Newbie Help

[smartbomb]

I have a ton of questions and am finding conflicting info out there.
Started 75gal reef tank w/live sand and approx 80-85lb live rock. It's been 3 weeks and nitrates, ph and ammonia are all great. Can I start lights now? Also When should I add hermit crabs and snails?
I was told to wait 6 weeks before starting lights--now I hear 3 weeks is fine to start 4 hours day--4 hours night and increase by 1 hour every 3 days.
Also--in trying to plan tank am having problems deciding how many species of coral--how fast to stock---and order in which to go.
Can anyone point out a great step by step for reef tanks.
Thanks!

 

[900dublr]

I would go ahead and get some snails and crabs because your going to get algae since the tank is new. I would also go ahead and put a fish or two in and let the tank get some age. Then you can start to add some hardy corals like zoos, mushrooms, colts, star polyps ect. Just my 2 cents. :happyfish

 

[ivanfj]

I have never heard about not starting lights during a cycle, but I guess it doesn't harm anything with/without the lights during the cycle anyway. Inverts like hermit crabs or cleaner shrimps, they cannot tolerate high nitrate level. Anything above 25ppm in nitrate is considered high IMO, but I had kept inverts w/o a problem with nitrate level being sky high. For corals, my personal reference is about 2-3 corals max at one time. And for starter corals, softies like kenya tree/colt corals are good but they can grow out of hand.

 

[xnikki118x]

Slow and steady. =)
What kind of fish do you plan on having? Corals? Anything you're really dead set on getting?
For a 75-gal, I'd add at least 30 turbo snails, and probably like 30 blue-legged and/or scarlet hermits. I might be underestimating though...I have zero experience with bigger tanks. :nope:
When you say your nitrates are "fine", do you mean they're at zero? Or less than 10? Post a list of your specific water parameters, especially your pH, alk, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and calcium if you have a test for it.
Whatever you plan on, add your least hardy/most aggressive fish last.

 

[jjlittle]

Never rheard that before I cycled my tank with lighting before I turned the 1st pump on all went very well put the light on...:jumping: :jumping:

 

[ohiorn67]

they only recommend you keep lights off while cycling to keep unwanted algae from growing since you have no way of keeping the algae in control and don't have the cleaner crew yet. You can add the cleaner crew now and enjoy the lights. I was told to start lights slow.....actinic on 1 hour before white lights....6 hours to start first day white lights total....then about every 5 days you add an hour of white lights up to 10/12 hours total of white daily....put your stuff on timers, much easier. Actinic always on 1 hour before and 1 hour after my bright whites are on..they stay on all day with the white lights....then moons come on for rest of evening. I have a 90 gal set up for 2 1/2 months with no algae overgrowth ...tank looks perfect and my corals and all seem happy..hope this helps.

 

[scary]

The only thing I can add is: I would never cycle a tank with damsels again!! They practically crashed my tank when I was trying to remove them. My tank is 4 1/2 month old and when I started trying to add clowns & gobys the damsels attacked them. They get VERY territorial.
Trying to get them out is almost impossible unless you remove all the rock (I even had to remove the power heads, heater and filter!) After that huge mess, I chased them around forever and they stirred up all the sand, I couldn't even see through the tank. I lost an emerald crab and diamond goby in the crazy mess. I now understand why people say "the only good damsel is a dead damsel!" I've heard some people on here say they use a cocktail shrimp and it works out great. I will definately try that next time. Good Luck!