Hello everyone....

[laudluvr]

My name is Michael and my wife and I live in Fort Lauderdale Florida.
I am setting up a reef tank. This is a 55 gallon with 60lbs of live sand. 50 + lbs of live fiji rock. It has a 260 watt pc fixture with half actinic and half 10,000k. I also have a 50/50 40 watt flourescent as well.
This setup has a long history going from breeding South/Central American cichlids to a FO Salt water tank. I had 75 lbs of LR in it a few years back (when it was a glass tank). One night it exploded and I lost everything.
My wife said, "NO MORE, EVER!!" LOL
I came across this 55 show tank (scratch and dent sale) and couldn't pass it up.
Well, I convinced her to let me keep African Cichlids after I bought the tank. She is quite the sucker. Anyway, I am going back to salt and am going to test my skills at a reef system.
I have been reading this board for a couple of days and truly enjoy the support and expertise you all give to one another.
I hope I can fit in as well.
Peace

 

[laudluvr]

Any advice or imput is ALWAYS greatly appreciated.
The tank is 4 days into the cycle. There is one damsel on board. I have turned off my protein skimmer after reading advice from most of you guys regarding the "nitrogen cycle".

 

[laudluvr]

My last question.... for awhile
Do I need to run all 300 watts for the cycle?

 

[lesleybird]

No, I would just run the forty watts for the cycle.....You don't have anything in the tank that needs all that light...Bacteria for the cycle does not care about the light. Lesley

 

[laudluvr]

Thanks Lesleybird.
More questions...
Do I need more sand than 60lbs.
Do the bio balls need to come out now or after the cycle? and if so, how should I go about doing it?
Thanks again

 

[broncofish]

I would actually run lights like you were planning on running them when the tank is set up. That way you don't have a surprise algae problem, and you can discover if any of your bulbs or ballasts has issues(ie heat firing up etc..)

 

[laudluvr]

Alright, thanks everyone.
Bio balls are gone. I will use filter floss after the tank cycles. now, can I add the additional LS anytime, or is there parameters I should follow?
Bronco, could you explain further about the potential algae problems?

 

[scotts]

LL,
Welcome to the board! I would suggest that you do a search about cycling on this site. Any question that you might have has already been asked. Please do not take this the wrong way, any and all questions are welcomed. It is just that you may find some information that you did not know to ask questions about.
For instance Kip did a thread about snails. I was amazed to find out the difference, to me a snail was a snail.
At the top right of the screen there is a button for search. You will learn more than you thought there is to know.
Also people generally recommend using raw shrimp for cycling a tank. Damsels are very territorial, and hard to catch when you want to get ride of them.
Add a little rock that has some coralline on it and you are on your way.
Scott

 

[laudluvr]

Thanks Scott!
I spent 4 hours searching the database last night trying to find certain answers and found more than I bargained for. There were certain questions I couldn't find and "these" be them. LOL
I am a huge advocate of searching for a topic first, but came up short last night.

 

[lobstergrabber]

Welcome to the board. It has been a great asset to me in starting my first reef tank as well. I wanted to make a lighting comment. What you have is very similar to mine.(260 watt pc). I have done a horrific amount of reading here and other places as well and one comment that made sense to me was that during your cycle to run the actinics only. They said 24 hours but I don't think necessary. Their reasoning is the corraline algae likes the blue spectrum lighting and by running actinics only you can jump start its growth even in early stages of your tank. Later it will compete with other algaes for nutrients and it is harder for them to gain a foot hold. After reading this (already have my fish) I extended my actinics to come on 2 hours before and go off two hours after the 6500k's and my corraline has really sped up and I actually have some purple to it instead of just white spots where it is starting. My tank is not quite 2 months old so I am happy to have any good growth in it. you will still need to add some rock with different color caraline on it but I hope this made a little sense and everyone else be free to tell me I am wrong. BTW I am also dosing Reef advantage calcium and reef plus to keep calcium up and promote growth.
Rich

 

[laudluvr]

Thanks Rich,
There are some purples, maroons and orange on the rocks. Even though i am color blind, I am sure it is there. LOL The camera is a fossil and can't pick up too much anymore.

 

[lobstergrabber]

tough to tell from the pic but just as long as there is a good start of coraline on the rock you put in there it should spawn more. I was really hoping someone would jump in on what I said in my previous post.
Rich

 

[laudluvr]

I guess you aren't doing anything wrong,.... YET. LOL
I will need to find another timer to be able to rotate my lighting times.
Rich, do you have any pics of your setup?

 

[lobstergrabber]

Actually I have about a 1000. My uncle and I send pics back and forth nightly and I am afraid I am a junkie. Every time I find something new I take a pic and send it to him. My picture skills are lacking. I have a nice digital just need practice. Keep in mind it has a long way to go. It has been set up since April 6 2003 so not quite 2 months. Everyone let me know what you think.
Rich

 

[laudluvr]

Since you are a few steps ahead of me, I have some questions.
When you first got the LR, did it have that vivid of colors? It looks great.
Would you mind telling me what you have put in since the tank has cycled?

 

[lobstergrabber]

as for the color on live rock question. Most of the color was already there. Some of it is new though.
I cycled with approx 50-60 pounds live rock
After cycle I added stuff as follows
Purple gargonian and mushrooms
60-70 pounds more live rock to where it is now
5 Blue leg hermits
Generic anemone(on rock)
Striped SKunk cleaner shrimp
2 peppermint shrimp
A red coris wrasse(love him but was uninformed decision)
queen angel(juvi)
Jack knife
neon goby(over an inch long)
french angel(not even an inch long)
toby(type of file/puffer family)
2 large brittle stars
several small brittle stars
Arrow crab
Pistol Shrimp
Mated Pair of Coral Banded Shrimp
colt coral (claudiella)
finger leather(I think)
I am fixing to order cleanup crew. Still deciding where to get it but need it. Should have had it already.
Believe it or not all the live stuff minus the wrasse,cleaner and peppermint shrimp all went in at same time. Wrasse went in one week earlier and shrimp went in first right after cycle. Never had a noticeable spike at all. Must have been all the rock. Don't recommend doing it but I had no choice. It was then or never.
Rich

 

[laudluvr]

Lobstergrabber,
Thanks for the info. I will be watching and listening to your progress. Soon, we can work off each others success' and mistakes.
BTW, can you see any "life" in your sand bed? I know mine has only been going for 5 days, but when does life appear? I was curious as to how your Angels do in the reef.
Keep me updated.... dianami@comcast.net

 

[elan]

hey there neighbor
welcome to the board!!
looks like you are off to a very good start.
for life on the sand bed, that may take quite some time.. i didnt see anything for months... and then all of a sudden, a ton of pods showed up.. then there were infesting the tank.... after i added way too many shrimp, they decimated the population i had..now i only see a few here and there.. i am setting up a fuge which should harbor a good amount.

 

[leigh]

Hey...one other thought on your tank you may want to address while it's cycling. Since you said you bought it at a scratch and dent sale you have no way of determining if copper was ever present in the system. If so, copper is extremely difficult to get out of a tank--it'll leach into the seams etc...and is fatal to inverts. Before you purchase your clean up crew you should really take a water sample to your lfs and have it tested for copper (or use a copper test kit). This will affect whether or not you can do a reef--ie if there is copper present you can do FO or FOWLR just fine, but you will have a very difficult time keeping inverts alive for a reef. I don't mean to be scaring you with this; it is of course distinctly possible there is no copper in the system and all is dandy--I just figured you'd rather hear it now when it'll be easier for you to address then for you to hear it 3 months down the road if you have a clean up crew all die.

 

[laudluvr]

Thanks Elan! I added 40lbs more LS and 15lbs of better looking LR today.
Leigh, yes you sure are scaring me. What a waste of "the big bucks" that would be. I will test the water for copper. Thanks.