new tank setup, with alot of questions

[pearlmaj]

first and foremost, i just want to mention that the redsox just beat the yankees tonight in an amazing victory. 9th inning wins are great. ok, with that aside, lets get to my tank questions.

heres the setup. its a 46g bf and i have a 20g sump. i have about 80lbs of south down, 60-70lbs of live rock. i have a euroreef es5-3 in the sump, a mag7 pumping it back up and a cs90 overflow. for extra flow i also have 2 maxijet900's in the tank.

my questions are as follows. i just got it all up and running tonight for the first time and everything is going smoothly, but i seem to be getting alot of bubbles out of the return pipe. everything was glued correctly and fitted tight, so could the mag7 be pumping bubbles left over from my skimmer, and if so, how can i correct this. i already have a bubble guard in my sump. my next question is, my skimmer isnt making any skimmate at all. its in a water depth of 10" and i dont know if thats to deep for it, but theres nothing collecting in the cup. this also could be that theres just nothing to collect. but i just wanted to know if its just new skimmer break-in or something. is 10" too much for a euroreef es5-3?. i added only ro/di water. also, another question i have is, if all the rock i added, was fully cured rock, should i really expect any cycle, or should i assume its gonna cycle in a day or two, cause im getting negative readings for everything. should i add a dead shrimp or anything, im just concerned with the smell cause its in my living room and the less negatives the tank adds, the better my gf will accept my obsession. i really want a true reef tank, so any suggestions are welcome. the cheaper the better, but i will spend the money if necessary. i have a 250w hqi light and want the best corals that i can support, but i want to know that i am able to support them. i began dripping kalk tonight, but want to know how much i should be doing. i have yet to recieve my ca test kits, so im unsure of what my levels are at, but im expectng it in a few days. i guess my last question would be, what do you guys have for a regimen of dosing, and what is your regimen for testing. any and all suggestions are welcome.

thanks, and wish me luck

 

[dad300]

bump^

 

[newreefer03]

Sounds like a good start. I think the best advice I can give is to go slow and do a lot of reading both online and in books. Everyone is anxious to start stocking their tanks but go slow to keep from making a mistake (from someone who's made a few). I myself took over 6 months to fully stock my tank with 8 fish. I did recently make a stupid bonehead mistake in just throwing in a fish without quarantining it for 2-3 weeks like I did with my previous fish and subsequently gave my tank ich. Luckily the other fish have recovered w/o any permanent injury although I probably have ich in my tank forever unless I move and quarantine all my fish. Go slow with the corals and start with some easy ones like zoos, xenia, mushrooms, and leathers and slowly progress. It is easier said than done. I think that you may have a slight cycle even if you used cured live rock as most likely there will be some dieoff from the transport though it my or may not be minimal. Test as you are doing. You can also use the shrimp if you definitely want to see a cycle before you start stocking your tank. You may not see much skimmate yet as there may not be much to skim out. Also new skimmer do have a break in period of a few days usually. At this point I wouldn't worry about dosing calcium as you probably don't have anything taking it up and the saltwater mix should have enough for anything that does for now. Remember to do the research and plan your tank as to which fish and what types of coral you want to keep in that tank so you don't get incompatibility and waste time, money, and livestock.