[Saltybee]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to saltwater fish keeping and after researching online for over a year I finally decided to start a new SW tank. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I purchased a 34G Solana tank set with 150W HQI pendant, 31 lbs Fiji & 6 lbs Indo live rock, Instant Ocean salt, 30lbs Fluval Vuetech 100W heater last week.

So I started my tank 4 days ago and was told by my LFS to use tap water first and later use RO/DI is possible. I added live rock, 20lbs of aragonite sand and ran the tank skimmer and pump.

I noticed yesterday after reading Myka's guide in this forum that I made a slight mistake, I should've used RO/DI water first, not to put the sand together with the live rock.

Here are my water test results done at night time:

Salinity = 1.025 Temp = 78 to 79 F

Oct 5, 2009: Ammonia = 0 ppm; PH = 8.3; Nitrite = 0 ppm; Nitrate = between 0 & 5 pmm

Oct 6, 2009: Ammonia = 0 ppm

Oct 7, 2009: Ammonia = 0 ppm

Now I will have to wait for another week and test the nitrite and ammonia, if I’d get 0 ppm then I will add small cleanup crew.

Here are my questions:

1.Do I have to check for nitrate as well before I add the cleanup crew?
2.How many would you recommend and what kind?
3.Didn’t buy any power heads yet, any suggestions? Would 1 Maxi-Jet 600 with Sure Flow 1600 mod be sufficient or should I get 2?
4.Do you recommend me to take the each live rock and scrub them with a plastic brush or just leave them alone?
5. Oh, I also added Kent Marine Purple Tech – 3ml each time advised by LFS and did it 3 times. I think I should stop adding this until after the cycling is complete, correct?
6.Any suggestions for what type of corals should I keep, easy to keep?

Again thanks for looking and any suggestions please advise.

Regards,
Saltybee