Ok whats next ?

[Acipenser]

I have had my 26G bowfront up and running since saturday have over 25 lbs of live rock and a 1 to 2" bed of sand, 2 power heads and the temp is about 79 F do I need to "feed" the live rock, and when can I add fish ?

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Acipenser

I have had my 26G bowfront up and running since saturday have over 25 lbs of live rock and a 1 to 2" bed of sand, 2 power heads and the temp is about 79 F do I need to "feed" the live rock, and when can I add fish ?

you may not need to feed ill get to that in a minute

first thing you need to do now is buy a test kit most importantly being the amonia,nitrite,ph and nitrate.

once you get your kit you need to test for amonia every few days and wait to see a reading come up once that reading dissappears you should start to notice nitrates are starting to appear.

once this has happened your tank will be cycled.

basically your waiting for your liverock to grow enough bacteria that it can consume harmful amonia and convert it into less harmfull nitrates...nitrates can be manually removed via water changes,skimming,good husbandry,nitrate removing media.


so you may not need to feed your tank if you bought uncured liverock which is liverock that has spent a considerable amount of time in transit or out of water.....basically dieoff happens in and on the rock from being out of its ideal water conditions, the die off creates amonia which is food for your bacteria and then again gets turned into nitrate.

if your live rock is already cured(came from an established tank or has been in a cycle bin for a few weeks) then you may not notice a large rise in amonia and then you can add a cocktail shrimp or some flake/pellet food...the food or shrimp will rot which will also create amonia.

dont add any fish untill you are absoulutekly sure your amonia has been at zero for a solid week the longer the better, and then appropriately sized fish for your aquarium but add them slowly 1 every couple weeks.

at this time your also ready for hardy beginner corals , and you will want to buy a test kit for alkalinity,magnesium, and phosphate.test these and get them to where they are supposed to be.


go slow trust me it will pay off if you do rushing is the last thing you want to do. it will be a few weeks before your ready for fish.

before adding fish and your amonia is cleared up you may want to con sider adding a clean up crew of snails,crabs,shrimp etc depending on your preference


theres def alot more to it but thats the basics if you have any questions feeel free to post them here or pm me cheers and welcome to the salt water hobby its awesome

[Acipenser]

Thanks, the live rock is well cured it came out of a sump of an established tank. I am guessing it may be instant cycled or just undergo a mini cycle.

[ALang]

Don't guess. Do the tests.
Lots of people guestimate that things are fine and ended up killing animals and inverts needlessly.

Most people who have been in this hobby for the longer run do testings religiously, and record their findings on a notebook. That way you can see clearly what's going on in your tank.

Good luck!

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Acipenser

Thanks, the live rock is well cured it came out of a sump of an established tank. I am guessing it may be instant cycled or just undergo a mini cycle.

more than likely you will under go a " mini cycle" but theres factors involved.think of it this way if you got your rock from an established tank(a tank running for more than a year) then over that year the bacteria has been feeding and repopulating to a point where it consumes amonia as fast as it can be produced by fish waste, food,ditrius etc. all of this produces amonia but the rock has built up enough nitrifying bacteria to convert it as fast as it is being provided. its like a balance game, everything is equal thats why once established you should never see a spike in amonia in your tank unless something drastic happens.

when you remove the rock from that established tank depending on how you transport it theres going to be amonia as there will be die off from the rock being out of water and some amonia released from the sand movement where the bacteria cannot get to as well. it may not be as much as rock thats been out of water for a long time but may be a little.... a little is all it takes to do some serious harm to your fish and inverts/corals.


once you move the rock to your house the nitrifying bacteria are now dealing with an excess amount of amonia that they are not use to handling and so they need to increase there numbers. even if its just a small cycle the bacteria population needs to become large enough again to handle the load. its the balancing game, in order for us to have fish there cant be amonia ,in order to get rid of amonia there needs to be a suffciant number of nitrifying bacteria that can convert it as fast as it is being dealt out.

the longer your tank is running and the more porus your rock is the more nitrifying bacteria will produce.there more bacteria there is the more amonia it can convert hence the more fish you can have( provided they fit your tank size

there are products that make amonia not poisonous but its not need it you play the patience game and not add fish untill your ready.

so if your rock spent very little time out of water, if its very porus, and came from a well established system then you may see a very small spike in amonia.still you should wait a couple weeks before adding fish....if you plan on having your tank for many years then theres no rush for the sake of 2 weeks right??


im not the best at explaining these science things but thats the jist of it im sure someone with a biology back ground will step in but this should help lol

do as alang said and test frequently for your first year untill you get a grasp on how it all works.visiting another reefers house helps and seeing how they run their set ups is a great learning experience.


in the mean time what most people do during the waiting period is practise testing and bringing your water where it needs to be (alk,cal,mg) research the fish you want to have and ask here if they are a good choice(most new peoples biggest mistakes is not researching fish) read some books and articles and visit others tanks.

think about what you want to have as a clean up crew(should be added before fish imo) and run them by here to see if they are a good choice

i think i covered what i wanted to say lol good luck and cheers