N00b heading for disaster?

I set up my 16 gallon tank in April 09. I have two large rocks (don’t know the weight) and about a 4 inch sand bed so I believe the amount of water in the tank is about 14-15 gallons. Initially I had a small inadequate filter running for some kind of flow until I got a suitable one. I have two small power heads running. I am brand new to the hobby and have been reading as much as I can so I do not make the mistakes that are most commonly made by people when starting out. I replaced that filter a week ago with one that is suitable for a 40-70 gallon tank. So the plan was to add livestock very slowly. I had been testing with dip test strips and saw no indication of a cycle and the same holds true with the red sea test kit that I finally received in the mail about a week ago. I added 3 snails about 2 days ago and was going to add one fish the other day. This plan was totally blown out of the water as my girlfriend and I went looking for that ONE fish that turned into 2 clowns, 1 goby, 3 blue leg crabs and 4 more snails. So as I am reading the forums and seeing the horror stories of adding too much too fast, I am starting to panic. I fear my tank hasn’t cycled so I am concerned. Any opinions on what I should do?

 

Im probably typing at same time as Pharmrjohn
so where his answer is different to mine, take his advice over mine

If it where me, I would take the clowns and the goby back to the shop and not risk them making it through the cycle, which would be severe due to amount of live stock in there producing waste

if it where a larger tank where the polutants would be more diluted then maybe I would not suggest this course of action, but in the confines of a 15 gallon, that amonia and nitrate spike when they come are going to be quite high IMO

I may be tempted to leave the snails and crabs in there to help with the cycling ?

Id leave the snails and crabs in the tank for another 10 -12 weeks and then introduce the goby and then 14 days later introduce the pair of clowns

Steve

 

I live in Japan and do not speak sufficient Japanese to go and return these fish. I probably could do it with the old finger pointing method and holding the receipt in hand as I did when a filter blew up on me not too long ago. My GF will be sorely disappointed to lose those two clowns as I would be. I haven't seen many clowns around that are like this pair. I have tested my parameters and ammonia is good for now, of course it has only been less than 24 hours. PH is at 8.0.

What about keeping the fish in a separate tank and monitoring it religiously and changing the water frequently? This seems my only alternative to keeping the fish in the tank?

On top of this, I am hunting a gorilla crab that I just noticed the other day, when adding the first 3 snails to the tank...sigh

 

Well, this one is kind of an oddball.....Your tank has been set up for a month or two. You have not seen a cycle, but I believe it did go through one. There would have been some die off from the live sand and live rock....enough to get it started and see the nitrifying bacteria take hold and populate the tank. Somewhat. With a 16g tank, Steve is right on.....the tank is small and room for error is small compared to it's larger brethren. But I think you have a shot at this one.

Clowns are a member of the damsel family. They are not considered cycling fish, but are pretty tough overall. I dropped a pair of false percs in a cycled 10g tank and they pulled through no problem. I didn't check for levels in it, so I do not know how the numbers ran, but I was taking a chance introducing the pair into that small of a tank and I knew it.

You would have needed to introduce some sort of cleaning crew anyway at the end of the cycle and you have done that. I am not worried about the bioload introduced by the snails and the hermit crabs. They will help things along. So leave those in there for sure.

The goby is another deal. I don't have experience with gobies, but I do know they are not as hardy as the clowns. So you may lose that one.

If I were in your shoes, I would keep the clown pair and the clean up crew. I would take the goby back and just use hand signals to demonstrate your desires. If they give you your money back, great. If they give you store credit, that is good also. If they give you nothing, you have probably saved the life of a fish and that is the best.

You did move a little quick, and if it had been just the clown pair and the CUC, I would have said cool, go with it. But the goby is a little much and may stress the ecosystem a bit. Not only because of the addition with the clowns, but the clowns are probably all you should have in that tank. I am presuming they are false or true percs. They can end up three or so inches a piece. That takes care of your fish stocking.

So just watch, test and don't feed too much. Twice weekly. Especially at this point. You don't want to introduce too much waste. That is for the clowns, you will have to look up the feedings for the goby. I am clueless with that little bugger!!!

So I would ask a few questions. What kind of snails did you put in there and what kind of clowns did you purchase? The BL HCs are fine. They are small.

 

Honestly I'd keep them all in the tank and expect the goby to die off in a week but hope for the best.

2 months in and I am sure you are cycled but not ready for less than hardy fish. Clown fish are like tanks, IME they will live through most anything. Goby on the other hand...well, not so much armor on that one. I'd feed even less than twice a day, you have plenty of growth on your reef (i remember the rock pic on your other thread) - I also recall thinking that the glass an silicone bead on the corner looked brand spanking new. Is this tank really 2 months old? did you see diatoms brown over everything?

Your live rock is an incredibly efficient filter, using a filter for a 70 gallon tank on a 16 gallon is not the best idea, you can over filter a reef. I personally run media through a reactor and call it a day.

 

The Goby will probably die. The Clowns will probably be fine. But introducing this many fish in that size tank at once (particularly this close to cycle) will, almost surely, start a new mini-cycle.

As you probably know, the test strips are worthless - any measurement you took with those are not going to be reliable... so maybe there were spikes...


As far as feeding - my clowns and goby (which I don't have any more) were fed once every 2-3 days with fantastic results. I would recommend the same. Overfeeding, particularly in a small tank can cause problems fast.

Keep testing with real test kits (Red Sea is fine, does it have all the tests?).

The CuC is fine.

 

With your rock and 4 inch sand I think you probably have no more than 12 gallons water. I would give back one fish. 2 fish max for that tank.

 

What if his clown pair are like the 7k pair??????

 

I totally agree with Peredhil that test strips are worthless. I'd keep the clown pair if they're small and take the goby back as well.

 

Pharmrjohn,

You are absolutely correct and I forgot about this; I did have the diatoms followed by an out break of green hair algea and was reading a description of what a cycle would be and it matched what happened in my tank.