how "established" is my tank

[ross]

I upgraded from a 55 to an 84g a few weeks ago. The 55 was set up for about 3 months with no fish because i knew i was moving up to the 84g. When i upgraded i used the same sand, water, wet/dry, everything. Obvisously i had to add more saltwater. I have my knew tank set up for about 3 weeks. The tank never even minicylced. I also added 100lbs of southdown. So how established would you say i am? Right now i have 2 percs in the tank.

 

[bdhough]

Sounds like you are going good. What are you wanting that needs something established? It can take months for pods and algaes to grow sufficiently. I know it took several months for my base rock to turn live.....

 

[azonic]

If you do the math on it, you added 29 gallons of water to your 55g basically. (84-55=29). If you take that 29 gallons and divide it into 84, it gives you a result of 0.345(34.5%).
Therefor, you did a 34.5% water change....basically. If you used all the same sand, rock, filter media, etc, etc then I would say your tank would be "established" for the 3+ months it's been running for.
34.5% is a large water change to do but I don't think it would throw a tank completely out of whack.
That being said, you have 2 percs in it now. I would recommend not adding anything else for a month or more just to make sure your systems biological has caught up and is capable of handling the extra load it has now.
Hope this helps!

 

[ross]

I'm not really worried about getting anything fragile very soon. I might want some corals in a few weeks and an angel when the tank is ready. I really don't want to rush things. I have alot of pods. Those 3 months with no fish gave them alot of time to reproduce. I have 75lbs or lr.

 

[azonic]

If you are planning on an angel anytime down the road, most people will tell you to wait 6 months before you consider adding one. Some people will say more, some will say less...like anything.
With 75 lbs of LR I would say you have SOME pods....not a lot. Putting something like a mandarin or scooter blenny in that tank now would decimate the pods population very quickly I would bet.
It sounds like you are off to a great start.