Vince's 55g Starter Tank

[vince0]

Hi Folks,

I've been reading on here for a long time, getting a little more comfortable with salt water tanks and the way they function. I've been keeping fresh water tanks for almost 15 years, with a focus on breeding. After seeing some of the reef tanks on here, and on display in some of the local stores, I decided that I may want to dip a toe! I've been doing research for over 2 years and finally decided to convert one of my tanks over to salt.

The tank is a 4ft 55g, with the back and sides painted mat black. It has a hang on tank Eshopps psk75h for skimming. A hydor-corallia 1050gph powerhead for circulation. The heater is a 150w ebo-jager submersible. The light is a 48" hagen glo, with a 10k and a 14k korallen-zucht bulbs.

I purchased 65lbs of Marco Key Largo dry rock from Red Coral in Calgary last week, and purchased 3lbs of misc live rock from them this weekend.

The salinity is currently as 1.021, the chlorine is gone, ph is at 8.2ish (i hate the colored strips, probably going to have to get me a ph pen in the near future.) Let's get this experiment started!

Here is a picture as of now

[vince0]

I guess I have a few questions regarding the set-up of this tank. I've been dumping brine shrimp in there, in the hopes of setting up a colony of sorts in the tank prior to adding fish. Im also curious if there is anything else I can do to help things along. Also, what do you folks figure is the next logical step to take, and when should I take it? I'm worried im not going to have enough bacteria to sustain the live rock I have in the tank... I hope I don't kill it :P

Thanks for reading so far! Feels great to start one of these!

Thanks

Vince

[Magma]

Time to cycle the tank IMO here is a great article about starting the cycle and what to watch for etc.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articl...ank/Page1.html

This is basic info about ammonia to nitrate
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articl...ate/Page1.html

[vince0]

Thank you! That was exactly what I was looking for! Looks like I'm headed to the grocery store tonight!

[fishytime]

Lookin good so far......that article should help you get things going.... You may however need to exercise a little more patience as far as your cycle goes due to ratio of live to dead rock.....looking forward to some updates...... Have fun with it

[vince0]

Are you saying I should add more live rock to the set-up, if I wanted this to jump along a little quicker? And also, with adding a couple dead shrimp, how long do i leave them in there? And should I put them anywhere specific, or is there somewhere that they will have the greatest impact.

I was also curious about adding a sand bed? I like the idea of sand, and wanted to get a symbiotic shrimp/goby combo, or at least try for it. What is involved in adding sand bed? What is the best time to add the sand bed? Should I wait until the tank is cycled completely?

Thanks again for the info, and any additional info is great!

[vince0]

I added 2 raw frozen shrimps to the tank last night, and when I go up this morning I found a lot of tiny dead shrimps and copepods. It would appear that ammonia is starting to register on the test kit. Also, since I added the raw shrimp, my skimmer has stopped producing micro-bubbles! Im starting to notice some alge and diatom growth. I can't wait for it to be safe to add more live rock

[lee9]

Originally Posted by vince0

I was also curious about adding a sand bed? I like the idea of sand, and wanted to get a symbiotic shrimp/goby combo, or at least try for it. What is involved in adding sand bed? What is the best time to add the sand bed? Should I wait until the tank is cycled completely?

I have a Yellow Watchman Goby and Tiger Pistol Shrimp pair. In hindsight, I wish I would have used a coarser substrate for my sand bed. I currently have a mix of fine live sand and aragamax sugar-sized sand. The Tiger Pistol Shrimp is like a little bulldozer. It's a permenant construction zone at the bottom my tank. haha It's cool to watch but it makes a mess of things with the fine sand. I can't really put anything right on the substrate or it gets partially buried. My bottom live rock gets a lot of sand on it too. My tank is very small though (28 gallons) so it probably won't be as much of a problem for you.

That's just my experience with the pair so far. I really enjoy them though.

[vince0]

Did you add your sand right away, or did you wait till later?

[Magma]

I added mine before I filled the tank, it still clouds the tank but not as bad, if you want to add it after it will take a day or 2 for the sand to settle and your tank will look white.

But then your rock will be touching the glass already and be more secure.