The next step (After water/Rocks/Sand

[afsportsguy000]

Alright.

So I have CLEAR water 40lbs of rock(Dead) and RODI Saltwater, Running through my Canister Filter(I am sump slow, and may need to wait till someone builds me a 10G or has one for sale before I go that route.

SO my question is what is the next step!

I plan on buying some Live rock from UA, (anyone have a bad experience with there live rock/Best place to get live rock?) Then I plan on starting to seed the dead rock in the tank now.

I will also dump in a bottle of something to "start the cycle" and wait. I am curious though if this needs to be done after the new rock is seeded some, or it can be done at the same time as the new live rock is being added.

When is a good time to add the skimmer? I currently have it on my 20G QT with the Clowns. But I don't think I need the skimmer until some action gets going in my DT (could be wrong)

MY LIGHTING.

One thing I am super lost on and I may need to re post this question later.

I have 2bulb 24W T5H0, Hagen GLO. It has a 18K bright white and antinic bulb. Both new. I have a 44G corner Hex that is 24inches deep. What will I be able to do with this light, I will have my rocks pretty high prolly only 7-8 inches off the top of the water for some of them. the others are obviously between 20inches deep and 7inches deep.


As always thanks! haha once my tank is set up hopefully I can turn around and offer great advice to people starting off, after asking every question I can about this

 

[dannyp02908]

Clear water isnt really a sign of anything. Test the water. Was your rock dead or dry. If it was dry rock, then you probably dont have much of a cycle started yet. If it was dead, than there should be some organisms that would start the process. Live rock, depending on the amount, could start and finish the cycle pretty quickly. Probably dont need a bottle of anything. If you dont see a cycle, a lot of people start it with a piece of raw shrimp. You could also toss a couple of damsels in or add enough ammonia (same that you buy at the store) to bring your PPM to .25-.5.

Lighting - I dont know about the Hagen Glo. Not sure on the design of reflectors. Alot of t5 penetration is based on reflector design. I have a 4 bulb t5 TEK that penetrates down 2 feet with only 2 bulbs on but i wouldnt keep sps on the bottom of my tank.

 

[afsportsguy000]

Clear water isnt really a sign of anything. Test the water. Was your rock dead or dry. If it was dry rock, then you probably dont have much of a cycle started yet. If it was dead, than there should be some organisms that would start the process. Live rock, depending on the amount, could start and finish the cycle pretty quickly. Probably dont need a bottle of anything. If you dont see a cycle, a lot of people start it with a piece of raw shrimp. You could also toss a couple of damsels in or add enough ammonia (same that you buy at the store) to bring your PPM to .25-.5.

Lighting - I dont know about the Hagen Glo. Not sure on the design of reflectors. Alot of t5 penetration is based on reflector design. I have a 4 bulb t5 TEK that penetrates down 2 feet with only 2 bulbs on but i wouldnt keep sps on the bottom of my tank.

Dry vs Dead...I never knew there was a difference.. I bought it from a LFS that came from a white box haha! I am sure there is not a cycle going on or even close but I want to get ahead and plan out my next move. I didn't think rock sitting in a saltwater tank would do anything at all. I am going to toss maybe 4-5lbs of live rock in there to hopefully "seed" the rock I have in there currently. I have 2 clowns but they are sitting in a QT as I have put them through enough so I wanted to set up the tank fully before putting them back in.

 

[dannyp02908]

dry would be clean rock that hasnt seen water. Dead means it was live at some point at likely has organisms that died off in the pores of the rock. That in itself, will start a cycle. Only way to know if your cycle is started or not is to start testing for ammonia.

 

[afsportsguy000]

dry would be clean rock that hasnt seen water. Dead means it was live at some point at likely has organisms that died off in the pores of the rock. That in itself, will start a cycle. Only way to know if your cycle is started or not is to start testing for ammonia.

Thanks, I am going to assume that I have Dry rock since I think that's what the LFS calls it, Although I can tell it had life at some point when yanked from the ocean. But I guess I will never know. Hopefully the live rock will start things also where I can start to see the spikes and algae

 

[dannyp02908]

I have never had an algae bloom on a new tank. Alot of people say they have had algae and cyano during their cycles. Only "new tank" symptoms i have ever had is diatoms. Dont rely on seeing anything. Only thing that will really tell you anything is a test kit. During the cycling period, you want to test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. They come in order. Only after ammonia and nitrite are undetectable is the tank safe for inhabitants. Algae is usually a phosphate issue. Test for that as well. Some rock (live or dry), will leach phosphate.

 

[afsportsguy000]

I have never had an algae bloom on a new tank. Alot of people say they have had algae and cyano during their cycles. Only "new tank" symptoms i have ever had is diatoms. Dont rely on seeing anything. Only thing that will really tell you anything is a test kit. During the cycling period, you want to test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. They come in order. Only after ammonia and nitrite are undetectable is the tank safe for inhabitants. Algae is usually a phosphate issue. Test for that as well. Some rock (live or dry), will leach phosphate.

Cool, Would you recommend me dropping in some food flakes now? or wait till i throw in some live rock.

 

[dannyp02908]

I guess thats up to you. Try the shrim. Easier to pull out when it starts to rot.

 

[beelezebubba]

yeah just toss in some fish food or a shrimp (a small shrimp, and put it in a net or something so you can pull it out easily if it gets too bad).

regarding the sump- just do it! it really is easy, especially on just a 10 gal. look online and map it out, go to home depot or lowes and get some acrylic and some ge or loctite silicon and start gluing. your first try might not look nice, but it'll work.

 

[afsportsguy000]

yeah just toss in some fish food or a shrimp (a small shrimp, and put it in a net or something so you can pull it out easily if it gets too bad).

regarding the sump- just do it! it really is easy, especially on just a 10 gal. look online and map it out, go to home depot or lowes and get some acrylic and some ge or loctite silicon and start gluing. your first try might not look nice, but it'll work.

I even have a Skimmer that would work in sump.....Do all I need to do is just get a overflow, and return pump and thats it?

 

[afsportsguy000]

I even have a Skimmer that would work in sump.....Do all I need to do is just get a overflow, and return pump and thats it?

Actually its to late for a sump :-( I filled up my tank and can no longer fit it under my tank :-( I would need something that's only 8-9 inchs wide and 24 inches across, I think a 10G is like 9.75.

Anyone want to make me one

 

[SteveDola]

That light wont grow much at all. It will illuminate the tank for the fish and thats about it.

 

[afsportsguy000]

That light wont grow much at all. It will illuminate the tank for the fish and thats about it.

I figured that with the light, If I got a 6 bulb would that make a difference, and I can use this one on a 20G.

 

[Kungfukid]

nice car you get there in your avatar.

 

[afsportsguy000]

nice car you get there in your avatar.

Thanks! I got a lot more use out of it in IL, haha Boston roads are horrible it beats the hell out of the tires and body scraping all the time on the ground. I miss my open country roads freshly paved

 

[SteveDola]

1. what are the dimensions of the tank?
2. what do you plan on keeping?

 

[afsportsguy000]

1. what are the dimensions of the tank?
2. what do you plan on keeping?

As for what I plan on keeping, I am so uneducated just colorful things that I Can care for. I will figure that out I guess depending what my lights can do. I have a very weird tank and I just built a canopy for it so I really dont have much room for lights. I will prolly get an flame angel, few shrimp, blenny, and some clean up crew.

I was thinking Zoa's and Softies if possible

Large Image Link (166 kB)

 

[SteveDola]

I think youre best bet would be to get either a 175watt/250watt Mh bulb, ballast with a good reflector and use a good quality 20k bulb. I would suggest a 250w radium but that depends really on what you want to keep. If its only zoas and softies then 175w would be fine. Do alittle research and find out what you like. A canopy like yours will allow for a small fixture to be mounted into it. You can prolly find a used Metal Halide fixture in the BRS forsale forum on the cheap.

its a funky shape and a T5 fixture will be difficult to fit over it. you can look into LEDs but for a newbie they can be expensive upfront and IME a little difficult to dial in. Some people love em but I am not one of them and wouldnt suggest using them for more than adding blue supplementation to a tank.

 

[aries426]

I agree with Steve, do some research and decided what you want to keep in the way of corals. If your on the fence about what to keep, I would go with the 250w MH that way you can do most anything.

As far as cycling, Danny mentioned people do use raw shrimp, that's a popular way. It's really up to you, but you really should not use Damsels or anything live for cycling. There is no reason to possibly kill them when there are other ways, I know that was the way people did it in the past.

To help you keep track of your cycle, when you start to get Ammonia in your water test that should be the start of the cycle. As Ammonia breaks down it forms into Nitrite and then into Nitrate. As the cycle nears the end, your Ammonia level should be 0, same with Nitrite. You may still have some Nitrate but you want that low. Usually that is a good indicator.

Just keep reading the forums and asking questions, everyone on here is helpful and knowledgeable.

I hope this helped.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[afsportsguy000]

Thanks!

Yea I am over 100 posts and been on here for maybe less then 2-3 weeks haha! So I have been getting my questions out!

Yea, I was originally going to do just Fish and Nems. Then slowly starting to change my mind as I am getting more and more set up

The first time I set up my tank I used Clown Fish to cycle the tank with only 10lbs of live rock :/ Everything survived and actually did GREAT and they are still doing great! However I want to avoid doing that this time as I am more attached to them and way more educated. I don't want to stress them out again after almost losing both of them in my QT.