live rock

[esaone]

OK I got my tank set up w/ water.
I have a 30 long tank
I have a emperor 280 filter
Jager 150w heater
AC powerhead.
Getting skimmer next week.
Lights I was told I didn't need till the rock cycled the tank (true/false?)

I received my live rock today.
I put it in a bucket w/ tank water and gave it a little scrubbing
and put the rock in the tank.

I want this live rock to cycle my tank.
Step by step, what do I do next?

 

[Sadielynn]

True you dont need your lights other than to view it .
As for cycling it just let the die off from the rock take over , monitor your ammonia once you see that spike you know you have enough die off , some folks place a pinch or two of food in too . All you need is something to decay to start the process of the cycle . Looks like you got some nice rock too

 

[Salttanker]

Looks good so far. Your rock looks like it has some great coloring on it. The advantage to having a fresh tank setup with no live stock is the ability to cycle it with LR.
When I set mine up a while back, I rinsed it off with salt water and put it in the tank just as you did. I would go ahead and run your heater, pumps, power heads, and lighting as if you had live stock in there. Just put your lights on a cycle (day/night) if you can. Also make sure your SG level is where you want it to be (I keep mine at 1.022-1.023)
Lastly, sit back and watch for little critters that will most likely make their way out. At the end of about 6 weeks, you will want to do a pretty good size water change (40-50%) to remove any debris and dead organisms that came off the rock during the cycle.

Good luck!

Regards,

Mike

 

[Salttanker]

Almost forgot. Get about 4 raw cocktail shrimp from the grocer and drop them in. This will defintely help kick start the cycle for sure.

Mike

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Take three of those shrimp out. For a 30g, you'll only need one. More, in this case, is not better. Trust me.

 

[esaone]

Any water changes during the cycle?

 

[Salttanker]

OMG! Sorry about that. I forgot it was a 30g. I guess in the picture it looks much larger. Yes, 1 shrimp would be just fine in that case.

Regards,

Mike

 

[esaone]

I'm using a seeded filter off of a fresh water tank.
I guy told me that the freshwater bacteria will die off...is this true?

 

[esaone]

Also would this light be good for a fish and live rock tank?

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...1/cl0/coralifeswt5aqualightdoublestriplight30

If not my second option would be this....

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...life30aqualightdeluxesinglelinearstriplightsw

 

[fijiwigi]

I would suggest getting the best light there is regardless of cost. It allows you to do so much more with your tank. Also 3 other questions.

Are you using RO/DI water very important in saltwater.
And what skimmer did you choose to buy (Skimmer is a great decision)
Also do you have a refractometer to test SG best investment you will ever make

 

[esaone]

I would suggest getting the best light there is regardless of cost. It allows you to do so much more with your tank. Also 3 other questions.

Are you using RO/DI water very important in saltwater.
And what skimmer did you choose to buy (Skimmer is a great decision)
Also do you have a refractometer to test SG best investment you will ever make

I'm not using RO/DI water and if it becomes a problem I'll break down the tank and give up.

I have no desire to go past live rock so I don't really see where I need that many options. My question was whether the power compact was at all necessary for my application.

I still haven't decided on which skimmer I want yet.

I have no desire to buy a refractometer.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

RO/DI water

if im using ro/di would it be safe to mix water with salt? would i need to test for anything else? Also from what i understand as long as the LR is cured its all set to go. please advise..

if im using ro/di would it be safe to mix water with salt? would i need to test for anything else?

Not sure what exactly you're asking...

When you're making your salt water, you want to add the salt to the water... not the water to the salt. Adding water to salt causes the salinity and pH levels to be momentarily high and can cause some of the things in the salt mix to precipitate out and not mix well.

Also from what i understand as long as the LR is cured its all set to go. please advise..

If the rock was cured and didn't spend a lot of time out of water, a lot of your beneficial bacteria should still be there. You probably won't see much of a cycle, if any. With that said though, I'd still give it an ammonia source (fish food, raw cocktail shrimp) and see if the nitrates show up with an ammonia/nitrite spike. That way you know for sure you're good to go.

[Edit: Also... in the future, you probably want to start a new thread rather than hijack someone else's thread.]

i apologize im new to this forum and saltwater aquarium...

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I'm not using RO/DI water and if it becomes a problem I'll break down the tank and give up.

I have no desire to go past live rock so I don't really see where I need that many options. My question was whether the power compact was at all necessary for my application.

I still haven't decided on which skimmer I want yet.

I have no desire to buy a refractometer.

I guess I'll back up a little and ask what exactly you have planned for your tank. Fish Only with Live Rock (FOWLR) with no coral? I assume so from your comment about your lighting. If that's the case, PC lighting isn't necessary at all. Fish don't need high intensity lighting, but it will make the colors more vivid.

Even if you don't do corals, fish still want consistent salinity levels. A $40 refractometer would go a long way to insure consistency, and make it more likely the tank doesn't get broken down the first minute something goes wrong.

 

[esaone]

I guess I'll back up a little and ask what exactly you have planned for your tank. Fish Only with Live Rock (FOWLR) with no coral? I assume so from your comment about your lighting. If that's the case, PC lighting isn't necessary at all. Fish don't need high intensity lighting, but it will make the colors more vivid.

Even if you don't do corals, fish still want consistent salinity levels. A $40 refractometer would go a long way to insure consistency, and make it more likely the tank doesn't get broken down the first minute something goes wrong.

FOWLR all the way, so is this light fixture ok for the live rock and will it give the fishes that neon glow?

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...1/cl0/coralifeswt5aqualightdoublestriplight30

 

[fijiwigi]

I guess I should have asked what the future plans were for the tank before I posted sorry The best lighting is not necessary with FOWLR. The temptation to go from FOWLR to reef is always there at least it was for me and I regret not getting the best lighting now as I thought in the beginning FOWLR was all I wanted. Also better lighting usually helps the desirable coraline algae grow on the liverock.

When it comes to RO/DI water regardless of reef or not it will greatly help the success of the tank because saltwater fish are more sensative to water chemistry tap water has so many contaminates in it. Also using RO/DI water will definately reduce the unsightly algae blooms by eliminating the chemicals that algae thrives on. Once I started using the RO/DI water it become a lot less maintenance because I did not have to scrub the algae from my tank near as much. And made my life easier and my tank more enjoyable.

I used hydromoters up until recently when I broke down after some convincing and bought a refractometer to test SG I found that the hydromoters were off a lot and I really had 1.028 SG when my hydromoter said 1.023 Glad I bought the refractometer for sure.

Just trying to share some best practices here. And trying to be helpfull I hope I was

 

[esaone]

So Should I Get The Compact Of The Flo Bulb?

 

[fijiwigi]

I would think if all you want is brighter color and not light penetration for growth. Anything with the addition of an actinics bulb would help to bring out the colors

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

FOWLR all the way, so is this light fixture ok for the live rock and will it give the fishes that neon glow?

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...1/cl0/coralifeswt5aqualightdoublestriplight30

I suppose so. Anything with actinics (which this has) should give that neon glow. The higher the wattage, the brighter the fish colors though.

Your rock doesn't need light, unless you're talking about coraline algae. While coraline does seem to thrive in areas with lower lighting, I don't know how much light it needs to start with. I'm sure there's some low end threshold where if you don't have enough light, it won't grow. But I don't know what that is. Maybe someone else here has some experience with that.

 

[esaone]

Five days in and my Ammonia went from 0.50 to 0.25
and I checked Nitrite for the first time today and it is at 0.75

Does this mean my tank is cycling really fast?