The live rock Has arrived! The tank is turning over now with the help of a submersible pump. I still don't have the reeflo pumps in stock yet I'm hoping next week.I also have not finished the plumbing as i want to have the pump first to see how it will sit, I,m going to plum one of the over flow drains to the intake side of the pump with use of a tee, this way i will be moving less water though the sump and better contact time with the skimmer while still maintaining max flow at the top of the tank. Thanks to Todd at H20 Aquarium for his advice on the plumbing.
The rock arrived in Styrofoam coolers, all rocks were wrapped in wet newspaper and put in separate plastic bags. I un packed 6 boxes about 300 pounds. It was so cool we found all kinds of interesting things that I still haven't identified like 4 cool anemones that are purple in color in a white tube with what looks like four teeth in its mouth. We found hermit crabs, snails, lots of crabs that we separated out shrimp, and something thats about 4-6 inch's long golden green snake like wormy thing that hasn't come out of the rock yet. we put the anenomies and snails and stuff in one of our Nano tanks till we can identify if good or bad. New creatures are starting to showing themselves all the time.
It has been two days and no testable nitrates or ammonia as of yet, I was told that their maybe only a small amount of die off butt i will keep checking i will start with the water changes when that happens. I only had the rock in the rubbermaid for 20 Min's ... the water went crystal clear wow! the rock is a great bio filter. I'm going to sell 100 pounds of the rock and keep the rest. will start reef building next week. I am reluctant to put any sand in as of yet I want to build the reef first also makes it easier to remove any unwanted creatures that may show them selves.
Will my Tank Cycle with no sand? and just the die off from the rocks?