I thought SW was difficult..or am I about to CRASH!!!

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R

rook45

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jan 9, 2006
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new jersey
Have I done something wrong?
I started with an established FW tank. I sold all the my fish the next day I purchased a green spotted puffer..Then did some research and found that they can be converted to full marine. I did my research on converting it then proceeded to do it my own way. I went to the store got 2 bags of 50 gal marine salt mix and in 36 to 48 hours later I had a full marine aquarium. The puffer lived. So 1 day passes and the puffer is doing fine. I then buy 6 damsels.
3 days later a foxface and an undulated trigger (at this point research is completely out the window). A week later I buy a clown trigger and a humu humu is thrown in for free.
Now it's been 3 weeks and now 11 fish in the tank and I haven't yet experienced an ammonia spike...maybe I have if you consider 0.25ppm an ammonia spike. Where's my ammonia spike?!!? Is it possible that the FW BB converted too??
I'd like to all I feed heavily but I don't overfeed. Thoughts???
 
Whats the filter you are using,brand new or from the freshwater set up and if so did you rinse it?The bacteria from fresh is a different type than the salt and it will all die off before the other colony developes.I'm guessing that these fish you have must not be large and they are not putting out enough waste to send the amonia up faster.Whats the tank size?
 
IMO it's not good to stock that quickly in a SW tank. I'm rather new myself but you have to stock slowly so the bio-load can catch up. I would def monitor the water params closely to see if all is well, good luck.

Also more info on the tank would be good. How large is the tank? Is there live rock in the tank? What type of circulation? What type of filtration? SW is def less forgiving than FW so hopefully you have all your bases covered & all will be good.
 
stocking quickly i think actually works out the best , when you have live sand and live rock already in there , everytime you add something your parms go crappy then get good then go crappy then go good then get crappy , when you slowly do it. if you dump them all in there at once , and have a big filter good protien skimmer and some live rock and are ready for lots of water tests and some very small but alot of water changes i find that alot better..... for instance , my 220 gallon , 1 day set it up filled it up , 2nd day salt cleared and water looked good added live rock and sand , 3rd day i stocked with 2 eels 5 fish , then added bio spira for 200 gallons , no spike, no amonia no nitrates , nothing , fully cycled tank.

bio spira does instantly cycle tanks .... the new stuff that doesnt even need to be cold!!
 
If I had to guess I would say you're going to lose at least some fish. Ammonia in a saltwater tank should be undetectable and is harmful to the fish. You're benficial bacteria hasn't gotten a chance to build up yet to keep up with the bio-load you just dumped in there.
 
The first SW setup I had was a 75. We bought about a hundred pounds or so of LR. I stocked slowly, but never, ever saw ammonia. We then upgraded to a 180. We bought about 100 or so more pounds of rock. We moved our fish over to the new tank, along with the LR from the 75. I never, ever saw ammonia. So, this is possible -- for there to actually be no cycle, because the LR is so full of bacteria already -- this isn't like FW, where we have to grow it or add it. It's already there. IMO, if you add a substantial amount of cured LR, you run a very small chance of any ammonia ever showing up.

However, that's not what you have going on, and ammonia is now present at toxic levels. IMO, this is the "Crash" you mention... it may go up some more, as well. It's not good.

Also, I don't know what size your tank is, but your lack of research is evident in your stocklist, which is full of nippy, aggressive fish and fish who grow really large. I'd take the time to research the stock that you have.

With enough LR, it is completely possible to maintain a system that even has no nitrate at all -- we've never had nitrate in our SW tanks, either. But ammonia should never exist in measurable levels.
 
you should consider LR... you are stocking quick... and don't stock anymore... let the bacteria catch up to the bio load... puting packaged BB will help the tank a lot.
 
I did the same thing bro, i used water from my FW tank and did the same thing you did stocked alot fish quick.. About a week later i had an ammonia spike and i know my BB died off and so did like 4 of my fish, but then again you know more about fish then i do and you most likely will have better luck, I thought you wasnt going to do the SW thing lol also one of my friends did the same thing you did and his tank is doing really good
 
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