SaWEET!

[Sting]

Alright! I am psyched! It's been a little over a month and my tank is nearly cycled completely. This Saturday- I am heading over to TBS and buying around 30 lbs. of Live Rock for my first installment!!!

I am so flipping excited! You have no idea how hard this "patience" thing is for me- but I actually did it! The live rock will finish off the cycle with minimal die off since it's at the end (and since I don't want any sponges anyway) and then later that day I can buy my clean up crew!!!

Thanks for everyone's help. I have benefited so much from all your advice and I know I am off to a great start. It is so exciting to think about having actual living things in my tank!!!

The last question:

Do I add the clean up crew the day I put in the live rock- or wait until the next week? I leave town Sunday, and I will be gone a week, so my house will be empty. Do the inverts need to be fed or will they be fine on their own?

As of now I'm leaning on the "wait till next week" option, and letting the rock settle in while I'm gone. Then, when I get back I'll be able to buy the rest of my live rock, and then the detrivores!!

Here is my current stock plan, please notify me if there is any problems in this setup. Lists go in order of placement in tank.

Inverts:
25 Astrea Turbo Snails
15 Blue Leg Hermits
3 Peppermint Shrimp
3 Emerald Crabs
1 Brittle Starfish
1 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Fish:
Ocellaris Pair
Royal Gramma
Firefish
Coral Beauty Angel

Later Additions:
Polyps, Zoos, Feather Dusters, Mushrooms, Xenia, possibly Sun Polyps and a host anenome down the line.
But those are my corals and I'm going to wait at least 4 monhts for any of those.

Thanks for all your time! The fish will be added on a monthly basis, around 2-3 weeks after the initial inverts.

[OrionGirl]

Wait a week--plus maybe a few days. You'll find all sorts of hitch hikers come out of the rock, and you'd really kick yourself if you came home to find a mantis ate all your clean up crew.

Also--not sure if yoyu were listing them in order or not, but I would add the firefish, then the royal gamma, then the angel, then the clowns. The clowns will be the buggers, so you'll want to other fish to be comfortable and established before putting them in.

Otherwise, looks good! Congrats on sticking tough with the cycling!

[liquafaction]

how big of a tank do you have?

[kreblak]

Everything sounds really good, but I just want to mention something to you: blue legged hermit crabs can be real jerks. Sometimes they will kill a snail just to check out whether or not its shell will make a nice new home. You might think about buying red legged hermits instead. The choice is yours, and blues can be very effective at ridding the tank of algae, but I have had much more success with reds than blues.

[liquafaction]

I take it that hermits rid your tank of UNWANTED algae

[kreblak]

Hermits will eat anything they can. They will eat diatoms/brown algae, they will eat leftover bits of food that your fish don't get, and they will eat seaweed if they are able to reach it. I don't have any caulerpa or anything like that, so I don't know if they will eat beneficial algaes.

[liquafaction]

Could these guys be devistating to a reef aquarium? I was thinking about using pepermint shrimp, or hermits, or some sort of scavanger, in my reef aquarium. I would not think that I would want something that will eat anything though.

[mogurnda]

You will want some scavengers. Many people avoid hermits totally, others, like me, keep them around to eat things snails won't. The biggest worry people have is that hermits may reduce the worms and other good guys in your sandbed.

By the way, blue legs will eat caulerpa. I also had to move a shaving brush to the fuge because they kept uprooting and eating it.

Peppermint shrimp won't eat algae, but they can be a nuisance. Mine have eaten nerite and nassarius snails, and sandbed clams. They also steal food from slow, stupid creatures like anemones. The benefit is that I have never had a problem with Aiptasia and they make planktonic larvae for the ahermatypics to eat.

[liquafaction]

oh, this is gonna be so cool. To see what live is like under the water line. Every exotic or "abnormal" creature I have had, I have tried to create the perfect environment for them. I do not think that any of them is going to be near as fun and intresting as a saltwater/reaf/aquarium.

So much to learn though, but I got 3 months while this tanks cycles.........lol

[mogurnda]

I do not think that any of them is going to be near as fun and intresting as a saltwater/reaf/aquarium. Absolutely. Even if I had never added corals, there was so much to see.

[kreblak]

but I got 3 months while this tanks cycles

Your tank shouldn't take longer than 9 weeks to cycle. The longest time I have ever seen is 9 weeks. Especially if you are doing a fishless cycle, your water should be inhabitable (zero ammonia and nitrites) within 4 to 6 weeks.

Anyway, you will love the saltwater aquarium. Live rock alone is enough to create an amazing underwater landscape flush with biodiversity. If you add corals and sponges to the mix, it just makes things more fun. Plus, SW fish are, in my humble opinion, so much cooler than FW.

[liquafaction]

9 WEEKS......KEWL, the book I have been readind said 90-100 days with a fishless cycle, no liverock, and no bimedia filtration. Of course this books does not mention anything about using shrimp to cycle.

[BrianH]

What do you plan to use as a biological filter without LR or a filter w/biomedia?

Brian

[liquafaction]

I plan to use liverock when my tank has cycled

[kreblak]

What book were you reading that stated 100 days for a cycle? I have cycled two tanks, one with damsels and one fishlessly. The damsel cycle took 9 weeks. The fishless cycle with shrimp took 5.

[Sting]

Just an update- I got my live rock from TBS (around 30lbs) and I am freaking amazed. I cannot say enough. No way in hell can I say enough. It is the best stuff you can buy period. My tank looks so cool, and I am so pleased- there is so much life I am still finding new things after a week. I could go on and on (and no Mantis either ;)) but I already did on RC and I'm getting tired lol! I just can't say enough. I got three types of brains, snails, crabs, bittle stars, cucumbers, bristleworms, pistol shrimp, tons of sponges, feather dusters...the list goes on...forever lol. I will be putting up pictures soo- I am so happy!!!! I from now on- will always recommened TBS, and only TBS.

BTW, I paid 5$ a lb. for the "Corals on Rock" selection, and 4$ a lb. for the "Decorator Rock" and I got a mix of pieces I hand picked. A total of 130$ for a round 35 lbs. It was such a hard decision because all of it was so cool, and teeming with life- but I got some pieces with lots of holes and extensive rockworks so they fish and critters can swim through.

[mogurnda]

Good luck Sting! It will be a bit Darwinian in there for a while before you know who will adapt to tank life.

[latazyo]

you are acting wisely in waiting before adding the cleanup crew

yes, I have some very fast growing blue legged hermit crabs and they eat algae liek it's their job, but they also killed all of my astrea snails, they are pretty good hhunters, and I plan on replacing them with scarlets as they die...which they haven't started to yet!

[Sting]

Here are pictures of my tank!

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showgallery.php?ppuser=31264&cat=500&thumb=1

Hope you enjoy!

[kreblak]

Nice looking tank! You have done it right, and taken the time to let everything happen. Be proud of yourself and enjoy your tank!

[tmace64]

like that mad dog puppet from Conan Obrian;

DAHMM YOU!!! How DARE you flaunt your completed cycle to those of us still out here in the dark ages of the endless cycle - DAAHHMMM YOU!!!

jus joking - congrats!!!

[Sting]

Thanks guys! I am proud that I have done such a good job so far- but not in a concieted way ;) I've really enjoyed this process- and everything is going positive. Some diatomacious algea has shown up, but it hasn't spread throughout the tank, just some minimal spots here and there.

Later this week I am going to pick up my clean up crew- and then after another week or two- I can add my first fish!!!!!!!

WoHOOO!!!

[kreblak]

Just remember to quarantine your fish before adding them to the display tank. I quarantine for two weeks minimum. The one and only time I failed to quarantine a new arrival, it infected my entire tank with Ich. I didn't lose any fish, but the treatment process took 2 months and was a huge pain in the a$$!

[Sting]

I don't think I'm going to be quaratining. I don't have an extra tank, or any room for one. Also, if I were to get another tank for quarantining, I'd have to have it cycle again...I am not going to wait another month- I think I'll buy a cleaner shrimp and acclimate them very slowly- LOL. But really- I don't even think it's a possibility. Too much time, and not enough extra money. I think I'll just have to make sure i do things right when I start to buy fish, and acclimte them properly.

[kreblak]

I hear you on not having the room or the time! ;) However, one cup full of sand out of your showtank can cut cycle time in a QT to mere weeks. It's just like adding live sand, except you "grew" it yourself. I cycled a 29 gallon tank in 20 days using a 4 inch DSB seeded with two 16 oz cupfulls out of an established tank.

You don't have to quarantine, but you do need to have an action plan in place if one of your fish brings a disease into the tank. Of course, we'll be here if you need us...