Up and running (Updated 10/1)

Well its been a little over a day and I finally have my tank set up and running. Its a 20 gallon long tank and I currently have about 27 lbs of base rock, 20 lbs of live sand, and a yellow tail damsel to begin my cycling.I fed him a little mysis shrimp last night and he has no prob. eating. The guy at my lfs said to do a fish cycle because they didn't carry uncycled LR and it be cheaper for a fish than LR. I have one question. My temp of the water has been at 80 the entire time so far and I don't have a heater hooked up to it. Has anyone else had this occur where the water temp is naturally around 80?

Full Tank Shot


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That temp will be fine. I have heard some keep the temp at 84. Whatever you keep your house at might affect your temp unless your house drops more than 3-5 degrees at night.

 

Water temp depends on your lights and house temperature. 80 is totally fine.

Congrats on getting it up and running!! Looks great!

 

You should not be using a fish for the cycle.
A dead shrimp from the local grocery is the best method and is humane. I might look for another LFS that gives better advice.

 

Funny you should say that because when my tv is on it makes a but load of heat and i forgot to turn it off last night and my air wasn't running so when i woke up it was about 82-83 so I put ice in a bag and dropped it back down to 80... so I put a window shaker in my window to help me not sweat at night and I've noticed since I've been running it on and off its down to about 79 almost 78. So ill just have to run that accordingly.

 

+ 1 with above post.

 

+2.
Speaking from experience, as I too used a fish to cycle my first tank. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's the "doesn't" that causes problems as you lose the fish to a disease (usually Ich). Again, speaking from experience on that one. After my LFS advised me to do the exact same thing, and I lost the fish to Ich, I NEVER went back to that store ever again. Since then I either use a piece of shrimp, or throw in some flake food and let that cycle my tank. Less stressful as you just have to monitor the Ammonia and Nitrite levels, waiting until they peak and go back down to zero. No worries that way. With that being said, I wish you good luck the rest of the way (not being sarcastic either). Tank looks good.

 

Damsels are very territorial. In a tank that small she is going to claim the whole tank. When you go to add another fish to the tank, you will probably have to take her out for at least a week and rearrange the rock, or she will try to kill whatever you put in.

Speaking from sad experience here, although in my case it was a maroon clown, but when it comes to being territorial, the clowns have nothing on the damsels.

 

You will end up taking all the rock out to catch that Damsel. Those things are freakin' impossible to catch with a net if you have a lot of rock. Good luck!

 

I had to do that to remove a pair of agressive yellow tail blue damsels. I think i removed 8 rocks before i could net them.