Thinking about putting fish in tank

so i just did a 5 gall water change, 4 gall sw, 1 gall freshwater, the sw was a bit cold and lowered my temp to 79 but i'm sure that's fine. Tank is at a good 1.025, i'll test parametars again this afternoon once everything settles back down. I plan to hopefully go to the LFS this evening to see if they have any black clowns in stock. I got my paycheck and cashed it so i should be able to afford to pay my bills and get the fish. Another lfs has them for sale for a pair for $80 or single $30sum, i'm hoping this lfs is cheaper, seems to be.

 

I just read through all of this, and this guy is giving you the best advice.

You should have started with a small amount of established live rock from another tank, then added your base rock after it was cured. You don't need to use water from another tank, the beneficial bacteria resides on the rock and other surfaces, very little is in the water column.

To cycle your tank, you need an ammonia source. What has yours been?

 

ammonia has been .25

 

What I mean is, in order for your tank to cycle it needs a source of ammonia, such as pure ammonia, a fish, piece of raw shrimp, etc. It won't "cycle" properly if it's filled with water and rocks and just sits there.

 

oh,yea i had a piece of raw shrimp, after about a week of it being in the tank, it floated up to the top, and broke apart and pieces went flying everywhere, i just let it be, figuring that it would be fine and the clean up crew would eventually get it, and i didn't add the shrimp right away, but i added it like at the 2nd week of cycling

 

So, did you get the fish?

 

i will be getting it more than likely tomorrow. The lfs that i went to said we have to order the fish as he doesn't carry that many as it's a small store. So i'm going to go to another one tomorrow afternoon that has a much larger fish and coral section and a much bigger store. So they will most likely have them.

 

If you go ahead with a fish, feed it sparingly to minimize an ammonia spike. Take a sample of your water and have them test it for you.

 

for sure. I'm still not 100% if my test kit is correct because it is probably close to a year old now, and the liquids are running low in all the test kits. So that's why i took a sample to the lfs that one time, and figured it was still ok because their results read the same exact as mine. But when i have the money i'll probably just get all new test kits.

At least my parameters aren't horribly off, the only one that is a little high is nitrates, but i heard that sometimes it takes a whle for it to go down, so i'm not to worried.

 

well i cycled my first tank with clowns.. its pretty good right now. So i think you should be ok.
try getting a new brand of test kits. that could make a difference. post some pics of your tank and the fish when you get it.