Live rock question

[pmob7714]

Hello. I am starting a 55gal reef tank and have a question about some live rock I've just added. I was just wondering if I needed to add anything else but calcium and lots of light to keep it alive. I have 216 watts of 10,000k white light and 216 watts of 6,500k actnic blue. I also have a calcium level of 400ppm and it's slowly increasing. My water flow is good I think it turns the tank over 26 times every hour. However, i'm not sure if the bacteria from my live sand bed and rock will die if I don't put fish in there any time soon. Anyone know anything about this?

 

[forcrz6]

Hi and welcome. Well I dont think you should be adding cal to a tank w/ nothing in it. How long has the tank been up? How thick is your sand bed? Howmany pounds of Live rock did you add?

 

[pmob7714]

My sand bed is 3" deep. I have 17lbs of base rock and 18lbs of live rock. I am going to add 20 more lbs of live rock over the next week or so. I was also thing about adding a yellow tang. I think the water is good enough. No ammonia, nitrites, or nitrites, and its been up for a couple weeks now.

 

[forcrz6]

What you need to do is go for a life cycle. Add a dead shrimp in there see if all the leves spike and stay spiked. If not the Cycle is done at that point you should be able to add a fish or two but not that much. Personally I would get something cheeper like a Damsel though due to if it dies its not that much money lost.

 

[alyssia]

Tangs also require a more mature tank, I think most people on here recommend that a tank is six months old before adding a tang.