Cycling

[anita]

I went to 2 local aquarium stores today. One said the tank should be left for 2 weeks-1 month. Another said if you put live sand in it, the tank only need to be left for 2-3 days. And on a website( which I just found out I can't post) it said a minimum of 2 months. How long should a tank be left to cycle for?
Anita

 

[mudplayerx]

Don't listen to the guy that say 2-3 days. Cycling your tank will take anywhere from two weeks to a month.
Fill your tank with your mixed saltwater (specific gravity around 1.024), your sand/rock, and drop a whole, uncooked (dead of course) cocktale shrimp in there. The shrimp needs to rot in there.
Next you need to buy a test kit that tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph. After about a week or so your ammonia will spike considerable (very high reading on test kit). Wait until this reach zero (another week or two). This is when your nitrites/nitrates will spike.
When the nitrites get to zero, your cycle is pretty much done. You will now do a large (20-30%) water change to lower your nitrates.
You are now ready to add your cleanup crew of snails and cleaner hermit crabs
ps- also make sure you test your water at leasty weekly. You will eventually need the following test kits as well: phosphates, alkalinity, calcium.

 

[anita]

Sorry, this may be a dumb question but why dead shrimp? Are they supposed to rot completely or do you remove it at some point?
Once you do the 20-30% water change, don't you need to wait before adding fish? My ideal plan is to have a 40-50g tank part live rock, & part live sand in which I'll put 1-2 cortez round rays, some stars & other fish...I'm hoping to find out on here if that's feasible.
Anita

 

[mudplayerx]

I would personally wait another month after the cycle before adding any expensive fish, just to make sure that your system is very stable.
The shrimp has to be dead because its carcass is what feeds the nitrogen cycle (the cycle that establishes the beneficial bacteria). After your ammonia spikes and finally reduces back down to zero you can remove anything that is left of the shrimp.
By round rays do you mean stingrays? They are, in my opinion, totally unsuitable for a fish tanks...especially one that is only 40-50 gallons. They will grow extremely agitated due to the small confines and move around constantly. This will lead to sores on the ray, which will eventually succumb to infection.

 

[hoycetee]

the best thing you can do is make sure you wait out your cycle, and don't rush anything

 

[anita]

Yeah, it's called a cortez round ray. Darn, well the stores I went to today also said that my tank needs to be balanced, there needs to be fish that lay on the bottom most of the time, some in the middle & some at the top. Is this true? If so, since rays aren't good to have, what's good to have on the bottom? And the middle & top?
Anita

 

[1journeyman]

Welcome to the boards!
Sounds like the local fish store is telling you a bunch of nonsense....
Rays are not found on reefs... they are found in the sand flats around reefs. As has been said, putting rays in a small tank will cause them to cut themselves on the live rock.. not to mention the fact that they are going to eat all of your snails, crabs, small fish etc..
To have a healthy sand bed you need animals to stir your sand. Snails, worms, fish etc.