Brand New Tank

[tyrfing]

So someone help me through this...
I am going to be starting a new tank (currently have a 75 gallon), and my impression is I should....
Put the live sand in.
Fill with RO water.
Add the salt mix.
Get the water circulating
Start the protein skimmer
Throw in an uncooked shrimp piece to start the nitrogen cycle.
Let things run until the nitrates and ammonia levels fall (anywhere from 6 weeks to a year according to various posts)
Add my live rock.
Check the levels, when everything is "0", then it's safe to add fish and corals.
Am I missing something? (Please, that's not meant to sound sarcastic). I used RO water on the first tank and put the live sand in right away, live rock a week later and added fish too quickly I think. I'm going through a major ammonia spike and have a lot of reddish brown gook on the bottom that everyone tells me is diatoms, but the cleaning crew won't touch it.
I just joined this BB 2 weeks ago and would like to do the next one right.

 

[fshhub]

how about,
add water and circulate(fresh is fine) to check for leaks first,
tehn drain and add sw(check ph too)
add lr(110+- lbs)(which will cure and help you cycle, simultaniously)
then cycle, with shrimp if this is your preferred method(we only used the lr)
then after cycling add sand and circulate until clear
then monitor and check levels do a 25% water change and after a couple of days, add detrivores, if desired and wait at least 2 wks for them to establish, add fish(not too many, at once)
you were right about the cycle taking so long, if you wish to speed this up a little, use locally cured lr, it often takes much longer because you have much less die off
You will probably get a couple of different answers, but this is how we did our 75, and have had 0 problems with it
[ December 16, 2001: Message edited by: fshhub ]

 

[y2says]

I like mixing the salt outside the tank. Sometimes there's some chunks of salt that falls straight to the bottom. You can put both the l/r and l/s in together and cycle them both because if your water is cycled and you add l/r you can get another ammonia, nitrite spike. Just make sure the l/r are cured otherwise it'll take forever to cycle your tank. Don't worry about the diatoms, they'll go away after awhile. I wouldn't worry about the starting the skimmer right away. It can take away some of the nutrients that you need in the beginning. I'll wait about 2 weeks or so after the tank is cycled.

 

[big tuna]

i didn't use any lighting the first few week. i didn't have any problems with algae.