taking the challenge .... need some help plz

[sammi]

hi guys, this isn;t my first aquarium but it is bigger and hopefully going to be better. my last aquarium was a tiny fresh water tank, this tank is a 78L (20 gallons) corner tank (UFO 550) and i want to make it my own piece of the reef

now i've been going through SO much info it feels like i;m still at school! 8O all i really want is a few oppinions and some advice on proven to work methods of starting up a new tank. i'm going to a few different suppliers tomorrow and i need to know as soon as i can please

another question is live rock anda quarantine tank... can i cure live rock in the tank if it's empty? and do i really need a quarantine tank? (i'm on a tight budget)

all i have at the moment is
tank
stand
Bioogical filtration
Chemical filtration
mechanical / biolgical filtration (filter sponge / wool pad)

thanks so much 4 reading and i'd greatly appreciate some advice

 

[roka64]

Welcome to the site! I find this the most humane way to Do a fishless cycle http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=15.
You can cure your rock while the tank cycles. I would suggest base or lace rock to cut down on costs (these are rocks that are basically white and have been out of the water for a while).
A QT can save you tons of money and you can get a 10G for one. It is a good safe practice to have one to watch your new fish and be able to treat them in the event of disease or other breakout in your main tank.

+++ONE important thing+++
Did you ever use a copper treatment while you had the FW tank?

 

[beachbumin]

Roka is spot on with the "fishless cycle". If you go into reefkeeping slowly your rewards will be huge. I personally have not ever used any sort of filtration other than refugiums or protein skimmers and have always had excellent water quality. If set up correctly your live rock should help you with most of your water quality issues and water changes should clear up the rest. I would suggest setting the tank up with sand and rocks, adding a powerhead and protein skimmer, then slowly begin adding livestock such as snails and hermits after a few weeks. HTH and welcome to AA

 

[Ziggy953]

I agree with what has been said so far! Doing things slowly and correctly the first time around will save you a lot of money and heart ache. Take your time ask questions and do a lot of reading! I'm certain that there isn't a person on this site that doesn't learn something new in this hobby everyday! It is an on going learing process. Talk to people and don't always take what your LFS says as law. A lot of times they are only interested in selling you something not educating you.

I'm with beachbumin on the natural filtration. Why change or try to imporve on nature. I use a skimmer and refugium as filtration along with a lot of LR. I only use carbon if I need to and it is for a short period and for a specific reason. Going as natural as possible will make things much easier for you and less stressful on the tank.

 

[sammi]

so what does the carbon do?it came with the tank ad i have had the whole tank running for over 24hours now, i didn;t get a skimmer as i have a UFO 550 and the tank doesn;t allow for an easy skimmer fit unfortunatley. the test reasults so far are: NO2- = 0ppm
NO3- = 0ppm
NH3 / NH4+ = .5mg/L
pH = 7.9 approx

how do i get the ammonia to 0 and how long does it usualy take a tank 2 cycle.

thanks everyone


sammi

 

[melosu58]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=76139