New tank

I agree with Joker. Please wait. If you want to add things now you can start with part of your clean up crew. Noticed you used dry sand, now is the time to start seeding that also with life. If you can find a close reefer that has a sandbed see if you can get a scoop of sand to help add diversity to the sand in your tank. If you cant find someone you can look at indo pacific sea farms, spaghetti worms are great (they have them listed as Mama Mia Worms.)
 
As everyone else said. .. slow down.. take it easy.

This is THE hardest part of setting up your first saltwater tank. Since everything is up and running just relax and do a bit of research on various aspects that are relevant right now. The nitorgen cycle, how to get it going (there are LOTS of ways). The average time to wait before taking the next step and a good testing schedule.. If you are unable to get a test kit (not those strips, but liquid test kits) you can do the following in this order -

Set up (done)
Throw a raw dinner shrimp into the tank
Pull it out after 4 days (longer if you want, but longer is grosser)
Then wait 30 days.
you will see brown diatoms bloom in about 2 weeks and everything will generally look like crap. This is ok and you actually WANT to see this..

Testing may show you that you can add livestock earlier than that but if no test kits, then just wait the 30 days and you will be ok to add your first fish or two.

Again while waiting, start research - what do you plan to stock? how will everything work together? can your system handle the things you are interested in? are you ready for the work on your end to make this a successful tank? All of this comes in time. We have all (and continue to) make mistakes.

the biggest one is not realizing that the only (I mean ONLY) things that happen fast in a reef tank, are bad things..
 
I will add that you need to add livestock slowly. Your system will build the necessary bacteria with each addition. But too much too fast and most will die.
 
Hey everybody. So I went to my lfs today so i could get a couple snails to help with the cycle like you guys were saying and the guy told me i shouldn't unless I had a lot of alage but all the research said I could. so what do you guys think?
Btw I dont think he really knew what he was talking about because he said I could add fish today
 
I forget how large was the tank and how much live rock did you add
 
The lfs is kinda right. If there’s nothing for the cuc to eat it’ll just starve to death
 
Also do you guy think I could get a fish at the meeting next week or would that be to soon
Unless someone is selling a fish there, that's not how meetings really work. It's usually a topic that a speaker speaks about, do it yourself workshop, etc. Maybe make a wanted to buy thread on the forum or watch for members selling corals and such for meeting pickup. Sometimes a sponsor will have a frag tank setup to sell corals and inverts, but it's definitely not like going to you lfs.
 
Unless someone is selling a fish there, that's not how meetings really work. It's usually a topic that a speaker speaks about, do it yourself workshop, etc. Maybe make a wanted to buy thread on the forum or watch for members selling corals and such for meeting pickup. Sometimes a sponsor will have a frag tank setup to sell corals and inverts, but it's definitely not like going to you lfs.
Ok cool I will definitely still be going then
 
55gal with a 5 gallon canister filter and I don't know the exact amount but is was 6 of the biggest rocks pet co has and 1 small rock
If it was me and I wanted to keep coral I would take out that canister filter. It will build up nitrates fast on you unless you plan on cleaning it weekly but that’s still a risk I wouldn’t want to take.
 
If it was me and I wanted to keep coral I would take out that canister filter. It will build up nitrates fast on you unless you plan on cleaning it weekly but that’s still a risk I wouldn’t want to take.
I took a lot of the mechanical filtration and replaced it with more biological filtration and so I was planning on cleaning it once every 2 weeks.
 
Sounds like my first system, 55 gallon with canister. It wasn't long before I was looking to upgrade to a sump. You may really want to look into adding a sump. You can get hang on the back overflow or drill the tank. I've found over the years that if you tell yourself that "it good enough" it never will be.
 
Sounds like my first system, 55 gallon with canister. It wasn't long before I was looking to upgrade to a sump. You may really want to look into adding a sump. You can get hang on the back overflow or drill the tank. I've found over the years that if you tell yourself that "it good enough" it never will be.
I plan on getting a bigger tank eventually so I was thinking if I upgrade the tank I will make a sump out of the old tank
 
And the canister filter should be unnecessary. You will need to change the medium out at least weekly or it will build up junk and cause/worsen problems like high nitrate and algea...etc...
I have always started a tank with the live rock and salt water...good circulation...at least 20 x..the amonia additives and/or shrimp will help the cycle start which will help the bacteria colonize you rock nooks and crannies...but the rock alone will work too but may take more time.
A general rule I follow is use at least .5 lbs rock per gallon...and up to 2 lbs...depending on your desired stocking
 
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