2 Weeks into cycling..When shoud I add the lights?

therick

therick

Member
Hello to all. I currently have a 55 gallon tank on its 3rd week of the cycling process. I picked up 90lbs of live Fiji rock from the Dr. Fosters & Smith site. The tank has a wet/dry filtration system along w/ a protein skimmer hooked up to it. My current ammonia, nitrite, & nitrate levels are all reading just about 0. So far i've done 2 50% water changes and use RO water.
MY QUESTION IS - when do i add the flourescent lights to the setup? I have a hood that houses 2 65watt 50/50 lights. My tank currently has almost no algae growth, which i would assume is b/c there is no direct light on the tank. I've been reading as much as i can from this board but havn't really read anything regarding when to add the lights.
I'm in no hurry to add them. I want to take my time and do everything right. Any suggestions would be well appreciated. Thanks!!
 
rsanders

rsanders

Member
Well I dont have an answer but I do have a question. :)
How do you like that rock? I have noticed too the tempting price for it there but thought it was because it was crap. Did you have to cure it? How did it come?
~R
 
therick

therick

Member
I think the total price was like $315.00 for shipping and 90lbs of rock. It was shipped 2 day UPS in a styrafoam box wrapped in wet newspaper. I was more then satisfied with it. Since i'm setting up a brand new tank i'm just recurring the rock w/ the live sand and letting the tank go through its cycle. I think the rock came out to be like $3.19 a pound which you can't beat. I would highly recommend it if your lookin to pick up some Live Rock.
 
rsanders

rsanders

Member
Hmm.. sounds good. Last question. I read that it smells horrid while curing the rock. Since you just tossed it in your new tank, would you agree about the smell??
I have some live sand only in my 75 gal as of two days ago with a a filter running. Was going to go to the LFS until they wanted 12 per # for there LR and 8 for base.
Thanks for the feedback, you just saved me some $$ looks like.
~R
 
therick

therick

Member
The tank is in my office at work and i'd have to agree that the smell isn't the best. But if it saves me $300-500 to cure it myself i can deal with it. Once i received the live rock i got 2 buckets(in the pic below) & submersed the new rock in the red bucket filled with saltwater with a specific gravity of 1.035 to 1.040 for one minute(to get any invertebrates to show themselves.. I then scrubbed the rock in the red bucket to get any dead stuff off. Then dunked the cleaned rock in the white bucket and into the tank they went. Sounds easy but when ur doin 90lbs of rock ur back sure feels it. Since then I went to eckards and bought a cheap toothbrush to scrub the rocks if i see any crap on them. Then when i do my weekly water change i suck all the crap from the sand. Hopefully in the next few weeks i'll add the light. After that the cleaner crew..then little by little the coral and fish.
 
dedwards

dedwards

Member
Back to the original question...you can add lights at any stage. I ran mine from the day that I set my tank up and haven't had any issues.
 
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