Newbie got fish (help)

[kyle carpenter]

Hey i posted about a week ago on this board and got alot of oppinions and i thank you all for that. but i have another question now. ive had my 20 gallon tank set up for 2 weeks now with base rock because i wanted to get the salt and water right. but i went to the pet shop today and got about 5 more puonds of live rock (one piece is beautiful it has like 10 feather dusters and its mostly purple) and i also bought 2 yellow tailed damsels to start cycling the aquarium. when i got home i put them in their after floating them and they imediantly went and hid behind the rock. now ive had a fresh water 20 gal. for 2 years and i know this is normal. my questions are i am very anxious to get this thing running and i want to put coral in there and i wanted to know how long do i have to wait before it cycles and how can i tell when it is done. and if there is any thing to speed up the process. also i made a mistake and bought cc instead of ls and i have about 3 inches of cc. can i just lay like 2 inches os ls on top of it or will it get all mixed in. i only want ls on top and i dont want it to get mixed also i have a undergravel filter in there and i wanted to know it it would help it from not mixing the ls and cc please if you know the answer to any of these questions respond asap PLEASE!!!!!! ... Thanx alot for all your help

 

[brian'sreef]

hey kyle.. to answer your first question you should still wait awhile.. i understand the anxiety to get so much stuff so quik but understand that that's why a lot of people who start saltwater tanks quit because they can't seem to keep anything alive.. be careful corals and marine fish are very delicate and easily destroyed.. i always tell people they should wait at least four weeks before they even put any fish in the tank.. just my opinion... some people cycle with small inexpensive fish.. yeah that's fine but if that's really not the kind of fish you want in your tank later on why bother.. put some hermits of serpent stars or something ..but not fish.. again my opinion.. and for your second question.. you can't add ls directly into water mainly because there's no point as soon as it hits free water it's no longer living sand.. it dies.. cc is alright if your going to have a fish only with maybe some live rock but ls is always.. better and ls also doesn't go very well with an undergravel filter.. the purpose of ls is to be a natural filter.. also adding sand to an established tank just makes a huge mess of it. if you really want live sand you need to start over.. if that's not an option maybe some one else can give you more info.. this is just mine... good luck...
Brian

 

[karlas]

there is no set time for a tank to cycle it takes patience. without it your tank will never take off some tanks can take 2 weeks to 2 months. you can cycle your tank with ls, lr, or a piece of table shrimp instead of putting the fish through all of the stress. the only way to tell when the cycle is over is to test it amm, nitrites when they both hit 0 then the cycles over. as far as laying the sand on top of the cc the cc will eventually work its way to the top and become all mixed anyway. the ugf will become a nitrate factory over time and most corals are not tolerant of high nitrates.
as far as adding corals it is a good idea to wait until your system is well established they need good water quality to thrive. new tanks can have a lot of changes in water quality. at least a min of 6 mths or more before adding them

 

[brian'sreef]

jw ..are you disagreeing with me because you know for sure or is it some kind of personal shot to attempt to prove me wrong..what i have been told is that the anaerobic bacteria that lives in ls.. can't live in open water.. that's why you never see those interesting green and red colors that are in the substrate on the top of you sand bed.. if you were to pour live sand into a tank full of water the bacteria would die.. it lives in compact sand but not open water.. if this is wrong i'm sorry ..but i was trying to offer my help.
Brian

 

[new2gether]

HEY GUYS, YOUR DISCUSSION ON LS WAS INTERESTING BUT WHAT IS A "DSB"? WE HAVE A 55GAL WITH BOTH LS & CC AND IT SEEMS FINE. WE'RE THINKING OF GOING JUST LS ON OUR 29 ANY PROS & CONS WE NEED TO CONSIDER? THE 29 WILL HOUSE A PANTHER GROUPER AND A HUMA TRIGER. DID ANYONE TELL THIS GUY ALL THE WORK INVOLVED IN A LITTLE 20 GAL???
THANKS

 

[drew_tt]

new2gether,
I think he can tell theres a lot of work involved in such a tank... can you?
a 20 gallon could never house ANY trigger or grouper... let alone both. they are too big, aggressive, and messy!!!
btw, a dsb is a deep sand bed.
basically, its main objective is to create a suitable environment for anaerobic bacteria [in ~5-6" of sand] to lower your nitrates and keep them down.
Drew

 

[karvis]

whell if you want to speed up the cycling process, you can add stress zyme.(you can get it at petsmart) it adds bacteria. it helped my fresh and my salt aquarium cycle quickly. <img src="graemlins//evilwhorn.gif" border="0" alt="[Evil Horn]" />

 

[new2gether]

DREW,
THANKS FOR THE INFO BUT, I'M NOT TOTALLY GREEN TO SALT WATER BUT, BY NO MEANS CAN SAY I KNOW A LOT. MY "BIG GUYS" ARE IN A 29 GAL AND WE KNOW THEY WILL OUT GROW IT. THEY HAVE LIVED THERE FOR ABOUT SIX MONTHS AND HAVE PLENTY OF ROOM, GOOD WATER AND RESPECT FOR EACH OTHER. THEY WILL GET A BIGGER HOME IN THE SPRING WE'RE IN NORTHERN WISCONSIN AND HAVE A FEW MORE MONTHS BEFORE WE CAN ADD OUR NEW ROOM WHERE TANKS WILL GO.