Am I on the right track?

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vashachiroku

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Dec 4, 2010
Messages
4
Hello all! Newbie to salt water tanks here, its my first week and just want to see what the next step should be and get recommendations.

I have a 260 liter (57 gallon) tank. Its been running for 6 days now water only. Refractometer is reading at 1.025, pH is at 8.0. Only thing I have running is my 2217 Eheim, LED light, and powerhead. The skimmer is in the tank but not running.

I've been putting in Bio Booster and Bio Bacteria (3 caps) each per day. Products are by Aqua Genie and just following the directions

So here are my few questions:

1.)
When should I add live rock and live sand? Reading around I obviously want cured. Some people are telling me to leave the tank run for about a month nothing in it, some are saying to add the live rock right away. Also my local store said that no one uses live or sells live rock here in Singapore

2.)
Is the Eheim 2217 good enough for my tank? its not a wet-dry and wasnt sure if thats going to be a problem. I got the tank and pump together used, cleaned it and put new Bio Starter and Bio Volca by Aqua Genie into the 2217.


Any suggestions, I checked the Ammonium, Nitrite, and Nitrate they are all very low but not at 0 yet. I was told not to check that for the first month until you add live rock.

Thanks for your replies and help!
 
The way I did my tank is to rinse and add the arragonite and add salt/water mix. Next came the live rock and then three raw shrimp to cycle the tank. Most of my rock was cured but I didn't want to take a chance with issues down the road so the shrimp made sure.

As for the filter, I'm not familiar with that model. I went with a sump/refugium and skimmer, macro algae, etc.

If you add the live rock, or more live rock, after the cycle the tank I'm pretty sure is going to have at least a mini cycle as there will be die off from the rock you've just placed in there.

Hope that helps...Steve
 
I am on the same schedule. Go ahead and put in the live rock and sand, that way you'll get the cycling started. My 55g has been running for 4 days with 40lb of live sand, 20 of regular sand (should have rinsed it more), and 30lbs of live rock. My parameters have been doing awesome (thanks to the hard Vegas water).
 
I would go ahead and put the LR and sand in now. That way you can cycle the tank and cure the LR at the same time. I personally would just use dry aragonite sand. I dont think that live sand is really "live".
 
Thanks guys I'll be making a trip to get sand tomorrow and sort out the live rock this week.

Raw Shrimp, meaning its not alive. Do you just throw the whole shrimp in or cut it up? Also what does the raw shrimp do for the LR? Bit confused on that part and did a search on the forum which didnt return much info.

Thanks
 
Just toss the whole thing in there. Once you see the ammonia rise to 2 or three you can take it out. It will go through the cycle.
 
What is Aragonite sand exactly?

found this online to help explain that

Aragonite is a calcium carbonate mineral. Aragonite sand holds a lasting reservoir of calcium carbonate, which is slowly but constantly released to buffer and to hold up the pH. Using aragonite can push the pH to about 8.2 The released calcium is a valued trace element for corals and overall functionality of the aquarium. Aragonite sand can be mixed with live sand or crushed corals. Due to the pH raising character it is suited for marine and reef set-ups only.
 
Also what does the raw shrimp do for the LR? Bit confused on that part and did a search on the forum which didnt return much info.

The raw shrimp starts to decay and ammonia is formed in the tank. The nitrogen cycle will in time convert ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. Building up the bacteria that are used in the nitrogen cycle is what "cycling your tank" really is. The bacteria will live mostly on your rock, and once they do your rock is now "live." What this does is that in the future whatever ammonia comes from fish waste, etc is converted by these bacteria to the less dangerous nitrate.

I agree with everyone about the sand, get dry aragonite over live sand. Rinse the sand either way before adding, even if the instructions on the live sand tell you not to.
 
Raw Shrimp, meaning its not alive. Do you just throw the whole shrimp in or cut it up? Also what does the raw shrimp do for the LR? Bit confused on that part and did a search on the forum which didnt return much info.Thanks

+1 to adding the live rock now. Shoot for a 1 lb per 1 gallon so you should be looking at 57 lbs of rock.

I'm curious about those getting "live sand" and where they get it... I wouldn't buy something like that at a store unless it is coming directly out of a tank (then again I know my lfs doses copper and I wouldn't want live sand from them after that!

The purpose of the shrimp is for a fishless cycle. Fish produce ammonia in their waste. The raw shrimp will also produce ammonia while is is decomposing in the tank. This way you can develop the bacteria needed to process the ammonia then nitrite and finally nitrate in order to make the tank "safe" for the fish to be in. If you don't add some kind of food source for ammonia then the tank won't be ready when you add the little fishies! (yea, not a word but couldn't help myself).
 
found this online to help explain that

Aragonite is a calcium carbonate mineral. Aragonite sand holds a lasting reservoir of calcium carbonate, which is slowly but constantly released to buffer and to hold up the pH. Using aragonite can push the pH to about 8.2 The released calcium is a valued trace element for corals and overall functionality of the aquarium. Aragonite sand can be mixed with live sand or crushed corals. Due to the pH raising character it is suited for marine and reef set-ups only.


Ok thanks!

-Brett
 
Don't waste your money on live sand. Just get regular aragonite sand. Over time the sand will become "live". If you cycle the tank properly you can get away with just using base rock and regular sand. If you want to speed up the process you can buy some live rock. Also, make sure to put the rocks into the tank before the sand. It will save you some headaches on avalanches later on.

As for snails and hermit: they don't really add much to the bioload of the tank. They really don't eat all that much or excrete all that much.

If all you had in your tank were corals, some snails, and some hermits the act of adding a single fish could cause a mini cycle. They just don't produce that much waste to keep the levels of bacteria high-enough.
 
Don't waste your money on live sand. Just get regular aragonite sand. Over time the sand will become "live". If you cycle the tank properly you can get away with just using base rock and regular sand. If you want to speed up the process you can buy some live rock. Also, make sure to put the rocks into the tank before the sand. It will save you some headaches on avalanches later on.

As for snails and hermit: they don't really add much to the bioload of the tank. They really don't eat all that much or excrete all that much.

If all you had in your tank were corals, some snails, and some hermits the act of adding a single fish could cause a mini cycle. They just don't produce that much waste to keep the levels of bacteria high-enough.

True jaybird, but it does depend on size of tank to how much/many ratio. But I have to disagree about the hermits, from personal exp. they excrete quite a bit. At least mine do, but mine are a bit big. And all their waste goes straight into the sand and rots. And they are almost constantly eating. but yeah in a good size tank they won't add too much to the bio load.. no where NEAR to what a fish does.
 
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