Things Have Progressed Further !

[Cheryl]

A Great Big Thankyou to Scorpion (Mick) for his excellent Live Rock which has transformed us from an empty tank....

To this :- :D

[Cheryl]

Now to my question ;)

How long should I cycle for?

[Garry thomas]

In an ideal world, you should have 0 ammonia and nitrite. Use that bio booster, thats called cycle it will help things along.

[scorpion]

thanks cheryl i hope that rock stays algae free for you. mick :D

[Cheryl]

Ok just thought I'd update all you members that have been helping me !

I NOW HAVE FISH ! :D

Over the last 6 weeks (ish) we have added

5 Green Chromis
1 Blue Cheek Goby
1 Mandarin (I think its a female but the dorsal appears damaged so we'll
have to wait and see)

[Cheryl]

And Yesterday arrived two beautiful Chocolate Clown fish from Oasis in Manchester

[elliot]

Cheryl,

Looks lovely - especially love the clowns....

I would be very concerned about the long term health of your Mandarin.

It is not generally recommended to keep one before the tank is at a minimum of 6 months old.

My tanks is coming up to a year old - and I still will not add one... having lost one with 60kgs of LR in the display tank.

If I were you, I would seriously consider your mandarin.. and with advice from others return him to the LFS - ASAP.

Sorry to bring bad news....

Elliot

[kosh42]

I strongly agree with Elliot... Mandarins require a tank crammed full of rock with a healthy population of pods and bugs... They are very unlikly to accept anything except live food and even then require it right infront of them to eat as they are slow movers...

I'm no expert, I admit, but I'd take it back before you end up with the heatbreak of it dying...

Tim

[elliot]

Cheryl,

Or.... perhaps someone on this board is looking for a female..... perhaps try a second post?

HTH

Elliot

[elliot]

Cheryl,

Just a word of warning - this may sound sad... but the small shells on the right hand side of your tank... I used to use for dwarf African Cichlids.

Watch out as the sides of some are still very sharp..... unfortunately, killing one of my small fish due to secondary infection.

With white spot etc being so hard to treat in a marine tank.. i would possibly think twice......

Elliot

[Cheryl]

Elliot ..... what small shells?

[Cardi]

I think he means the barnacle cluster on the right of the photo. They can have sharp edges, i just took a piece of wet/dry emery paper to them and smoothed them off a bit. My Bicolour blenny loves them so much rarely ventures out. He looks so cute with just his head poking out.

Do check up on the other peoples comments about the mandarin though, I think they have a point...

Nice tank by the way.

[Cheryl]

Thanks...

Now I unserstand ! :D

[pingoshea]

Hi, there right about the manderin you know,
Have tried and lost a couple myself.
they need lots of LR. and are a very shy fish.
Best of luck,
Rick.