The one I'm thinking to buy comes with a fish, how do I make sure he survives? I probably won't be able to take all the water with me and putting him into new water + the move = too much stress.
Jenna

Are you getting established rock and sand with the tank? If you are and can move at least a portion of water with the tank you should see very little if any cycle assuming the tank is set up again right away.

What does it mean "see" cycle? What does it look like? I thought "cycling" means having a fish tank with lr in it and nothing else? Help! :redface:
Jenna

A "cycle" is the nitrogen cycle.

Ammonia is created from die off -> nitrite feeds on the ammonia -> nitrates feeds on the nitrite.

Only when you test 0 Ammonia and 0 nitrite is your cycle "complete" keep in mind that a new tank can have many small cycles in the beginning, so even if you are testing 0 one day, the next morning you might have new values.

I would really suggest reading some of the material here http://canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=22067 before you get to far ahead of yourself.

Check out this link for a bit of an explanation of the nitrogen cycle http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

Thanks Greg!
Jenna

My daughter has the same system as what your looking at. She has been happy with it so far. She would like a bigger tank but just doesn't have the room. She ended up adding an extra MJ 1200 power head because the flow wasn't what it needed to be. When the tank gets about 2 liters low on water it starts making micro bubbles to let her know she needs to top up. She was able to get a fast start because she got water and cured live rock from me. Buying a used tank you should try to save what water you can. Along with the cured live rock, sand and livestock you should have good results.

She has a pair of clowns a small gobbie and another small fish but I cant remember what. She just added a Green Bubble Tip Anemone.

Her cube doesn't have near enough light for a clam but she has a cleaner shrimp, a few sexy shrimp and 2 peppermints that she would like to catch and be rid of. After they finished off the aiptasia they started eating her snails. She wasn't impressed. She has a couple of hermits and last I heard 2 or 3 hairy crabs (I warned her not to put her rock in my sump :evil: )

She has a few zoo's, zenia, kenya tree and soft corals of that sort.

If you would like to talk to her about what she has done so far let me know.

Scott

Adding more water movement is a must, a Hydor Korallia 2 or Sieo 820 would be enough for soft corals and an bta.