New Tank.. couple questions...

[treystang]

Hello all,
I just bought my wife a new tank for her birthday and lucky me I now have to take care of it so she can enjoy looking at it instead of working with it
Anyways... I have a 72G tank I have all the filtration I need, I have the salentiy sitting at 23, ph is at 7.8 will be stopping by the store this evening to correct that, amonia is at .25 (is that odd for fresh water with nothing in it?) and nitrate and nitrite are both at 0 (obviously)
Other than that I have crushed coral at the bottom of the tank...
Now for my question... I am almost ready to start purchasing a few rocks & live sand, which brings me to my first & second question:
Can these rocks survive without any fish in the water? IF I need a few fish what is a relativly inexpensive small fish or crab or whatever will work for this initial need?
Ok, last for my newb question is: What is the best way or opinios on the best way to get old water out of the tank and new water in?? From what I am reading after adding the first bit of live rock and fish the water will need to be cycled (replaced?) completely before the tank is ready for day-to-day operations with a 25% water change every so often (and how long is ever so often??)
Thanks in advance everyone!
Thanks
trey

 

[hagfish]

If you put live rocks in, most of the life will survive. The cycle you were asking about is not a total change of water over time. It's a matter of getting your chemicals in balance. That is, ammonia = 0, nitrites = 0, PH at 8.3. Nitrates aren't as important, but you woul like to keep them as close to zero as possible. One easy way to do that is to do water changes. I think 10% a week is ok. I use a siphon to get old water out.
To get the cycle started, you can go to the grocery store and buy a dead shrimp. Place the shrimp in the aquarium for a few days. Your ammonia level should increase quite a bit, followed by nitrites and nitrates. A fish will serve the same purpose as it does create waste, but the fish will not enjoy it's experience as it is basically in a poison chamber until the cycle is complete (should be about a month). Also, do not do water changes until the cycle is complete or else it may delay the process.
You may want to do a search for "cycle" in the message board. While you are waiting for the cycle to complete, you should read up as much as you can. Look on these message boards, and maybe get a book or two.

 

[treystang]

Thanks for teh info.. I think this will come in handy... I found lots of good stuff on cycleing and I now know what I need to do. More questions to come!
btw.. The dead shrimp idea is awesome, I will be getting some LS and LR and I will go ahead and go with a dead shrimp for a day or so.
Thanks
Trey

 

[vickicj]

Hi Trey, congrats on the great gift for your wife! My husband & I have had our tank nearly 8 months now and we love it! We live in FW - do you have a LFS that you trust? Just curious where you plan on purchasing your LR....

 

[copterdoc]

i saw in your post that you said you had cc and were going to but ls and lr. just remember to take out the cc before you put the ls in. im still new at this myself, but the general concenus is not to mix the two or layer them. you can search for "switching from cc to ls" on the message boards for info on why and how to do it. good luck!

 

[hagfish]

Someone had asked about a LFS that you can trust. If you don't know the people at your LFS, be very careful about taking advice from them. Many just want to sell something. If they sell you a fish and it dies in a week, you'll be coming back for another one and they will have made two sales. That is how some of them view it. Not all of them though.
Also, I think you want to leave the dead shrimp in for about 3 or 4 days.
If you buy uncured live rock, that will help start your cycle as well. Uncured means that there is significant die off on it and it will take a few weeks to become "cured" and start coming back to life. Since there is die off, that is what starts the cycle. But you can put cured live rock in as well.

 

[treystang]

Originally posted by VickiCJ
Hi Trey, congrats on the great gift for your wife! My husband & I have had our tank nearly 8 months now and we love it! We live in FW - do you have a LFS that you trust? Just curious where you plan on purchasing your LR....
yes the place where we bought our tank, they have an older gentleman that I do trust he was very kind and straight forward. He told me what to buy to start off with and what not to buy.. The place is in Ft. Worth off of camp bowie but I forget the name of the place
EDIT: PM Me and I will get you the address if you are interested.
EDIT 2: nvm.. pm's are disabled just reply if you want the address and I will post it.
Originally posted by CopterDoc
i saw in your post that you said you had cc and were going to but ls and lr. just remember to take out the cc before you put the ls in. im still new at this myself, but the general concenus is not to mix the two or layer them. you can search for "switching from cc to ls" on the message boards for info on why and how to do it. good luck!
Thanks for the info, I was actually told the two could be mixed.. I will do research before mixing now. Thank!
Originally posted by hagfish
Someone had asked about a LFS that you can trust. If you don't know the people at your LFS, be very careful about taking advice from them. Many just want to sell something. If they sell you a fish and it dies in a week, you'll be coming back for another one and they will have made two sales. That is how some of them view it. Not all of them though.
Also, I think you want to leave the dead shrimp in for about 3 or 4 days.
If you buy uncured live rock, that will help start your cycle as well. Uncured means that there is significant die off on it and it will take a few weeks to become "cured" and start coming back to life. Since there is die off, that is what starts the cycle. But you can put cured live rock in as well.
The getleman would not even sell us any fish or LR or LS until we made sure we could get the water correct to start with. Most of the rock that he has will be cured live rock... I think I am about a week away before anything gets put in the tank though. Want to make sure I know exactly what I am doing.. I only want to do this once

 

[vickicj]

Hi Trey, I think I know where you're talking about, the aquarium...haven't tried there but will check it out...i haven't been able to find one that I trust 100% but i guess that's ok, I always do my homework first anyway, but it would be nice to have a LFS that would advise as well...the two places we've shopped have had more downs than ups, so I'll check your guy out! Thanks!

 

[treystang]

Originally posted by VickiCJ
Hi Trey, I think I know where you're talking about, the aquarium...haven't tried there but will check it out...i haven't been able to find one that I trust 100% but i guess that's ok, I always do my homework first anyway, but it would be nice to have a LFS that would advise as well...the two places we've shopped have had more downs than ups, so I'll check your guy out! Thanks!
thats the place... just a heads up if you have never been there... the place reeks of an herbal type cigerette and dont let the people there scare you away they are very freindly and helpful.

 

[nflnutswif]

This is just a heads up. . . When you take out your decomposing shrimp in a couple of days. Get out the deodorizer Peeeeeee Uuuuuuuu!!!!!! It's ransid piece of waste!!!!

Have fun!

 

[vickicj]

Thanks for the heads up!! I'll visit them after the holiday weekend, I'm actually looking to get some Blue Chromis, I've heard that 5 is a good number, and then in a couple of weeks I need to get a small maroon clown that will hopefully get along with the one I have :happyfish Then my tank will be complete!

 

[treystang]

Originally posted by nflnutswif
This is just a heads up. . . When you take out your decomposing shrimp in a couple of days. Get out the deodorizer Peeeeeee Uuuuuuuu!!!!!! It's ransid piece of waste!!!!

Have fun!
thanks for the warning.. I will just have my wife take care of this part...