Help!

[crawdaddy]

I am switching cc with ls, any suggestions on which ls is best? I have a 46 g bf and have had it cycling for a month with 75 lbs lr and I have had a blue damsel for about 2wks. The levels are good except nitrite is high.
Also what lights would be best for this setup? eventually I would love to be able to grow anything but I know I need to crawl before I walk.
One more thing, what are the absolute necessities to run a nice balanced tank as far as reef packages?

 

[zeromus-x]

Originally Posted by CrawDaddy
I am switching cc with ls, any suggestions on which ls is best? I have a 46 g bf and have had it cycling for a month with 75 lbs lr and I have had a blue damsel for about 2wks. The levels are good except nitrite is high.
Also what lights would be best for this setup? eventually I would love to be able to grow anything but I know I need to crawl before I walk.
One more thing, what are the absolute necessities to run a nice balanced tank as far as reef packages?
I don't profess to be the most knowledgable here but I'll give it a shot!
1 - I use Nature's Ocean live sand in my tank, and it's what I'll be using in my refugium when I get it set up. I couldn't tell you how much I've got in there, it's been awhile. It's a 36 gallon tank, I'd guess that I've got 30-45lbs in it. About a 3" sandbed. If you've got an established tank already with water in it, keep in mind if you pour it in, it's going to be a cloudy mess and completely cover everything in there! The best solution I've seen is to stick a piece of PVC pipe or a wide diameter rubber tube in the water and pour the sand through the tube to the bottom. This way, it's not stirring things up as much. Not perfect but a lot better than just dumping it all in.
2 - For fish-only or FOWLR (fish only with live rock), almost any light will do. I had a bit of coraline bleaching using the stock light that came with the tank (11w maybe?). I'd recommend something larger than that if it's a deep tank; mine's about 24", so the rocks on the bottom were suffering. I went with a 24" Odyssea PC (power compact) fixture; you can find them for dirt cheap and they work. Mine was about $65 bucks. I've had it running for almost a year now and it still looks great. Plus it's got moonlights to light the tank up at night, too.
If you think you're going to want all kinds of corals, you might want to jump right to a metal halide setup, or even better, a MH+PC setup. They're expensive as anything but lighting is one of those things you can't really "upgrade", only "replace"... so buying a mid-priced fixture now does you no good if you know you're gonna need a higher-end one later.
3 - Plenty of snails and hermit crabs are nice to have to keep things nice and clean. If you're not going to have any aggressive fish (puffers, triggers, etc), then a couple cleaner shrimp probably wouldn't hurt. I've also got a fighting conch in my tank who constantly cleans the sand but they grow to be huge, and both our tanks are really too small for them. Plus, they have a tendency to knock down rocks.
I've found that a pair of Engineer Gobies do great for keeping your sand circulated; they're constantly moving it. There's no way I can exaggerate that, they are literally constantly taking scoops of sand in their mouths and moving them to other places in the tank. If you don't have your rocks planted firmly on the bottom, they will do a good job of toppling them.

 

[crawdaddy]

Thank you that was very helpful, you just can't trust what the people at the LFS tell you. I have been told so many different things.

 

[danedodger]

For someone who's not "the most knowledgable here" you did a great job, Zeromus! I won't contradict a thing you said! :joy:
I'll add that most people seem to much prefer sand to crushed coral! Crushed coral doesn't have as much surface area for beneficial bacteria to live and grow plus CC allows bits of detrious and ick to sift down into it requiring a lot of vacuming. With the sand all that crud just stays on top and is easier to vac back out before it degrades the water quality.
If your nitrites are high I'd say you're still in the middle of your cycle so be aware of that!! Your tank is done cycling when ammonia is 0, nitrite 0, and you'll have some nitrates. When that happens do a partial water change to get the nitrates back down, 20 or less is highly recommended but the closer to 0 you can get it the better. The high nitrites are not good for your little damsel friend, I'm afraid. Cycling with fish just isn't a good idea at all but what's done is done. Don't let anyone beat you up too hard over it because almost everyone gets and follows the advice of using a tough fish like a damsel to cycle the tank. I will warn you though that as he gets bigger that damsel is likely to turn territorial and make adding other fish to your tank harder!
Absolute NECESSITIES for a reef tank? Whew you just opened a whole can, didn'tcha?

You go to 50 different EXPERTS on keeping reef aquariums of any size and you're going to almost certainly get 50 different answers! The best thing you can probably do is research all the different kinds and make your own decision. My opinion is it'd be hard to go wrong with submersible, digitally controlled heaters, something for water movement like powerheads or a wave maker, and some type of good filter (cannisters and HOB filters seem to be less popular than sumps but are still widely used). Other than that you should consider (not necessarily run out and buy but at least think about the benefits of) a protein skimmer and a refugium. They sure aren't necessities but many people feel, and I agree, that they have some definite advantages and benefits that are well worth looking into.
Then of course you have your little various and sundry "necessities" like a hydrometer to measure the amount of salt in your water (actually refractometers are reputed to be MUCH better, more reliable readings), thermometer, pads to wipe algae with, a good test kit (almost everyone seems to prefer the Salifert test kits), etc.
But ya can't trust me because I'm a LFS employee

(I'm so kidding, btw!!! What I said about my employment is true but I knew what you were saying and it's true too. You should never just automatically believe what ANYONE tells you in this hobby and sadly LFS employees are responsible for a gross amount of misinformation! I just had to tweak ya about it :hilarious )