SWC order

[spikehs]

Tony,

I ordered myself 2 frags in the shipment (I already paid for them), are we still picking up the items from your house? What time do you expect them to arrive? I'll call sometime later this afternoon to confirm the details, i guess.....

Sean

[Delphinus]

Looking at the AC webpage I see there is a flight arriving at 1:30 the next one is 5:20. The next ones at 6:44 and 9:47. It always takes about a half hour to unload the cargo off the plane.

At this point I don't know what flight Jayson will be able to get. If he is to get the flight which arrives at 1:30 he only has about an hour at this point to catch that one. I have a sinking feeling it will be the 5:20 one.

[AJ_77]

Originally posted by Seriak:
Man I missed out. I never go on the computer on the weekends. I would deffinately have ordered some Fighting Conchs. Hey, how long would you guys wait to put frags and clams into a new tank. My tank is going on one month now.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Before I started up my tank 4 months ago, I read a few posts that advocated letting the tank go 6 months before adding any livestock. At first that was my intention, but of course I started adding stock much sooner.

I now think that it was very good advice for a new tank. Just my 2 cents.

Alan

[Seriak]

6 months!!! I am likely to go crazy before that happens. I guess I should contain my agony and do what is best for my system!

[AJ_77]

It does seem like torture, doesn't it? I wish I'd had the patience to do it, though. Although there are people who've done it quickly, they typically have sand, rock and even water from an established tank. Six months seems the minimum time recommended for the basic algae cycles and water stability, and you can certainly support a healthy "cleaner crew" for months before corals and fish arrive. Then you'll have a relatively established environment for them to come into. This is a huge bonus, believe me. Even though a pair of clowns and a softie will do OK at a month or two, it's not the best thing for any creature. The longer, the better, IMO.

It's also a chance to get familiar with your own system - how it responds to feedings, different equipment, algae blooms, lighting schedules, etc, etc... I think it's a great thing if you're familiar with the ins and outs of your little microcosm before you start dropping animals in. Again, I can't say I did the right thing - I'm saying it would have been a wiser route for me.

Cheers and good luck. Hope you have more patience than me. (BTW, I haven't had a large-scale disaster, but I have a green-water/phytoplankton farm instead of the lovely tank that was beginning to develop. Some people have hair algae or bryopsis or other algae plagues that vex them - I have lime-green water you can't see through.)

Alan

[ 08 July 2002, 10:47: Message edited by: AJ_77 ]

[Tau2301]

Tony, do you know which flight it will be?

I am hoping that my visit at Jon's home will coincide with the arrival of the order. Not that you live that far away.

[Seriak]

From what I can gather, a month after the tank has fully cycled it is safe to start adding one or two hardier fish. According to RC. Anyone have any ideas on what kind of fish? I am thinking a couple of green chromis!

[Delphinus]

Thread is getting a little eclectic, whew!

Kim, the flight is due in at 5:20. This means livestock in our hands no sooner than 6:30 - 7:00 (half an hour to unload the plane, half an hour to drive home, etc.)

Six months of age is the number I like to throw out as a measure of when a tank hits "maturity" (I guess the equivalent of reef tank "puberty"??? :eek: ). That does not always mean that things can't be put in the tank sooner than six months, just that up until that point, things tend to swing from one extreme to the other rather quickly. A good "balance" takes about 6 months IME/IMO, and certainly, there are many things that should not be attempted in an unbalanced, not-yet-mature tank, but the flip side of the coin is that six months is an awfully long time to wait with a tank with nothing in it to look at. There are some things that will do just fine after the initial ammonia/nitrite/nitrate cycle is complete (some fish, for example, hermit crabs and other cleanup crew) and those are the things you can start looking at within a few weeks, or after the first month, or so. But you have to watch your levels, if you have any ammonia or nitrite it of course will be best to wait until those are undetectable before plopping anything in. Snails in particular, I have found through my own experience, tend to be rather sensitive in an immature tank, and they'll drop like flies in such a situation. This is all just my $0.02 of course, and since every system is a little different, YMMV.

[MitchM]

My guidelines for water cycling quality issues are:
New tank with cured live rock and 50/50 old water/new water and bare bottom is 2 weeks
New tank with uncured live rock and the same is 4 weeks
New tank with uncured live rock and all new water with a bare bottom is 8 weeks.
ANY of the above set-ups WITH a DSB is 4 MONTHS.
These times are my minimums and you must test before adding critters, and don't add them all at once.
Live rock and a piece of krill is all that is needed to cycle a tank.

It's just not worth rushing if something winds up dying as a result of impatience.

If you want to see some life in your new tank with live rock,......get a flashlight with a red lens and explore it during lights out!.......it's pretty cool!

Mitch :D

[ 08 July 2002, 15:57: Message edited by: Carpentersreef ]

[Seriak]

I will take all your advice into account. My tank was cycled with live fully cured rock with all new water. I didn't see that on your list though.

How do you tell if she's a witch?

You burn her! Or see if she weighs the same as a duck. Whatever works!