About to go "live".

[JBen]

Am hoping people here might point out any oversights, and that I haven't overlooked anything. Either something critical, or perhaps is a lot better to do now, before it becomes a costly upgrade/retro.

Factory ordered 80g Bow Front with sump/skimmer and plumbing. The sump should give it another 25g and T5 for lighting. It should arrive next week and so I will be (hopefully) landscaping and filling it next weekend.

On hand, or also ordered and ready to go.
60pds live rock. (LFS) reading about these issues now . Initial plan was 60pds LR and other porous to fill in rest
55pds Argonite (aiming for 1-2inches)

Short term (1-3months). fish only and just a few
Mid term (3-6) slowly add fish
long (6-12month) maybe add some soft corals, depending on progress

I am in absolutely no rush. Ive run FW for a number of years and many years ago ran a quasi successful small fowlr. Want to do it "right" from the get go this time. Basic loose thinking is make sure things are running smoothly and stable before any significant changes. Sort of make sure Ive got my routines down pat and thriving fish before adding soft's, learn to walk before I run kind of thing.

Lighting. I'm thinking I might go LED eventually (don't know) I'm just reading about them now (new tech since I last tried).

RO.
Am on the fence. Tap is ok here, plan to test it myself next week to see if that sways me to do it "now" rather than in 2-4 months when the bio load starts to grow. Long term plan is a light bio load, in short less than what the set up can handle...why push it kind of thing.

Am reading as much as I can about different species, and other topics (suffering information overload) so I can plan my additions, measure progress. But for now focus is on the next 3-6 weeks.

[Beverly]

If your LR is not already cured, make sure to cure it without a sandbed. This way, all the crud (and there will be a lot of dead stuff that will slough off your uncured rock) can be siphoned out. I use a turkey baster on curing rock to blow off anthing loose on the rock. You wouldn't believe what I siphon out weekly on the 20 lbs of LR currently being cured.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by JBen

Short term (1-3months). fish only and just a few

In the first two months your tank will be cycling so it's best not to add any fish in the first couple of months. During the 3rd month if ammonia and nitrite, are at 0 and nitrate is testing close to 0, then you could add your first fish. Also every time you add a new fish it will upset the balance of your tank so wait awhile in between adding fish. Adding too many fish at once will most likely cause issues and could cause a tank crash.

60 pounds of live rock is IMO a bit on the light side of things, keep in mind the more live rock you have the better bio-filter you have. Personally I would aim for 80-100 pounds of LR, the LR doesn't all have to be in the display tank, if you like the look of less rock in the display put some of the rock in the sump. You can also buy dry rock (like marco rock, which is cheaper then LR) and use the live rock you got from the LFS to seed it with. However using dry rock will effect your cycling time and it will take longer to cycle properly, if you decide to add it.

Nothing good happens fast in this hobby so take it slow and you should be ok.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Beverly

If your LR is not already cured, make sure to cure it without a sandbed. This way, all the crud (and there will be a lot of dead stuff that will slough off your uncured rock) can be siphoned out. I use a turkey baster on curing rock to blow off anthing loose on the rock. You wouldn't believe what I siphon out weekly on the 20 lbs of LR currently being cured.

i would personally cure my rock outside of the aquarium in a rubbermaid or tote bin thats what ive always done.there is no cycle from moving from a storage bin to tank and no mess of detrius or leaking of any phosphate into your tank.

[JrdBen]

Thanks all.
Decided to get an Ro/DI now as opposed to later.

Re timing.
Have no plans to add fish until its cycled. If at the 3 month mark I have a couple I'll be happy. Im really in no rush and want to take my time, even deciding what fish when I feel I can +1.

Re 60pds LR.
Have it in my mind that number is just to start. Im a bit of a tinkerer, when I did my Koi pond it was months before the 2 tonnes of rock had found its finally resting place. So 60pds now see how it looks and then once I have the shape I can add more if desired, or as mentioned the sump (hadn't considered that..thanks).

Thanks for the cure tip . Its all being delivered same day, so while plumbing and hardware isset up is occurring a bath/rinse/baste in some prepared water?

[kafug]

Watch adding live rock after the tank is setup. Make sure you cook it for about a month. I learned the hard way after I bought some so call cured live rock and dropped it in my one year old set-up. It crashed my whole system. Wiped out all my fish and gave me a bad case of hair algae and glass anemones. Needless to say that was the end of that tank. I just started a new one after a year. Just because they say it is good does not mean it is. Sadly to say a lot of people just want the sale. So now I stick to the small fish stores.

[JBen]

Thanks all.

It's basically a month old. Everything is humming along perfectly, better than expected actually (knock on wood).

Bit of a silent cycle.
After 10 days and not seeing so much as a blip on any chems, was beggining to wonder if I should add a shrimp to kick start AM, and then I finally saw a blip (.5) in NO3 and shortly after that a diatom bloom (now mostly gone with DR/bed more white again, than brown) some daily algae on the glass Im hoping will slow down, reduce in time. Considering adding a few more snails to the CuC, but waiting to see how things progress a little more first. Absolutely no issues (yet??) with the LR

Thus far.
Everything seems to going perfectly and the only thing I'm really keeping a close eye on is Phosphate and NO3 (daily test) all else every other now. The residents I have all seem perfectly happy. So for the next month or so its status quo and watching grass grow.

AM=0
NO2=0
NO3= 3 to 5
ALK= 11
Calc= 480
Phos= .25

Salinity solid at 1.024
Temp fluctuates between 77 and 78.5
PH 8.0 to 8.3

J