First SW Tank

[makana]

I recently started my first sw setup and was hoping you could answere a few questions for me.

I started a 10g nano with sugar sand, 10lbs base rock, 2lbs live rock. My goals is to seed the base rock with the live rock.

The cycle is almost finished. I had a diatom bloom at the height of amonia levels wich quickly died off, and now have a second bloom. I also seem to be having a bloom of hair algea.

When is an apropriate time to begin adding the clean up crew? Once the cycle is done then the bacteria are there for the nitrogen cycle, but is that enough for proper live rock filtration? Should I be waiting until my base rock looks more like my live rock, or is it considered live at the end of the cycle?

Does anyone have experiance seeding base rock?

Thanks!

[Skimmerking]

Welcome to Canreef, your tank when it reaches
AMMONIA-0
Nitrites-0
Nitrates-0
then you are ready to put in a clean up crew. your base rock will seed evenually it doesn't happen over night remember, i it depends on the type of BASE ROCK that you have. if you have rock that is pretty much not porous then IMO you wont get it to seed that well. If the rock that you have is very pourous then you are on your way. Rock should be very pourous if you can get it. it allows for many critters to get in the rocks to eat what ever is laying around in there too.
if you can manage to get more Live rock that better for your little tank. I would probably ask around lots of people could let a small piece here and there go for pretty cheap too.

[Patrice]

Originally Posted by makana

Does anyone have experiance seeding base rock?

I have some experience with that. I started just like you and now have much more live rock. I think it took a little while for my base rock to become "live". For sure, the more live rock you have, the less time it take to seed the base rock.

How old is your tank now?

Personally, I would start adding some live stock after the last ammonia pick.

[makana]

The tank is only 2 1/2 weeks old. The amonia dropped to 0 about 4 days ago. Last night the nitrite was down to 0.1ppm. Nitrate has always been 0.

I knew going this route that it was going to take time to seed. I was planning on 4-6 months to seed everything. However, things seem to be moving a lot faster than I had thought. The cycle is nearing an end already and I have coraline patches on my powerhead already.

There is a snail living in the live rock but its not doing much in the way of cleaning. So if its not too soon I will add a small crew once the cycle is done.

The base rock is very porous, it looks like old reef rock. I believe its tufa. I am a little unsure though on when I can add fish. Is the base rock an adequate filter because of the bacteria it gained from the cycle or is it an adequate filter after 6 months of critters, and algea, etc.?

[ElGuappo]

IMO i would add more LR aswell, but i would do it sooner than later. i have had spikes due to die off on on the trip from the LFS to my house and this caused a small cycle.

[makana]

My understanding is that over time there will be no differance between live rock and the base rock. It should develop the same beneficial bacterias and algeas as the live rock, as well as the micro-organisms.

I don't disagree that more live rock would be beneficial and add biodiversity. However, the tank can't hold more rock and adding more live rock would defeat my reasons for choosing base rock.

I had originally considered making agrocrete, but decided it wasn't worth the time for such a small amount. I read a lot of really good articles on people who have had a lot of success with large quantities of agrocrete seeded from live rock. Although if anyone has had any negative experiances with trying to seed base rock I would like to hear them.

I guess what I'm really trying to find out is with my setup when is it safe to add the clean up crew and when is it safe to add corals and fish?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

It may take months for base rock or dead rock to become fully "live". I use base rock as the "base" of my rock structures, but much prefer to look of nicely shaped LR.

Anthony

[Patrice]

IMO you should wait a little more. As you said, the tank is only 2 1/2 weeks old.
Yes more live rock would help lot but you can do with what you have if you are willing to wait a little.

[makana]

Thanks for all the replies!

I'm not in any hurry fill the tank and cause problems. I really want this to be successfull.

From what I have read it seems that most people are saying that around 3 months you can no longer tell wich rock is wich. I am waiting for all my levels to stabalize so I can monitor them for a while and learn what the levels do and what to expect.

I do have what apears to be aptaisa so I would like to get something in their to take care of it before it spreads. As well I don't want the hair algea to get out of control, or should I worry about that?

When would you recomend adding some clean up crew? Would you wait until the the base rock looks the same as the live rock before adding fish and coral?

My setup seems to be outside the cookie cutter mold so I am having a hard time finding information on what people have done.

Again, thanks for all the replies so far!

[Carmen]

Once you've seen NO spikes of Ammonia or Nitrates for a period of time (I waited til I was clear for atleast a week)then you are probably safe to add in a few members of your CUC. Go slowly and watch them carefully and continue to monitor your levels. Start with just a few snails and see how they do. Make sure there is a good "bloom" of algae before they are added though or they will starve.
Everyone will tell you something different as to what is the right way. Use your discression and monitor your levels and you should be fine. Keep in mind that it takes a very long time (Like 6 months +) to establish appropriate bacterial populations to keep your tank healthy and privide the filtration your tank needs. I am NO expert - still new myself - but have learned (the hard way in some cases) to go slow.
I too started with some base rock and some live rock. It takes very little time before you can tell the difference between live and base.
Have fun! This is the funnest part is the FIRST additions!