New 30g Hex Tank

[snowman100]

Hi all,

Just got a 30g hex tank. I put in a bag of live sand and my mixed water.. Of course the sand stirred up like some monsoon came through. I also have an external canister filter. That's it so far.. I'm waiting for the sand to settle before doing anything else..

My plan is to add live rocks (cured or uncured).. don't know the difference, but was told to all uncured.

Hopefully this will be the start of a wonderful hobby...

Here's my tank, ignore the small filter on top.. it is gone now..

[Amphiprion]

Unless you are prepared to go through the proper steps for curing live rock (which entails lots of water changes and monitoring to save as much life as possible), I would stick to cured live rock.

[OgreMkV]

I agree totally with AP. Uncured is a pain in the butt. 50% water changes daily for two weeks or so... blech, never doing it like that again.

Personally, I now like the slower approach, which is a fair about of base/dead rock to which you add a smaller amount of cured live rock.

Pros: It's generally cheaper, you have a little more control as to what gets in your tank, there's minimal water changes (but watch the chemistry closely)

Cons: It's slow (slower to cycle and way slower until the dead rock fills in with coraline and cool stuff like that), you don't get as much life (hitchikers)

Any of the ways will work fine. I'm just lazy and don't mind watch coraline grow.

[snowman100]

Thanks... I don't want to be inpatient, but being very new to this.. the less complicated process is going to be the best approach...

My tank cleared up nicely... how long should I wait before getting the rocks?

[Blown 346]

I agree, Go with cured rock. It will help you prevent bad hitchhikers like unwanted crabs etc.

You can get rock now if you want. You will want to shoot for 1 to 3 LBS a gallon.

I just setup my 40 gallon hex with cured rock I had form a older setup. There fun. They are hard to scape due to there odd shape. Heres mine.

The day it was setup.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b115/plyboy1917/DSCN1544.jpg

[snowman100]

I wanted to update my tank progress..

I added my heater and 32lbs of live rock.. my first attempt at aquascaping.

Now some crabs for a bit?

[Amphiprion]

Very nice aquascape. I really like that, as it allows for plenty of swimming room and water circulation. Beyond that, it just looks good. I'm always a sucker for the minimalist aquascape, though.

[Blown 346]

Dont add any livestock until the tank fully cycles. Inverts like snails crabs etc are sensitive to any type of changes in water chemistry.

[snowman100]

Thanks for the advice... now this is a totally newbie question... how do I know when the tank fully cycles..

[OgreMkV]

test ammonia and nitrites daily. When the ammonia drops to zero start testing nitrites and nitrates daily. When the nitrites are zero, you're good to go... more or less.

[Blown 346]

Your nitrites will normally drop to zero first then the ammonia will fall off. But the ammonia might not fall off completly at 0. Once your nitrites are 0 and if there is still ammonia, do a water change. That will bring the ammonis down.