introducing animals

Our tank JUST cycled. I had a couple tiny brittle stars, a hermit crab, and a sea slug to provide ammonia. All sm all animals in a 65gal tank. We're getting a shipment of other animals. Inverts: clams, crabs, possibly anemones, maybe a sponge, you get the idea. Not sure if there'll be fish.

Since the tank just cycled, I put our 6-inch spiny boxfish back into the water. He seems hardy. How do I know when and at what rate I can introduce organisms to the tank without screwing up the chemistry? You know, so that the bacteria has time to adjust and I don't just shock the system. I have the feeling the other workers are going to want to just dump the animals in there all at once, and I need a reason to prevent that. Thanks

 

I would test your water parameters daily.
Especially the main 4.
With each new fish you add the bio load will increase there for the system will need to catch up in order to handle it.
So I would add a fish or 2 at a time depending on the size. Test the water.
Wait till your Ammonia, Nitrates, and Nitrites come back to 0 or near to it. It also won't hurt to make sure the PH stays constant. After each time you add fish the levels should go up slightly and then slowly back down. After going through this a few times you will have a better feel as to how much you can do at a time.
Hope this helped.

 

JT is correct.

The best way to keep your chemistry correct when adding multiple fish is to go slow and test alot. I would say a safe bet would be adding 1 or 2 fish then waiting a week or so. More time between adding wouldnt hurt however.

One thing though, you said you are getting a clam? What kind of lighting do you have over the tank? Besides the lighting...even if it is powerful enough...i dont believe that your tank is ready to host a clam.

Good luck with the tank.

 

If you were to purchase a baby clam in the size range of 1-3 inches or so, they require nanoplankton/yeast to feed and survive. Intense light at that size is not required. It isn't till they get to the juvenille size of 4-6 inches that the intense lighting becomes a major part of your clams success...or demise!
If I were you I would look into stronger lighting if, in fact, you have strong intensions of pusuing a clam(Tridacna) in the near future!
I would start off by purchasing a Squamosa or Durasa as a beginner with Clams. They are more hardy, easier to keep and they do have a pretty mantle design as well.
Just be careful with the addition of livestock to your tank, so as not to overcrowd or add too many organisms at once!!!!

 

Turns out it's actually a flame scallop. We have invert food which I am feeding it. I put it in a small dish with water with a few drops of the food and wait a while as it feeds. Our lighting? We have a Power-Glo 'high intensity aquarium lamp' at 18000K. Says it's strong in the blue area of the spectrum. It also recommends using another lamp with it, either Marine-Glo or Life-Glo. I don't know much about aquarium lighting, really.

I have set up two temporary 10gal tanks and separated the different organisms so they don't eat each other. I'll gradually add them to the aquariums as you guys have said to, thanks for the suggestions.

When will the cyanobacteria go away? I mean, it's not taking over the aquarium but it makes parts of my aragonite light brown and it's a little unsightly.