Am i doing it right?

[Damien]

Hi I am new to salt water fish keeping. I have purchased a used 3x2x2 Tank with a weir, it has a sump which i have filled with small pieces of base rock its pump is a 3000lph or 790gph, it has a protein skimmer and i have put in 3 power head style pumps all pumping 1000 lph which i think is around 265gph. The lighting is a aqua one metal halide combo. Now this is where I'm getting mixed up...
I have had the tank full of water for 2 weeks, i used crushed coral sand about 4 inches deep, I put in my base rock about 40 kilos and then filled the aquarium with treated tape water i then added my salt (took me 3 days to get it right),
Last week i went and bought some semi-cured live Christmas island rock and placed it in the tank in between and on top of my base rock. So then i read that i need to put in a prawn (shrimp) to get it started so i went out and bought a raw Prawn (shrimp) and i could only find massive ones so i got one that was about 10-15cm long and washed it off and chucked it in. Have i done it right?

 

[Fishbone13]

Try read'n these articles go to the second page and click on "Cycle You're Salt Water Tank"

Articles

And this is a saltwater fish compatability guide for when you get the show on the road. I hope this helps a little. Good Luck.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articl...des/Page1.html

 

[Damien]

Hi, thanks for the Links but I'm still not sure if I have done it in the right order.
Should I have waited for the base rock to cure before starting to cycle the tank (adding the prawn) or is it basically the same thing?

 

[Fishbone13]

You're fine if you didn't wait for the rock to cure. You're tank is grown'n the bactiria you need now so all you have to do is wait and test you're level's and you should be ready to start add'd things to you're tank in no time. Remember to go slow at first and add (CUC)= Clean Up Crew and 1 maybe 2 fish at a time so you don't shock the tank and throw you're water into a toxic mess for the fish. And don't over stock the tank. Good luck.