Tank is up - few quick questions.

[badfish]

Ok, so i set up my tank on sunday, it is a 50 gallon oceanic tank, i used instant ocean salt, tap water (i know, wish i went with RO), just added 30lb of baserock from hirocks.com, and looking to add 25lbs of keys rock from liverocks.com. I have two maxijet 1200 in each corner pointing to the middle of the front of glass. and two heaters in the back corners. Just won my BakPak 2 on ebay and should be here early next week. I added two shrimp on sunday also. My questions are.
1 - how much longer till water is clear? (i did rinse substrate and baserock, getting little clearer each day, but still cloudy)
2 - when should i add water conditioner, and which brand? And i will be using RO from now on for top offs and water changes.
3 - when should i start testing, i got the seachem multitest kit.
4 - when should i set up Quarantine Tank? i will be setting up a 10 Gallon tank with heater, and airstone and maybe a foam filter. Do you have any suggestions, Powerhead???
5 - can i just use 10 gallons from when i do a water change from my big tank and use it for qurantine tank? of course i would change 20% of that water and let it sit for a couple of days before adding fish.
6 - should i be adding anything else, or be doing anything else, is this weekend to early to add liverock.

guess that is a bigger list then i thought.

TIA

- Jeff

 

[electrikat]

It will take a few days to settle the cloud. You may need to turn of the ph for a couple of days. You can add the live rock asap. You could have cycled the tank with it. You will need to start testing right away but expect the cycle to take 2 to 3 weeks. Add the conditioner right now every time you add water. I use Prime but most any conditioner will work. Don't worry about setting up the qt till you actually are ready to add fish. Maybe a couple of days earlier. Yes you can use the water from the main, but don't put it back when you're done with it. Don't buy fish till the ammonia and nitrite are at 0, then do a large water change before you add fish to it. You can add the clean up crews after the first water change after cycling. I say the Prime conditioner because it does many things. Removes chlorine, cloramine, and ammonia. Plus it detoxifies nitrite and nitrate. Then it also adds a slime coat protector that doesn't mess up your skimmer like some of them do. It is super concentrated and if you use it correctly it will last a while.

 

[midiman]

The QT tank is VERY controversial on this board. The bottom line, though, is that if you want to be safe, you will add fish to QT 30 days or more prior to when you want to add them to your tank. You may even want to put a fish in QT now while your tank is cycling, so that it can go in at the completion of the cycle.

Just a few notes about your post. I ran my powerheads the whole time my water was cloudy, and my water is now clear. The reason I ran them is because I wanted the sand to settle in the places it would STAY when the PHs were running. I was afraid that if I kept them off, the sand would settle evenly, and the PHs would stir some of it up when I turned them back on. Just wait for it, it will clear.

I didn't use any water conditioner at all until I had a small spike after adding my LR, then I used Prime.

Also, if you keep a small sponge filter in your sump (I have my inflow going through one), you can use it as the QT filter when you need your QT tank, so you won't have to keep a QT running after you add the bulk of your fish. If you need a QT, you then simply add tank water to the QT tank, pop in the sponge filter, and you're off. This is the PERFECT way to be ready for a hospital tank situation, since you can transfer sick fish immediately without the added stress of acclimation.

Note: if you're worried about nitrates being added by the sponge, I would think that it's minimal, but you can rinse the sponge periodically (a good idea anyway) to keep the added nitrates to a minimum while keeping the filter at least slightly active.)

 

[badfish]

what if i dont have a sump. should i just place the sponge filter in the main tank?

 

[Phyl]

1 - how much longer till water is clear? (i did rinse substrate and baserock, getting little clearer each day, but still cloudy)

The water will go through many yucky stages before it clears for good. You'll see the sand storm, the cloud while the ammo part of the cycle starts, and then the diatoms (brown algae covers everything). You'll find the waiting through this unbearable but this too shall pass.

2 - when should i add water conditioner, and which brand? And i will be using RO from now on for top offs and water changes.

I don't add any water conditioner. You don't need to. The clorine, et al in your tank right now will be dissapate before the tank ever sees fish. The RO/DI doesn't need anything in it other than salt mix if you're doing a water change (nothing in it for top offs).

3 - when should i start testing, i got the seachem multitest kit.

If you start testing now you'll know when you peak with ammo, trite and then trate. Expect your trate to end the cycle high and then you'll do a large water change (about 2w after the trite drops to 0 and stay there) to bring them back down.

4 - when should i set up Quarantine Tank? i will be setting up a 10 Gallon tank with heater, and airstone and maybe a foam filter. Do you have any suggestions, Powerhead???

I put my filter in my sump while my tank cycled so that it had a bio bed in it. I just have a 15g tank and a bubble filter thing that probably does little more than add O2 to the water. It's holding up just fine though. No need for a powerhead. Definitely a heater.

5 - can i just use 10 gallons from when i do a water change from my big tank and use it for qurantine tank? of course i would change 20% of that water and let it sit for a couple of days before adding fish.

I wouldn't use 10g from your main until well after it has cycled. You want your water to be 0-0-0 when you start QTing new animals.

6 - should i be adding anything else, or be doing anything else, is this weekend to early to add liverock.

You can add live rock now (and take out the shrimp). That should finish up your cycle nicely.

Enjoy!

 

[badfish]

Hey guys, thanks for the good advice. You guys are great javascript:emoticon('')
thumbs_up

 

[havefun]

badfish,

I just added my water/shrimp to my 75g last Sunday as well and had the same questions - thanks for asking for me
I expected the shrimp to start to smell in a few days but right away Monday morning when I opened the lid I got a good wiff of it already.
I have the same cloudy water (I'm leaving the ph's on) and zillions of tiny bubbles from my skimmer - which are supposed to clear up in a week or two.
I was wondering about the amount of water current in there. I used to have fw tanks and am not used to seeing so much water movement. I also have 2 maxi jet 1200's in the same position as yours plus a canister filter with the return flow directed parallel with the back glass. Just watching the movement of the bubbles I can't imagine how a little clown fish etc is going to get any rest fighting all the current in there.
The ph's actually generate little tornado's at the middle front of the tank!

 

[4inchSandBed]

GOODLUCK with your TANK badfish