New tank need advice

[ReeferChick420]

Good evening everyone so this is gonna be my first topic to post and I want to start it out by telling what I have and what I want to do...

I have a 55 gallon aquarium which I want to turn it into a reef tank tomorrow I have over 50 pounds or dead rock (from my previous reeftank two years ago), I'm using instant salt mix, and 20 pounds of black CaribSea live aragonite reef sand(I'm kinda scared using the black sand because I always use the white sand but ima try it) a hydor koralia 1and hydor koralia2 and the jebao ECO wave maker wp 25 (the wp25 is brand new the other two are a bit old but still work) I have both a aqueon 300 watt and a marina 150 watt heater which one is better cuz one is for my 90 gallon tank, I want to use my live rock as a biological filter because my tank will be mainly reef but I will have a maybe four fish which I will discuss in another topic thread but I'm always getting mixed comments about having an actual filter or just use the live rock, so what do you recommend because I have a lot of rock and I plan on keeping just the water live sand and rock for about a month or two before I put my first fish or coral in. Any advice or comments would be more than helpful thanks.

Few questions
what machines need to be on while I'm cycling the tank?
What filter should I use if I'm still using enough biological filter with the live rock?
What skimmer would you recommend?
Can I put the dead rock straight into the aquarium with the live sand or should I do something to it? I don't want it to kill my live sand.
What are your comments about the reefbreaders LED lights? I'm thinking about getting it next month.
I definitely am going to use the jebao wave maker but is it strong enough to stand alone in the tank or should I use one of the other koralias?
Do I wait to put my first coral to start adding magnesium or how soon should I start that process?


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[gleach]

Dead rock needs to cook I am not sure how long. I assume you could cook it in the tank. I hear that people put it in big containers in their garage or buckets with powerheads and salt water and a heater at proper temp till they can test 0 ammonia. I'm not sure if you are supposed to do water changes throughout the process though I can't remember. I will follow this thread I'm curious myself to be honest. I use a bubble magus curve 5 skimmer it works great as long as you don't dose calcium near it. It is reasonably priced for how well it performs in my opinion.

Have you looked into dsb (deep sand beds) might be something to research if it strikes your interest.

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[Sniperhank]

Few questions
what machines need to be on while I'm cycling the tank?
What filter should I use if I'm still using enough biological filter with the live rock?
What skimmer would you recommend?
Can I put the dead rock straight into the aquarium with the live sand or should I do something to it? I don't want it to kill my live sand.
What are your comments about the reefbreaders LED lights? I'm thinking about getting it next month.
I definitely am going to use the jebao wave maker but is it strong enough to stand alone in the tank or should I use one of the other koralias?
Do I wait to put my first coral to start adding magnesium or how soon should I start that process?

You don't need to have anything on while cycling. No lights, skimmer, filter, nothing. You are just presenting an ammonia source to start your nitrate cycle to build up enough of a bacteria base in your rock and sand so that when you feed your fish and they poop, the ammonia and nitrite doesn't burn their gills and poison them.
Your tank is uncycled, you want to toss all the rock and sand into the tank so it all can have the bacteria growing on the surface area of it.
With the powerheads, use the time it takes to cycle your tank to figure out if you need more powerheads or not. You want to aim for no dead spots for uneaten food or poop to accumulate to where it will sit, decay, and cause nitrate issues down the road.
Don't add anything to your tank until it is cycled. As soon as this is done, you can add your coral. You don't have to use any additives to your tank. Unless your tank is a heavily stocked SPS tank, weekly water changes will replenish the elements that they use as well as remove the nitrates from the water column.

 

[ReeferChick420]

Thank you for all your help... I finally finished the setting up stage... I currently have the live sand and the rock in there... All I have currently running is the heater and wave maker on... Should I have the lights on at all? I will be waiting for the reef octopus classic 100 hob protien skimmer... And I'm still debating on wether to have a filter or not... Any advice on how I'm doing


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[Sniperhank]

That is just fine to start cycling. No need for the lights to be on until that's done.


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