setup salt water tank 4 weeks ago but need advice on fish what I found in the tank...?

Question

I have a few questions that I need to have advice on:
1. I setup a 45 gal salt water tank 1 month ago (with live sand) and have cycled it ever since with 2 damsels a turbo snail, when can I add another (1 or 2) fish? Do I have enough bacteria yet to support more?
2. I found something begining to grow on a small spot of live sand (about 2"x1"). It looks likd red algae. I called Petco (which does not seem to know sh*t) about salt water fish, and they said that red looking algae is poisonous (but I don't think this could be so ... but, then again I do not know what it is, just that what is in the tank looks healthy & happy). They said I should throw out all 40 lbs of live sand in the tank and recycled it. I have left the tank as is so far, awaiting advice here to guide me. Should I leave it? ...just scoop out the red algae sand? Or change all sand out?
3. would like to add a sea horse to our tank. What do they eat & is there any animal I shouldn't add to the tank with them?

Answer 1

1) The only way to know if your tank is cycled is by testing the water. If your ammonia and nitrite levels are 0, and you have detectable nitrate, then the tank is cycled (at least as far as the present bioload), so it would be safe from a chemical standpoint to add another fish. Just be prepared that when you add more fish, you increase the amount of bacteria that's produced, so you'll have a "mini cycle" that the tank will experience until the bacteria reproduce a little more.

The problem you'll run into here is that the damsels have gotten used to being the only fish in the tank, so will have set up their territories. For their size, damsels are aggressive fish, so be prepared for them to attack and harass any fish you put in now. I don't like using damsels for cycling for exactly this reason, and most stores won't take them back. If yours are small, (less than 1 1/2 inches) you might have a chance if you add fish that are larger and more aggressive. You can also try removing the damsels and putting them in another container (temporarily), then introducing the new fish and letting them get to know the tank for about 30 minutes before you put the others back. It also helps to rearrange the decor, so the existing territories are changed, and the damsels no longer have "their" territory to defend.

Depending on what other fish you want to introduce, you might want to put both in together - this will keep one fish from being picked on by the two - at least this will divide their attention.

2) You could try just removing the area of sand with the red. This may be a true algae, or it may be red cyamobacteria (also called a "slime algae") - which I've seen in bags of the live sand and Petco tanks. They are correct in that these contain toxins, but it won't immediately kill all the fish in your tank. It will keep any fish or inverts from trying to eat much of it. I wouldn't through out all the sand, but just work to control future outbreaks by controlling the tank nutrients. One of the best things you can do is to NOT use tapwater to mix up the saltwater for your tank. This can contain nitrate and phosphate, and both of these are plant (and algae!) fertilizers. Switch to reverse osmosis water (you can get this at SuperWalMarts at the Culligan water self-serve dispensers for about $0.33 per gallon once you buy the refillable container). You may also want to add a phosphate absorbing pad to your filter, or add macroalgae (Caulerpa or Chaetomorpha) to compete with the red for nutrients. You need to keep these trimmed back regularly, or they'll take over your tank. See this for more info: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/algaeconMar.htm , http://www.wetwebmedia.com/bluegralgae.htm

Also, in the event that this is a "true" algae, if you can identify what you have in your tank from these photos, use the number next to the type you have to find a fish or invert that will eat this type from the bottom of the page: http://saltcorner.com/sections/guest/algaepage/algaepage.htm

3) Sorry, no seahorses with your damsels. Seahorses are a fairly difficult fish to keep, and don't do well with aggressive tankmates. That's not to say they can't be kept with other fish, but the selection I would consider suitable to keep with them are mostly dragonets (another that's very difficult) and some of the blennies. Seahorses aren't fast swimmers, and other fish (and even some invertebrates) will harass them, and steal food from them so they slowly starve. If you want seahorses, I'd recommend keeping your present tank for at least a year to get some experience with saltwater while you research the care of seahorses. If you would still want to try them, set up a species tank just for them. You can find some good info about them from this website: http://www.seahorse.org/

Answer 2

It's been awhile since I've dealt with saltwater, and I've never actually had live sand... But I think the red algae is cyanobacteria (maybe look around for a good fish forum to ask about it in, I used to go to fishindex.com but I don't know if it's still around) and I don't think it's poisonous, but I'd just keep the tank as is and see what happens, it may be a part of the cycling phase...

Seahorses, from my understanding, are hard to keep, they need a lot of branchlike things to hold on to, very little water flow, and they can't really live with any other fish. Basically you have a seahorse tank, or a something-else tank. Do a lot of research on them before hand if you actually want to have them. I really can't stress research enough. Look online, find some books to read, it is seriously important. Especially with saltwater when many of the fish actually come from the ocean as there is no known way of breeding them in captivity (last I heard at least)

Answer 3

check out here!

http://www.saltwater.8m.com/

I have three salt water tanks with many kinds of fish, I got all my info from this site!

Good Luck!