new bc29 build

[fuzztub]

hello everyone, new to the site! lots of great info.
well i've done quite a few freshwater setups in the past and finally decided to make the jump to saltwater. i decided to go with an all in one unit for my first tank and have mostly been doing a ton of reading online. i found a good deal on craigslist for a biocube 29 and grabbed it.
i was just curious what people thought on how i'm doing or anything else i should be sure to do.
so i got the tank and the previous owner still had it up and running but had not done anything to it for a while. he had moved his fish to a small QT tank until he got his larger tank set up.
he did give me his water and the 2 pieces of live rock in it (nothing on them) and said i could put fish in as soon as i got home. i really did not believe it so i didn't even try it lol
i cleaned out the tank and got rid of his sand as it looked pretty bad. i put in new 30lbs of live sand, 15g of fresh distilled water and used his old water for the rest, 1 piece of live rock from his tank and 20-21lbs of new live rock giving me about 25lbs. i got rid of the bioballs and got the intank set up for media and used their recommendations for media, got the jbj nano light and put two handfuls of cheato in the rear chamber, removed the sponge that i see seems to be the norm, kept his old filters in the tank to try and help with the cycling and put a 200w heater in the water intake area, also added another power head to the tank. i did also add the biospira for up to 30g tanks.
i just upgraded the stock lights to steve's led bc29 retro fits. i only have one power supply with it running both blues and whites. how should i schedule these to turn on? with the stock lights i knew what to do. should i see about getting a second power supply to separate the whites from the blues? or a controller to ramp them up, leave them on and then ramp down on the one power supply?
i did pick up a ro/di unit as well for making the water and plan on doing a 3-5g water change every week.
salt lvls are at 1.022-1.023. i have checked nitrates, nitrites and ammonia with an api test kit.
tested on 3-18:
ammonia - .25
nitrite - 50
nitrate - 20
put in 2 large raw shrimp on the 23rd and tested today:
ammonia - 0
ph - 8.0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 40
does my tank seemed to have cycled already or how much longer should i leave the shrimp in to make sure? it's been running for 2 weeks now.
thanks for reading this long post and any input is always appreciated

 

[flower]

WOW!!! Welcome to the site!
You did do some good homework...I'm impressed. You didn't fall for the add fish right away line too, you're awesome.
The old water should not have been used, the good bacteria is on the rock and sand. It's okay to replace the sand...I would have too. Add a chunk of raw shrimp to test your system, if you get any ammonia spike after 3 days, that means the bacteria colony isn't strong enough for fish yet...if that's the case, remove the shrimp and just let it cycle. If after 3 days no spike shows up, the tank is cycled, do a small water change. I would set up a 10g quarantine ASAP. All you need is that old sponge from the old tank...an air line (no stone) and a piece of PVC pipe or cheap resin tank decor to make the fish feel secure. Oh and a little HOB filter loaded with your sponge. A new fish can then be added to the QT, but have ammonia test strips on hand and extra saltwater made up for an emergency water change if any ammonia spike occurs. Always use lab type tests, but for a QT where you want to watch for ammonia the strips will be fine.
That well saturated sponge from the first owners system is golden...as long as you didn't rinse it in freshwater. If you did...just cycle the QT with a chunk of shrimp.

 

[fuzztub]

yeah i tried to do a bunch of research as i didn't want this to turn out bad lol
yeah he told me he hadn't done any real maint on the tank for a few weeks/month, so i was not about to subject any fish to that!
so the shrimp has been in for 5-6 days now and i have been testing the water everyday. ammonia & nitrite have been at 0 everyday. so you think i'll be safe to remove the shrimp and add a CUC? while i leave them in for a little bit i can get the QT tank all set up and then add the first fish to it for a while.
any ideas on my lights? i didn't realize that the whites and blues were not independent. i've been looking at the apex, but steve's did tell me that they would have a cheap light controller for sale here in a few weeks. if all i need to do is ramp up the lights over a few hrs to full brightness and then ramp down to the moon's, that should be fine. i guess if they sell them this way it must be normal? lol
i do have red sea test kits on the way for the coral and water.
i appreciate the feedback and the help!

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by fuzztub http:///t/395122/new-bc29-build#post_3516939
yeah i tried to do a bunch of research as i didn't want this to turn out bad lol
yeah he told me he hadn't done any real maint on the tank for a few weeks/month, so i was not about to subject any fish to that!
so the shrimp has been in for 5-6 days now and i have been testing the water everyday. ammonia & nitrite have been at 0 everyday. so you think i'll be safe to remove the shrimp and add a CUC? while i leave them in for a little bit i can get the QT tank all set up and then add the first fish to it for a while.
any ideas on my lights? i didn't realize that the whites and blues were not independent. i've been looking at the apex, but steve's did tell me that they would have a cheap light controller for sale here in a few weeks. if all i need to do is ramp up the lights over a few hrs to full brightness and then ramp down to the moon's, that should be fine. i guess if they sell them this way it must be normal? lol
i do have red sea test kits on the way for the coral and water.
i appreciate the feedback and the help!
5 or 6 days and no spike...yep your tank is cycled really well. Use a QT for your 1st fish, it really is necessary... and will save you a ton of headaches down the line..
If you have something for the CUC to eat, it would be fine to add them...but if there is no algae yet, hold off on that. I use the T5s but folks are all buzzing about LEDs, maybe somebody will chime in with some lighting ideas.
I used Red Sea years ago, and I liked that kit pretty good...but everyone said they were garbage. So I went with API ...now those kits are garbage, they read off the scale on nitrates when nothing is wrong....So now I use SeaChem, their tests are simple and use very little test water. The biggest plus is the regent to double check for accuracy.

 

[fuzztub]

awesome thanks! i'll head out tomorrow and get the QT tank set up!
makes sense on cuc, i haven't been running the lights so there really isn't much in there. i'll just get the QT set up and start running the lights to get everything built up
i saw red sea recommended and i'm really not liking the api (never liked them with my freshwater tanks either), so i went with those. i look into the seachem for when these run out.
thanks again for the quick replies and all the help

 

[pa7reefpa7]

I have a biocube 29 that I run LEDS on. Its the Ecoxotics panorama pro. Heat is an issue with the biocube and this fixture really helps eliminate temperature swings.