Today, March 16th, we experienced our first lost to our marine habitat. During the first week of the ammonia and nitrite cycle, we lost one of our three “cycling” fish. Our Green Chromis Damsel passed through the giant porcelin gate to the deep abyss. She shall be missed, especially since that’s the one that Amy picked out! The other two Blue Devil Damsels are fighting along pretty good, no signs of Ammonia stress or Nitrite stress even though the levels are high. I tested the levels today and each of them are at the toxic level which is a good thing.
Ammonia should be on the down hill slide, Nitrite on the up hill as well as Nitrate. The Nitrite will soon level off and head down hill too as the Nitrate will rise and level off for good. The bacteria that take care of the Ammonia will be established, then bacteria will take care of the Nitrite creating Nitrate.
To keep Nitrate from getting to toxic levels water changes need to be made every 2-weeks or 4-weeks depending on the health of the tank. Good rule of thumb is 10% water change every 2-weeks for optimal health.
Once the Ammonia and Nitrate levels are zero, then we can go ahead with some more sensitive fish and invertebrates. We will add a new item about 1 per week. Probably start with a Firefish or Jawfish, then a Banded Coral Shrimp, Clownfish, Hermit Crab, Arrow Crab. Then after about 4-6 months depending on how well the pH and other levels are, we’ll start with the bigger dollar items the corals! First on the plate would be an anemone for the Clownfish for the clownfish to start the symbiotic relationship and because they are cheap!
The tank is fun so far now that we’re past the “set-up” stage and are starting to understand some of the quirks to being a marine tanker. We’ll keep you posted!