New FO tank

[hazenwolf]

Thus far I have started my tank its an itty bitty 29 gallon tank. But hey it's a start. I don't havemuch room in my Living Room. Anyhow the tank contains 30 lbs of substrate from Natural Selection 50 lbs of Red Sea sand. 50 lbs of fiji LR from live aquaria.
Readings
PH 8.2-8.4
Salinity 1.023-24
Amonia .25
Nitrates 0
Nitrites 0
The tanks been up for three weeks now. When should I begin adding fish? 1 week? 4 weeks?
I already have some hijackers from the LR lots of crabs and snails worms to. Lots an lots of Alg on the rocks even some coral that seems to be coming slowly back to life. I have added a emerald crab to help with the alg for the time being. He seems to be happy as a pig in poo. I don't have any lighting system just yet. But I would like to keep soft corals just yet perhaps in a few months or so. Any brand setup recomendations would be grateful.
Thanks in advance

 

[jumpfrog]

First off, Welcome to the board!
I'm curious, you're set up 3 weeks and have an ammonia reading, but no nitrite reading.
What did you do to kick start your cycle?
I'm assuming you used the LR you got and expected the die-off to get you started? That's a great plan; but, have you ever had any nitrite readings?
As for lighting, if you only plan on soft corals like leathers and mushrooms you could probably get by with some of the packaged PC deals available. A set up which has 2 55W PCs would fit your tank and allow you to do fine with softies.

 

[abhaya]

Make sure you know what you hitch hikers are some can cause problems big time. A good starter fish is a damsel or 2 they are hardy!!
Good luck

 

[hazenwolf]

I used the dead shrimp to help cycle. Maybe the Red sea live sand supposedly it was packed with bacteria already. Anywho I am not sure since I am new to the art of keeping fish. I had two filters on it for almost a week both running with carbon. I also have well water not city. It is very hard stuff but is crystal clear now. I am going to buy another test kit see if I can get some better readings later tonight. Maybe it has changed. The readinsg were done two days ago. Until two days ago I did not do any tests because I figured they would be off the wall anyhow.
PC you say any web sites to order from you would recommend?
And thank you for the warm welcome.

 

[jumpfrog]

You may have cycled and missed some of the high numbers if you didn't test often. No biggie. When ammonia and nitrite hit 0 for a couple days you're good to go.
Try a search under the equipment forum on PC lighting and I'm sure you'll see lots of options. We tend not to post links to other peoples sites as it is disrepectful to the good people at swf.com who provide the board.
If you email me I'll point you in a couple of directions. Everythings a trade off to price, fit/finish, power etc.
Again welcome and good luck!

 

[hazenwolf]

I bought a second test kit for nitrate and nitrite, tests show 40 nitrate and nitrite is 3. I am using the EZ test strips as a test kit. I guess thats not as good as I thought. I will do another water change in a day or so an check again.