CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

Well I finally got the water and salt into the tank and I just did the first check on the parameters and I was wondering your guys imput on how much longer I should wait until I add fish, Or how my parameters are and what they should normally stay at.
I amhaving a fish only saltwater tank the
ph- 8.2
Ammonia-approx .30 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
Salinity 33ppt
specific gravity 1.0245
temp 78-80 degrees
What do you think and how much longer if any should I wait until I put fish in?
I found a baby burr fish that I would like to put in it. I was thinking maybe a burrfish and 2 damsels or just 1 damsel?
What do you think
It is 30 gal.
thanx!

I would wait out the cycle if that takes a week then wait a week if it takes 4 months wait four months... your ammonia should be 0 nitrite 0 and nitrate should be less then 20 ppm ideally. and you should not do any water changes until the tank fully cycles or you will just prolong the cycle.

What method did you take to set up the tank? do you have live rock, deep sand bed etc? or did you go with another setup? that will give us some idea on what you should do next

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Adam

Come see my website!
Adam@cichlidfish.com
Got ?'s about HITH? Read this to learn more!

Does a salt tank cycle in the same ways that freshwater does as far as parameter etc. goes?

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Aquatics Unlimited

I currently have live dsb and I was going to get a couple of live rocks to throw in, I didnt want to get anything huge, since the tank is so small. What do you think about those types of fish? I am planning on getting some smaller peices of live rock this weekend to throw in. I dont want t get anything huge so i dont take up much tank room. Should I be running my protein skimmer now? The guy at the lfs said to wait until it cycled to start running it.
Thanks

Yeah everything looked good except ammonia.....if this is the beggining of your cycle then you have a few weeks to go probably.
I've never heard of a burr fish I guess. Do you have any info on them? It could be a fish that I know by a different name since there are SO many common names for everything in saltwater.

I never run my skimmer for a few weeks after it has cycled because it can be wasteful as there isn't enough for it to skim.

About your damsel idea. They can be little jerks so it depends on what exactly a burr fish is. There are several other small fish you could look into. Also look around for a cool rare damsel. The blue ones and the blue/yellow ones are pretty common and sometimes it is fun to have something rare. Some of my favs are the domino's and the convict damsels. I also saw a cool looking blue/orange damsel the other day that was really cool. There are a lot of damsels out there and it is fun to have a damsel if you can get a good one.

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Clint
CDevoe1111@aol.com

If you want damsels then I would go with only damsels... even in very large tanks they can be very aggressive and can annoy even fish that you would think would eat them. Many kinds of damsels wont even tollerate either their own kind, or a damsel of another color pattern. I think a very cool looking tank could be done with damsels you just have to know what you are getting into with them is all.

Also I too have never heard of a burr fish so I cant say anything about them...

I would recommend at least 30 lbs of live rock for your tank. That is my opinion and how I think a tank should be set up. Obviously there are 1000 opinions on how a tank can be set up and a large percentage of them could be totally successful for whoever set it up... tank setup is a very personal thing, so my advice would be find someone you trust, and is successful in the hobby and copy them, and have them help you set up and trouble shoot your aquarium... you are likely to be less distracted by bad advice or at least advice that isnt in line with your personal method of setup.

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Adam

Come see my website!
Adam@cichlidfish.com
Got ?'s about HITH? Read this to learn more!

burrfish are basically porquipine puffers (sorry i know that i am spelling it wrong) The info that i have found on then i found by searching in a couple different search engines "burr fish". They are really cool looking and they are babies which makes then cuter

so a Protein skimmer is not an essetial thing to have on a salt tank??

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Aquatics Unlimited

No chris IMO te protien skimmer is essential just not in the cycale and the first few weeks after the cycle because there is nothing to skim.

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Clint
CDevoe1111@aol.com

Ok just making sure I was getting it right . What are some good protein skimmers for a 30 gal or maybe a 55?

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Aquatics Unlimited

Well berlin is a really good name for skimmers but extremely pricey. I like to use the wetdrys that come with thier own protien skimmer....they work decently and don't cost a fortune. Cyclone is also a pretty cheap brand....they are really finicky and hard to get set JUST right.

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Clint
CDevoe1111@aol.com

Clint do you have any pics of a wet/dry with a protein skimmer like you are talking about?

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Aquatics Unlimited

yeah on your site where you see the back of what used to be the in wall 55 gal reef. the wetdry has the skimmer on it or in petwarehouse they have it also.

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Clint
CDevoe1111@aol.com