locoyo386

Your welcome, and if you have more questions just ask away.

ATKINSON

I have just bought the salt and salinity measurer. I added the salt, turned the power head on, turned the heater to 26 degrees celcius. I am busy dissolving the salt. After the salt is at the right salinity I will put the sand in. Then I will put a few kgs of live rock.( should I put the live rock in straight after the sand or should I wait a while?) After the live rock is in i will leave it to cycle for a few weeks with a flurecent light on 8 hours a day. Then I will add a hardy fish and wait until the tank is 100% cycled. Sounds alright?
I might add another power head if the current isnt strong enough, ok?

sgould

You can add the rock and sand at the same time...no need to wait. The live rock should cycle the tank 100%, so once you add it, wait until your ammonia and nitrite readings are consistently 0 to add your first fish. That could take a few weeks, but the exact timing is unique to each tank.

ATKINSON

Thanks, I just added live sand because the specific gravity is 1.022 so I thought it would be fine. Im only going to add live rock next weekend because a) I dont have enough cash atm and b) the pet shop is far away. I have some dead rock or "rubble". Should I add it now or should I wait until I get the live rock?

sgould

Depends...Where did the dead rock come from? What kind of rock is it?

ATKINSON

It came from the ocean a few years ago. It is anenome and coral skelotons as well as some shells. I have boiled every thing to make sure it is not deadly for my tank. This morning when I tested the SG it came out as 1.017. Is it because of the live sand, should I add more salt?

ATP

when my salinity is a little bit low and it's not due for water change, I always add a little bit of salt when I do water top off

ATKINSON

Thanks atp, is it safe to add live rock if it is too low. Also, how do you add live rock to the water? Acclimatising?

locoyo386

You don't have to wait, but since you are going to use the live rock to cycle I would wait till the cloud settles. Than place the live rock i the tank and test for ammonia almost daily since you are most likely going to see a small amout and you might miss it if you don't test daily.

Well once your ammonia and nitrites test zero, than you sould be able to put a hardy fish in. I wouls suggest you test about 2-3 days after placing the fish to see if you have ammonia or not. If you don't have ammonia than you are ok, if you read ammonia than you are going to have towait till the bacteria catch up to ammnoina level from the fish.

locoyo386

The SG is fine for now at 1.022, I have mine at 1.025 just because that is what they have it at from the store I buy it from. You could raise it to this when you add top-off water. Use saltwater instead of RO water to top-off the tank untill the SG reaches around 1.025.

Adding the rock till next week will be fine and that will give you time for the cloud to settle. You can add dead or base rock anytime since the rock will not have any living matter. Make sure you clean it really well to take off all matter, otherwise it will breakdown inside your tank into ammonia. This might cause a small rise in ammonia. Not likely but it might, just clean and rinse really well.

locoyo386

What are you using to test your salinity? Also what size tank did you go with? You might not want to add more salt directly into your tank. You could add higher concentration saltwater. I will check what amount you need to add and at what level it needs to be to bring it to 1.025 once I know what size tank you went with.

locoyo386

That salt level is not low enough to kill everything too fast. You will need to raise it to around 1.025, but the sand and rock should be fine for now. The rock can be rinsed in salt water than placed in the tank. If you can raise the salinity before you place the rock will be better for it in the long run. If the rock is indeed live, than you should be fine adding it to the tank without any acclamation. There is a curing proccess that the rock goes thru but since you don't have any fish, that can take place while in the tank at this moment. That is part of what cycles the tank aswell.

ATKINSON

Thanks,i am using a hydrometer for sg and it is a 20gal tank.Yesterday i added more salt amd its constantly at 1.022 so i will add the live rock and rubble directly into the tank tonight..? Do i need to feed the live rock/tank during the cycle?

ATKINSON

Yay, Got about 4-5kg of live rock. It looks awesome in the tank. Cant wait for the cycle to be over!!

locoyo386

The hydrometers tend to loose acuracy during time if not maintained well. If your salinity is at 1.022 that should be fine and you could still add saltwater when you top off to bring it to 1.025. You could ghost feed every other day what you would feed a single fish.

Awsome, any pictures yet? The cycle will be over before you know it.

ATKINSON

I am aware of that, but I just dont have enough cash to purchase a refractometor( sp?) Will the ghost feeding help cycle the tank?

No pictures as of yet. I might only upload some once I get a first fish.

What invertabrates should I get for 5kgs of live rock? Hermits, snails??

locoyo386

Yeah it will help, but mainly it will be so that there is stuff at the bottom of the tank so the critters have something to eat.

ATKINSON

Could I add a blue legged hermit crab as the clean up crew when the cycle finishes??