starting with all the setup

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ektorgt

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jul 28, 2005
Messages
70
Location
San antonio TX
tomorrow ill get my prizm deluxe protein skimmer so ill have to fill up and start cycling my 75 gal tank... sooo how should i do all that..??? should i 1- add water, 2- add salt, 3- add sand and live sand, 4- start running skimmer, 5- add 40 lbs of live rock (which ill be getting next week), 6- ..... i dont know what to do next........(do the shrimp cycling or live fish cycling or what?)

in that order????

thanks for the help///
 
Don't cycle with your skimmer (leave off until your are cycled). I would add your sand first, then the salt and water (doesn't have to be premixed since you don't have any fish. Turn on your circulation (maxi jets and filtration (no carbon)), add a couple of cocktail shrimp and then add the lr when it comes in.

Test your tank every couple of days and wait for Ammonia and Nitrites to drop to zero and you are well on your way!!!

Good Luck :wink:
 
I would say the same in terms of your filtration....depending on what you have. If a HOB with carbon, take out the filter bag with carbon until you are done cycling.

I would say though:

1. Make sure you confirm to yourself and a second and third person whether or not your tank location is good aesthetically. You don't want to start changing your mind with 75G of water in there.

2. I would say put the water first. that's just me, though. Put the water up to 5/6 of the height of the tank. If you have 2 5-gallon buckets, that's good. Put water in there, powerhead, and the Instant Ocean (or whaveter aquarium marine salt you prefer). Leave the bucket 10 minutes at a time.

3. Then you gently put your aragonite (mixed with live sand) in your tank.

4. Run the tank with good/adequate powerheads for a couple of days. It should start to clarify substantially by then

5. get 3-4 cocktail shrimp in there and let it run for a week.

6. You might want to insert a 5- to 10-G waterchange every two weeks.

7. On the third week, place a few good chunks of LR in there. That should almost level your water to the top.

8. A month later, check your parameters, and start figuring out what to do with your tank aesthetically and livestock-wise.

This is not a professional advice or anything. That's what I did to my FOWLR and it worked for me with flying colors. No problems whatsoever. The only difference is, I placed a thin layer of crushed coral in the bottom before I added water and sand.
 
i thought someone told me i didnt need another filter cause i only have the protein skimmer for now.........
i think ill need to buy the aquaclear 500 or emperor 400 before seting up the tank.....
 
I have met someone that only has a large amount of live rocks, protein skimmer, and a powerhead as the filtration. But his tank is established for years. I personally don't suggest not having some form of filtration, whether it be HOB or Canister, Sump or Refugium. Personally, if I can do it over again, I will make me a refugium filter. But get something, get a HOB or something. The only nuisance of HOBs is that you end up changing the BioBags at least once every two weeks. Emperors though, may be different. I heard emperor HOBs are way more efficient.
 
and what if I add "fully cured live rock" and put it in after the tank is cycled... would I have to recure it because of the 3 day shipping in a separate container?????
 
You don't have to be very particular with your powerhead. I only used an Aquaclear 4000 because I wanted the tank to turnover at least 10 times. Example: 550 gph means you circulate ten 55-Gallons of water every hour. Plus, the Aquaclear 4000 has a separately sold attachment that turns your powerhead into a "filtering" powerhead, which I think is cool and useful for me.

When I added my rocks, it had to go through die off anyways. Make water changes when that happens. Some people have the patience of putting their rocks in a rubbermaid tub filled with saltwater. They put a powerhead in there and airstone for aeration. In that way, if it has to re-cure, it doesn't affect the water in the tank.

Since I don't have a rubbermaid, I did the re-curing in the tank because I was cycling and everything anyways. LR is just basically rocks with a really good, dense bacterial colony. Most of the time they have macroalgae, coraline build-up, and some hitchhikers if you're lucky. Whether you like it or not, anything in your tank will end up "live" theoretically (sand, base rocks, ornaments, other rocks).

For fully cured rocks that you bought online lets say, if they say fully cured, they would probably wrap it in damp newspaper and double-wrapped in plastic. some even ship with water in them. In that way you may be able to not worry about die off. But no guarantees.
 
thanks for the help archie!!
but the thing is i ttought that powerheads were for undergravel filters or something like that....
how would i install the powerhead without an undergravel filter?
 
Well, PHs usually come with a "holster" attachment, if you may, that also come with little suction cups (the little round plastic thingies that attach to anything flat). If for some reason your PH package didn't come with suction cups, you can always go to an LFS or Petsmart for it.

Undergravel filters usually have airstones, as far as I remember. They mostly pump air into these cylinders and the bubbles travel back up. That causes a suction from under the gravel. Now, UGJs need powerheads.

I just want to clarify that because early into the hobby a couple of years ago, I thought airstones were powerheads. It's just my newbie blooper.
 
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