My First Setup

[dgonci]

Here is an odd question about my cycle... I have had the aquarium up and running for about 7 - 10 days so far. I have 2 decent sized raw shrimp in there to cycle he tank. I have been monitoring the ammonia daily and have not seen it nudge above .25 at all. The shrimp are pretty much falling apart at this point. I guess I figured it would elevate a little faster at that point. I guess I am wondering if that is normal? SO far I have the following parameters
SG: 1.023
Temp 78
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
PH: 8.0

 

[cmaxwell39]

It sounds to me like the live rock that you bought have a decent amount of nitrifying bacteria left in them. These are what you are trying to build up during your "cycle." The reason that you now that the nitrification process is happening is that you have some nitrates that are starting to show up.
The process is like this... Fish waste, left over food, raw shrimp, ect. break down creating ammonia. A bacteria breaks down the ammonia into less harmful nitrite. Then another bacteria breaks down the nitrite into nitrate.
It sounds like you are well on your way to a cycled tank. Just wait for the ammonia and nitrite to both be at 0 and your cycle will be complete.
BTW the tank looks very nice. The only thing that you might want to watch out for is how low in the tank your return line is. I will assume that you are running a check valve in that return line, but if that check valve fails and you have a power outage, your display tank is going to drain down to the level of that return line, overflowing the sump and creating a huge mess.

 

[dgonci]

Just wanted to post an update since I have been busy for the past week or so....
Well the cycle came and went a bit faster than I had expected, but all of my levels are good, and I had algae growning pretty good. I figured now was a good time to go and start putting together a CUC. This is what I ended up with for the moment:
1 Scarlet Leg Hemit crab
2 Blue Leg hermit crabs
1 Mexican Turbo Snail
5 Astrea Snails
10-15 tiny ( about 1/4" for the largest one) Carribean Cerith Snails
The Cerith snails the LFS threw in for free, since they must have bred in one of his tanks and he had a boatload of them in one of his tanks. They are doing a good jopb so far of cleaning off the rocks. The one area I need help on is the sand bed. The LFS did not have any nasser snails, so my sand bed is starting to get a bit of brown algea on it. Monday I am going to pick up a fighting conch, and some nassarius snails to round out the package. I am also debating an emerald crab as well.
Here is one of the Ceriths I got...

Once the clean up crew got under way I picked up an Occelaris Clown. He is still a bit skiddish, and has not eaten much. Nibbled on a few brine shrimp, but hopefully he will get settled in the upcoming days so that he will eat. He mostly stays on the side of he tank, but occaisionaly will venture out and swim around.
My clown out swimming around...

Lastly I found a couple of guys locally that sell coral and fish out of their basement, because they are tired of payin high prices here. They have quite a set up and I went by to get an idea of what I might want to do in the future. After talking with them for a bit they were kind enough to give me a small Kenya Tree frag to get me started.
Small Kenya Tree frag with some nice coraline algea to boot...

So after few weeks things are looking good in the tank. I should be getting some Chaeto for the refugium n monday, as well as some snails or the sand bed algea. My only concern is getting the clown to eat something. I think the fact that he is not eating much is alo lending to my algea growth. Any input or suggestions for the clown or clean up crew would be welcome and appreciated.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Just give your clownfish some time. A lot of times it will take any new fish a couple of days to even a week to get used to their surroundings enough to think about food. It should begin eating in the next couple of days. Your clown looks like he has great color and is healthy so that is a good thing.
Also, you may want to consider setting up a quarentine tank for your future new additions. There is nothing worse than getting a new fish that has some sort of disease or parasite that ends up wiping out all the fish in your tank. Do a search on here for how to set one up. There are a number of good threads about it already.
As far as your cleanup crew goes, it sounds like you are on the right track. You may want to consider some more hermits in the future, but for now it sounds good. I would get some nass. snails to help keep your sand clean as well.