New to Hobby

s.shark

s.shark

New Member
Hi, I am very new to this hobby. I have been reading about everything on this site for about 2 weeks now. I thought I would ask a few questions. My tank has been up for about 2 weeks now. Here is what I have:
75 gallon tank
emperor 400
2 maxijet 900s
heater
2 48" 65w 10000k daylight and 460nm actinic together in one, along with lunar light.
35lbs lr
I will try to post a pic. I am cycling the tank with lr as per the many opinions on this site. I will have a 100lbs lr total when the tank is cycled. Here are my questions:
1. Should I be running a protein skimmer now?
2. Does anybody recommend the reef package off this site? If yes, which one?
3. After the tank is cycled. I plan on adding the clean up crew before I add any fish. Is this alright?
4. I will be adding a little lr each week for the next 4 weeks. Will this hurt the cycle?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Shawn
 
nflnutswif

nflnutswif

Member
Welcome. sounds like you are on the right track. I'm sure someone else has some suggestions for you!
Enjoy
:jumping:
 
jlevan

jlevan

Member
not sure if this helps, but i am new as well..yet have completed the cycle...it took about a month..give or take..and i added all the live rock in to kick it off..along with a cleanup crew of about 75 hermits and 50 turbos, and 3 emeralds...the cycle spiked a few times, then i added 4 blue damsels..and it spiked once again..then leveled out..this all took about a month...i have an 80 gal with about 60-75 lbs of fiji live rock..came with a bunch of hitchhikers which helped the cycle..yet ive also read on this forum you can cycle a tank with a few shrimp from a grocery store...
 
bigarn

bigarn

Active Member
Do you plan on useing cured rock? If not your cycle can be prolonged and by adding a little at a time you could experience mini cycles. My nephew got his LR and LS from this site and he evidently had very little die off because his tankcycled in 2 wks. without ever having an ammonia spike,even after adding a frozen shrimp to kick it off!
Either way I would put all the rock in at once. I personally put a clean up crew in first, just to test things out, but some people do fish first. Best of luck with your tank!
 
belothsurf

belothsurf

Member
Suuuuurrrreeee........ Welcome to the board btw. I intially put about 40lbs of lr in my tank, and then would add about 20lbs at a time, every couple of weeks, and didn't notice an ammonia spike. But, I got fully cured lr, and only had about a 20 minute drive from the store. So you should be ok with adding it gradually, just don't add a bunch, or you may get an ammonia spike, especially if it is not fully cured, or you have a long drive. I took out some lr once, for an hour, and foolishly didn't put it in water or even cover it with wet paper, and it apparently had enough die off to cause a 1ppm ammonia spike. That and the stress of re-arranging my tank killed a couple of fish....

Definitely go ahead and get a protein skimmer, if you can afford it. But, I would suggest you get a really good one and if you can't afford it now, you'll be ok until you can. They are the most important piece of equipment, imo, and you don't want to skimp on it. Besides, you will want to wait at least a few months before adding any corals, and that is when you will need it the most.
As far as the clean up crew, you could go ahead and get one, "after" your tank is cycled, but you may lose a few things, as inverts are the most sensitive, and your tank will still not be "mature", for 6 months, as a general rule. I lost most of my first clean up crew, even though I put them in after my tank cycled. I would suggest just buying a few hermits and snails. It's going to take awhile for some green algea to grow anyway, and they may not have enough to eat in the meantime.
Just keep in mind, this would be my approach, and many aspects of this hobby are argueable. So take advice with a grain of salt, except for maybe the sharks....... :D
Keep us up to date on your tank...........:happyfish
 
s.shark

s.shark

New Member
I am wanting to buy an Aquamedic 1000 turboflotor protein skimmer. You can hang it on the back. They seem to be really good. They run about $279.00 at my lfs. Any opinions?
 
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