Quote:
Originally Posted by Myka
Assuming you bought rock from a store, this is very good advice. Even if you bought the system used and simply did a transfer to your home, there is no way your tank is ready for inhabitants the very next day. The person that told you that has limited experience and/or understanding of the nitrogen cycle. I agree that a Royal Gramma is likely to get too aggressive in a 10-gallon tank. Someone suggested Gobies, which would be a great option. Some Gobies pair up with Pistol Shrimp and make a very interesting display. Do a Google search for "shrimp gobies". All of the ones with reasonable price tags are easy to care for - just make sure they are eating before you buy them.
You will need an ammonia test kit and a nitrate test kit at the very minimum. If you want to keep costs down, API makes a reasonably accurate test kit for both of these. If you stick to soft corals you don't need other test kits, but monthly testing at an LFS for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium is a good idea. If you buy hard corals you should probably buy cal, alk, mg kits for yourself (Elos, Hanna, and Salifert are all ok. API not so much).
That aside, you need to monitor ammonia for the next week at least. If there is absolutely NO ammonia showing up then the rock was cured (cycled). Likely, there will be some die-off even in a tank transfer if the rock was exposed to air at any point for longer than a few minutes.
Please take a read through the link in my signature about curing live rock.
|
+1. Ur tank needs a cycle cured or uncured.
Livestock-wise. Gobies are small. So one can have a few in a ten gallon! They are rather interesting. A firefish or similar in size. On a side note, from experience with masked gobies. Redhead. And a coral goby, they have a knack for jumping. Lost a few souls to the linoleum until I caught on! Royal grammas, dotty backs are territorial, and the dotty back will create sandstorms from digging tunnels in the sand! A very interesting setup would be straight gobies/blennies (tailspot, two spot, bi color) with sexy shrimp cleanup crew. All nano creatures in a nano setup! Good luck! And for shame on the individual who tried to shortcut ya on the cycle! And money!