New tank - finally ready for the fish!

[Lorna]

Welcome to the site.......

I would add another 20-25lbs of cured live rock right now if you can......while you qt your new additions. This should be all cycled by the time your fish are ready to be added. I have gone the non-qt route and have regretted it as I lost a bunch of fish once. I wouldn't necessarily take the lfs at their word as they are not always aware of the fish they are getting in. Some may have been exposed to such things as cyanide or added stress from collection methods that may not show up right away. I always ask the lfs to feed any prospective fish to ensure that they are eating prepared foods and are ready to come home. I have had them hold fish for up to a week to make sure they are eating and healthy......

Fish suggestions for you...hmmm...I would avoid damsels as they are territorial and aggressive and have no place in a community tank.....in a dedicated damsel tank yes but not with docile tank mates. I would look at some sort of wrasses and lean towards fairy wrasses and coris wrasses, six lines can be aggressive (at least mine is a real little meanie) cardinal fish such as bangaiis and pyjamas, small pygmy angel fish *my personal favorite fish* a pair of clowns, such as skunk or tomato clowns are different.....please refrain from getting an anemone for these as it is not needed and there is no guarantee they will host it anyway and your tank is too small and young to support one. Any of the gobies are nice such as a citron/clown or watchman gobies, blenny such as midas or bicolor.....all great fish. good luck!

[dld65]

I hit the store today and picked up another 20 lbs of live rock. My pH was low this morning at 7.8 so I decided to hold off on the fish for another few weeks at least until this new rock is fully cured and I can get the pH a bit higher. I'm definitely glad I got the extra rock. I forgot to mention that my 40 gal tank is a tall tank (which I regret buying now of course- but I can't afford to replace the tank at this time) so the live rock is now built up nice and high and gives a lot more hiding places.
One other question for you all, having come from a freshwater tank all those years, I always ran my Magnum canister filter and used charcoal regularly.
I've got the filter running just to help clean up the water while the rock has been curing- do you all recommend that I continue to use it? Also, how often do you use charcoal. I know it can remove the good stuff from my water so I don't want to mess things up and overuse it.
Thanks again for the fish advice!

[Lotus]

I use carbon in my reef tank (but not in my freshwater tanks) to reduce the problems from chemicals released by my leathers. They produce chemicals which can bother/kill LPS.

If you do decide to run a canister filter, clean it out weekly, and run only carbon. If it builds up bacteria it can contribute to high nitrates.