11becca20

I have had a 65 gallon tank since early October of 2007. So far, all I have in my tank are four Blue Devil Damsel Fish, three hermit crabs, three snails, and 1 piece of live rock. Two weeks ago I added 45 pounds of dead atlantic coral base rock. We have relativly high levels of nitrites and nitrates ( nitrite-about 5.0mg/L, nitrate-20mg/L). I am getting very tired of looking a such an empty tank, so if anyone could recommend another fish or other animal species that I could put in I would be most appriciative. Thanks very much!

sgould

Well, I would not add anything at all until the tank finishes cycling (ammonia and nitrite at 0). Once that happens, you might consider some species of clownfish, basslets, gobies, dwarf angels (not so much if you plan on corals down the road). You could also look at more inverts...some kind of shrimp perhaps. They can be fun to watch.

11becca20

About how long will it take for my tank to finis cycling? I had thought that it would be done by now. Is there anything I can do to help lower the nitrates and nitrites? Thanks for the help!

sgould

Adding live rock will be a big step in the right direction, as live rock provides a lot of surface area for biological filtration. BUT, if you just added it, it will take some time for the bacteria to colonize the rock. What kind of filter are you running right now?

susitna-flower

You can add Bio-Spira for Marine tanks. That would help establish the proper bacteria, and since you already have something going on in the tank, it will have plenty to eat!

BoSox Fan7

How about a dwarf flame angelfish or a bicolor angelfish those are great looking fish.

Gozer_1

I'd give your new rocks awhile to settle in and get established before you add anything else. You should have 0 Nitrites. Do you have a good skimmer and, as sgould said, what filter are you using? The presence of Nitrite means your bacterial filtration isn't established enough to break it all down. More Live rock will help. I think 1 and a half pounds per gallon of rock is, I believe, the recommended amount of rock. I have 80 Lbs in my 55.

Once you get those nitrites and such down, I'm a big fan of the good ol green chromis. They might stand the torture of those Stan Fish you have. Gobies are fun to watch skittering around the floor of the tank and all over the rocks. Pseudochromis add a nice color, territorial but you already have Blue Satans. (They're more than just Devils in my book) I always recommend tons of snails. They're good little janitors. Nassarius, Turbo, and Ceriths are my favorites. I agree, shrimp are fun to watch though mine is nocturnal so you gotta sit in the dark with the moon lights on to see it well. Depending on your light and filtration you'll have more choices than you can imagine once you get that water quality under control.

11becca20

We have three types of filters going. We have an Eheim Professionel II filter, a Pro Clear Aquatic Wet/Dry filter, and a UV Sterilizer. We recently turned on the sterilizer because of a problem we were having with red diatom algea. After a few water changes the growth went away and we are now thinking of turning the UV off to let the good bacteria continue growing.

Gozer_1

Well, it's likely most of your problems will go away as you finish out your cycle. The UV is really just setting you back IMO. You need to get rid of the food source for the algae. I think everyone gets diatoms in the beginning. They need silicate to survive so you could start with a phosphate remover. It will also remove silicates. If you get rid of the silicates the diatoms will die off. What are you using for make up water? Filtered or treated tap? If it's tap I'd say you found one problem. I'd stick to filtered water. I don't know much about Wet/Dry filters but I've heard them called Nitrate factories. It hasn't been running to long but could be another source of Nitrates. What media do you have in the Eheim? A good healthy amount of BioMedia is a key to success in my book. It's getting all your biomedia colonized that's the hard part. Well, the long part anyway. Do you do weekly water changes? That'll make a huge difference. If you develop good habits then as your cycle finishes it'll all come together. If you don't establish a good routine on a regular schedule then your problems will just keep coming, cycled or not. I wrote out a day by day schedule for my tank. It helped me and my tank. I just have to check the day of the week and know exactly what needs to be done. I've had slowed algae growth and accelerated coraline growth since I started a set routine. I even schedule foods so I can plan for higher phosphate containing foods. A good routine will go a long way to a beautiful tank.