ceastman Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 Situation: New aquarium, substrate added, some base rock and live rock have been added (25 lbs), sump and refugium are plumbed. I am using my refugium light for the display tank until next month. Water parameters: Temp: 80 PH: 7.85 Ammonia: 0 Nitrate: 0 Nitrite: 0 Salinity: 52-53 (sg 1.0252 - 1.0260) I just purchased some Marine buffer to raise the PH up to 8.3. I have a chiller plumbed also but have it set to 80 until I get something in the tank. The question is, what would be a good first fish? Tang - Pro very colorful, Con territorial especially if the first inhabitant Damsel - Pro hardy and colorful, Con territorial and hard to get out of the tank Clownfish - Pro hardy and colorful, Con ? other options? opinion's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 I'd go with the most peaceful or shy fish you were wanting and start there. Do you have an eventual wish list? Perhaps we can help put them in some sort of order 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woods Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 Yeah, I wouldn't start with anything that you don't want to keep permanently in your tank, like Damsels, unless you want them... I would start with a fish you want to keep and that is hardy and peaceful to tank mates that you will add later. I started with clowns and a fairy wrasse. You do have 1 advantage going for you... Your large size of tank will help defuse agression a little so that will help. You can also start a cycle with Tim's chemicals, I think they are called Waste Away, etc; that help to kick start the process... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 Wait. You only have 25lbs of rock in a 240?! If so, we have more important matters to discuss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 Gotta be a typo, 250 lbs . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 He made a bunch of live rock himself so I'm sure the 25lbs is to seed the DIY rock once it cures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceastman Posted December 25, 2013 Author Share Posted December 25, 2013 No typo, only have 25 lbs currently. January is going to be a busy month. Probably going to grab another 100 lbs of base and/or live rock while I wait for the roughly 100 lbs of diy to finish curing. I haven't seen mention of Tim's chemicals before, please enlighten me. I am currently dosing Marine buffer to get my PH up higher, at 6 am today it was 7.94 can't wait to get my apex so I can easily graph stuff, I am using my old Neptune aqua controller II. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 Tim's is a bacteria bottle that starts and helps seed the cycle. Personally I just toss in a chunk of shrimp and let it add ammonia. But you list your parameters at 0, I asume you cycled the tank already? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceastman Posted December 25, 2013 Author Share Posted December 25, 2013 I just put some live rock in it yesterday, so there could be some die off in the next day or so. Ill be checking ammonia, et.al daily for this first week. Any local fish stores carry Tim's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 In that case, don't add any fish until all the rock is in there. You could just add all the curing rock and let that cycle the tank. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 No local fish stores I know of carry it but I've heard good things about it. Fishy business carries something similar called Smart Start or something like that. I've used it once but honestly unsure how it compares to Dr. Tim's because I've never used dr. Tim's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 Smart Start is the same concept as Dr. Tims. Tim's is more expensive for less solution, Start Smart is a lot less for way more bacteria. I use ZeoBak but that's definitely expensive but so is everything else for Zeovit. Tang first for sure, but only which ever timid tang you want, ie hippo or similar. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 No typo, only have 25 lbs currently. January is going to be a busy month. Probably going to grab another 100 lbs of base and/or live rock while I wait for the roughly 100 lbs of diy to finish curing. I haven't seen mention of Tim's chemicals before, please enlighten me. I am currently dosing Marine buffer to get my PH up higher, at 6 am today it was 7.94 can't wait to get my apex so I can easily graph stuff, I am using my old Neptune aqua controller II. How recently was that pH probe calbrated, and how old is the probe? I wouldn't worry about adjusting pH if the answers to those questions are a) not recently and b) old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceastman Posted December 26, 2013 Author Share Posted December 26, 2013 Victoly, It is a new probe from BRS. My PH went up to 7.97 this morning so it is going up slowly over time it seems. I have been adding Marine buffer every morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 Won't soda lime on the skimmers intake help this? Sorry if it was already mentioned? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted December 27, 2013 Share Posted December 27, 2013 Try and get your fish from someone's tank instead of lfs if you can, you would hate to introduce ich in to your new tank with your first fish, honestly if you buy a tang from a store your chances are very high you will get ich and never completely get rid of it. I've battled everything under the sun, trust me it's not fun. Personally I would NOT add a tang first, it could be a death sentence for it. Start with heartier fish that can handle parameter swings, I dropped a handful of fish in our 440 with 500lbs of cured live rock when it was new and nearly lost them all before the tank stabilized. I would suggest clowns or blue/yellow tail damsels to get started, some shrimp, lobster, cleaning crew, sea urchin, emerald crabs....there's lots of cool things you can put in your tank that won't over load the system at first. Get 5-6 of those damsels, they behave totally fine and don't get very big, also cheap. I've had a group living in my tank for years. Should consider a qt with copper for new fish, introducing disease in your tank means it never completely leaves without breaking down the tank. OR try and buy all your fish from established tanks, still a chance of problems but much fewer. Frankly fish from tanks should be valued at twice what they are at the lfs IMO. Twice as likely to live and a good chance your not going to introduce something catastrophic in your tank that can wipe out all inhabitants. Good luck and go slow, watching livestock die is heartbreaking and is the worst part of this hobby. Edit: divers den is a great place it get quarantined fish for your tank. I'm following my own advice and just ordered a pair of Wisconsin white clowns and a garibaldi damsel from divers den for my new 300 gallon tank (200 gallon sump). Thats all I'm adding to that tank for a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted December 27, 2013 Share Posted December 27, 2013 I really like Yellow Tail Damsels. They stay small and with a group they mostly argue with themselves. With a group of 6 - 12 one or two will mature to female and get about 2" long, the males will stay around 1.5". I would strongly encourage you t set up a QT for your fish and additionally use a UV on your tank. There's certainly nothing wrong with getting bacteria cultures but I've been very successfull skipping the typical cycle time by using quality cured live rock, live sand and 10 or 20 gallons of water from an existing aquarium. My second fish are typically Royal Grammas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted December 27, 2013 Share Posted December 27, 2013 I agree that I wouldn't put anything into the tank that you don't want to keep for a while. I tried my best to follow the cycling method outlined in The Clean Up Crew, but I was under pressure to stock the tank and I caved Damsels - Stay away from them, especially as the first fish because they will be aggressive to every introduction after them. Tangs - Hold off on a tang with a barren tank. If you get one that is shy or won't eat immediately then they won't have anything to graze on while they get acclimated. Some tangs are known to be aggressive if you want to add other tangs later. Dottybacks / Dragonets / Hawkfish - Don't introduce any active pod predators as the first fish or the bottom of the food chain will have a hard time getting established. I noticed a distinct drop in pods after getting a Royal Gramma. Awesome fish, but I wouldn't get one so early. Clownfish - Great starter fish. Will also eat pods but not as actively as other fish. Rabbitfish - Scott W. Michael recommends Foxface as good starter fish. It took my One Spot about three days to start eatting Nori. I put a nice bunch of Ulva into the display before I introduced him and he ate it all. After about a week he was eatting flakes and pellets along with the other fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceastman Posted December 29, 2013 Author Share Posted December 29, 2013 I ended up getting a Ocellaris Clownfish from Aquadome and some macro algae from AquaCulture Ranch. I am posting pictures to my build thread: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 Even though you already got a first fish, springer's damsel is the only damsel that I would add without the normal worry. Great fish that is cheap, awesome looking, stays small, and is more peaceful than even green chromis IMO. Otherwise royal gramma is one of my go to fish as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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