New 42g setup...mostly!!

[Dr_Doom2]

Hey guys.

I dumped in the "dead" sand (caribsea sea floor special grade.] mixed the water and set up my new tank about a week ago. The tank is 30x18x18. I have an AquaClear 110 HOB filter running on it and its at about 79 degrees. No life so I never even tested the parameters. I was looking for a good deal on some quality live rock when I found an ad on craigslist. I drove the 2 hours and found a fully-setup 400g reef tank in pristine condition. It looked like a post card it was so beautiful!! The owner is moving and started selling off everything. I transferred 50+lbs. to my 5-gallon buckets and drove home $100 lighter!! The great part is that the live rocks contained about 6 mushrooms, a finger leather, a couple small yet to be identified soft corals, big group of something [maybe xenia,] and a little 1.5" pulsing xenia!! ...and 2 hermit crabs!! I drove like a mad-man back home and plunked my new bounty into my tank. I had scooped out about 15+ gallons of my water and put all the water in my buckets back in. [about 15 gallons from the donor tank]

Sorry for the long-winded story but I was really excited!!

Anyway, my question is what will happen in my tank?

Will it still go through a cycle? Will everything die??

I currently have a 20-watt NO flourescent that came with my tank. Tonight I ordered a nice t5 fixture that will be on there by Monday or Tuesday. I was planning on taking it slow so I was gonna order the light in a few days!!

Thanks!!

Jeff

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Not sure how much of a cycle it will go through, if any. All depends on if anything decided to die off during the drive. I'd start checking your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels daily. If you don't see any increase in any of the levels over a week, then I'd probably toss a cocktail shrimp in there (or some fish food) to see if any ammonia shows up. If you just end up seeing nitrates increase, then your live rock is still "live" and you're officially cycled.

 

[Dr_Doom2]

That was my plan but then again I'm just starting so I didn't give my plan much weight!!

He also gave me a glass coke bottle stuffed with and a loose big ball of chaeto??? He said throw 'em in my tank for a while and they'd help with any nitrates that show up. The coke bottle is for copepods to hide so fish won't eat 'em. Should I leave this in there for a while? It looks ugly and I'd like to toss it sometime. What are your recommendations?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Well... it's your tank, so if you thinks it's ugly... then it's ugly!

It WILL do what he says though. All depends on if you want a steady supply of copepods. Regarding using the cheato for nitrates, I wouldn't want to do that while cycling - I normally want to see the nitrates increase knowing that my bacteria is doing its job. Then after cycling, I'll reduce the nitrate levels by doing massive water changes.

 

[melosu58]

and drove home $100 lighter!!

That`s just one of the downsides to the hobby. LOL. Congrats on picking up good LR. The T5`s was a good pick up. Agree with what Kurt said.

 

[Dr_Doom2]

What do I do with the chaeto in the mean time? No fuge, sump, or other tank to put it in. Also, I think a bunch of those tiny serpent stars live in there. [not sure the name] ...and 1 asterina star. I saw him on the side of the tank this morning all by himself!!