Coral and Fish Introduction

[Puffy]

Ok this might be a easy question but i am a real big Freshwater aquarist, ok i'm tryin my hand at SW soon, and really the only question i have left is, how do u introduce corals, inverts, LR, LS and fish to your tank the right way?? Sorry for the question but its quiet differnt then introducing a FW speciem. Thanx

[gman0526]

Personally I have always used the drpping method when introducing new organisms to my tanks. Just to let them get acclimated slowly to the new water conditions.

[upstoday]

Ok I'm gonna it a try here, but I'm real new myself, the others will fill in all the more in-depth information.

Slowly would be first and most important thing I guess. You could use the LR to cycle the tank, which seems to be the best idea. Gives you some natural filteration and is easier to start with to set up the tank. You could use damsels but they are not something you would be interested in keeping you might have a problem trying to catch them, or at the very least will be more of a hassle than if you just started with LR.

I would imagine LS could go in at the same time as the LR, don't need much, could mix some in with non-live sand, and eventually it will all become LS.

After the tank cycles than you can start adding Livestock, I don't know about the order, but if I were to do it again I think I would start with inverts, snails and hermit crabs and such. Get them going and all set up.

Than same thing, slowly add the fish that you would like. But same thing, space out the additions so as to not overload the bioload of the tank.

As for corals and such, I have no idea, havn't gotten that far myself..

Somebody had posted a link to the acclimating process, I can't seem to find the link, had it bookmarked but reformatted and lost it. I'll have to look some more and put it here.

Thats all I have, but like I said the others will be really able to help you in more detail.

Here is the link for that article about the acclimating process

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/acclimation.php?PHPSESSID=1ccc5b793ecf409f42c6cfd2 6de625db

[Puffy]

kool thanx! I think i read that once the cycle was over u could add corals, but not to many at once, i would just be adding some shooms and maybe some Xenia and zoos, but i'm not sure bout the xenia, i guess my test kit will tell me when i can add new stuff, just make sure not to get any extra ammonia or nitrite levels and i will be good!! Thanx everyone

I would highly recommend that you QT them before adding to your newly set up tank. Doing so will save you a lot of headaches in the future. The corals you mention shouldnt really need to be QT'ed. But LPS, SPS, Clams and fish should all go in a QT tank before going into your system. The rest of them info given above is pretty sound advice. Good luck!

[Puffy]

kool thanx....

[SaltyDawg]

My personal opinion is that you should wait for 6 to 9 months before you introduce the corals into a new tank. Just because the cycle is finished does not mean the tank is ready. A new tank, even cycled can have extreem changes in water quality when new livestock has been add. That is because the bio-filtration has not reached its peak efficiency and will not do so untill the tank has been established which can take up to a year. Once a tank has been established the changes in water quality are not as severe.

This is my opinion and others may vary but adding corals too soon can be costly and discouraging.

Wayne

[gman0526]

I agree with SaltyDawg, when you set up your tank and it "cycles" what happened was that the biological filter was set for the amount of bioload that you have at that moment. As you add live stock to your tank the biological filter has to adjust itself everytime to make up for the added ammonia in the tank.
Adding corals from what I heard should be done to an aquarium at least 6mos. old. I know a lot of people that add them as soon as their tank goes through their first cycle and had no problems. Me personaly waited 5 yrs. to add my first one is a long time but I can tell you that it didn't go through any stress as it opened withing 10 mins. of being introduced and is doing great.