Quote:
Originally Posted by Acipenser
I have had my 26G bowfront up and running since saturday have over 25 lbs of live rock and a 1 to 2" bed of sand, 2 power heads and the temp is about 79 F do I need to "feed" the live rock, and when can I add fish ?
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you may not need to feed ill get to that in a minute
first thing you need to do now is buy a test kit most importantly being the amonia,nitrite,ph and nitrate.
once you get your kit you need to test for amonia every few days and wait to see a reading come up once that reading dissappears you should start to notice nitrates are starting to appear.
once this has happened your tank will be cycled.
basically your waiting for your liverock to grow enough bacteria that it can consume harmful amonia and convert it into less harmfull nitrates...nitrates can be manually removed via water changes,skimming,good husbandry,nitrate removing media.
so you may not need to feed your tank if you bought uncured liverock which is liverock that has spent a considerable amount of time in transit or out of water.....basically dieoff happens in and on the rock from being out of its ideal water conditions, the die off creates amonia which is food for your bacteria and then again gets turned into nitrate.
if your live rock is already cured(came from an established tank or has been in a cycle bin for a few weeks) then you may not notice a large rise in amonia and then you can add a cocktail shrimp or some flake/pellet food...the food or shrimp will rot which will also create amonia.
dont add any fish untill you are absoulutekly sure your amonia has been at zero for a solid week the longer the better, and then appropriately sized fish for your aquarium but add them slowly 1 every couple weeks.
at this time your also ready for hardy beginner corals , and you will want to buy a test kit for alkalinity,magnesium, and phosphate.test these and get them to where they are supposed to be.
go slow trust me it will pay off if you do rushing is the last thing you want to do. it will be a few weeks before your ready for fish.
before adding fish and your amonia is cleared up you may want to con sider adding a clean up crew of snails,crabs,shrimp etc depending on your preference
theres def alot more to it but thats the basics if you have any questions feeel free to post them here or pm me
cheers and welcome to the salt water hobby its awesome