble with aggression or water quality down the road. Just make sure you add the fish very slowly so that your tank has plenty of time to adjust as your bioload gets bigger. I would say probably 1 fish per month max. The more established the tank is the better it will handle the new additions.

 

[Carissa]

Would a goby be hardy enough to withstand a minicycle? Should I also add the shrimp at the same time?

I'll come up with something else instead of the lawnmower blenny.

 

[pat8you]

Its hard to say if it would withstand a minicycle. There are a lot of different factors that would contribute to that i guess. Why are you worried about a minicycle?

 

[Carissa]

Because I'm not totally sure whether my biological filtration is totally up to snuff. I only had a very small ammonia and nitrite spike.

 

[pat8you]

You can add some fish food to the tank every day for a couple days and watch to see what happens to the levels. Don't add a ton but what you might expect you would need for about 2 small fish. Your clean up crew will love it and it will add a ammonia source so that you can make sure your filtration will take care of it with out a minicycle. Just keep an eye on your nitrates while you are doing this. May require an extra water change or two.

 

[Carissa]

Might try that. I was a bit worried about the snails at first but since they've been in for two weeks with no ammonia spike I'm probably safe. However I don't think they'll eat the food, they won't venture off the rock or walls.

 

[pat8you]

yeah if its been two weeks past your cycle your probably ok. Yeah i didn't look what you had in there for a CUC. The astreas are herbivores and won't eat left over food. You may want to consider getting a couple nasarius snails or a few dwarf hermits (red or blue legs) to eat left over food. Don't need a lot or else they will starve.

 

[Carissa]

Well I'm going to try adding a little piece of an algae wafer every three days or so. The snails might go for it.

 

[pat8you]

yeah they should eat that and it will help to provide a source of ammonia for the tank. Did you start with cured LR or LS when you started the tank?

 

[Carissa]

It was cured live rock, but the live sand was just in sealed bags. I had about a .25ppm ammonia spike after the tank setup.

 

[pat8you]

If you used all cured live rock this is probably the reason you only saw a small cycle in your tank. The bacteria that grows during the cycle actually lives on the surface of the rock,glass, and sand as opposed to in the water. So by using already cured LR you got a good culture of bacteria already started. Your tank should be go and cycled by now and is probably ready for fish. Inverts like snails are actually just as sensitive to ammonia and nitrites as fish are so if they have been doing ok you should be good to go. Then again it can't hurt to try the algae wafer and check your levels just to be on the safe side.