Newbie... for the 2nd time... Need advice

[RuninRonin]

Hello, First post but, have been reading posts here at AC for some time...

A little background. I started 5 years ago. 55g acrylic tank, 2 powerheads, skimmer, fluval 404, heater, and UV sterilizer. It was a FO tank, had crushed coral substrate and some lace rock. I had this tank going for almost 5 years, the last 3 years it had 4 ihabitants, a blue tang, a pair or perculas, and my pride and joy, a emperor angel. Everything was fine and dandy until... we moved.

The day comes when I moved the tank. Had a bunch of 5g buckets from Home Depot, saved about 35g of my original water. Got the tank setup at the new house, poured the water in, placed the rock, and plugged in the electronics, everything turned on... except my fluval. Put the fish in so they didn't get cold but, couldn't get my canister filter going. Then both powerheads go dead! My LFS closed about 3 hours before all this happened and they were closed on the next day...

Long story short... They all died!

So, I started to setup the tank once again. I bought another Fluval 404, 3 Maxi-Jet 1200 powerheads, kept my SeaClone skimmer, the UV sterilizer, and same heater. I ordered 55lbs of Live Rock which should be coming in a couple days so here is where I am at:

I have placed 2 bags (100lbs) of sand (sandbox sand from Home Depot) in the tank, leveled it out. Running 2 powerheads, the heater, and the Fluval 404. Filled the tank to about 60% and got my salinity to 1.024 and temperature to 79 degrees. I did all this last night.

I placed one cocktail shrimp (yeah, I read that thread) this evening. So here are my questions...

Should I wait till I complete the cycling before adding the live rock?
Should I buy damsels to help with the cycling?
How come I can't get my powerhead to aerate for proper skimmer functioning? water is coming out of the air valve.
Once the shrimp has disolved... is that when I should add the clean up crew?
What is the recommended clean up crew? How many snails, shrimps, crabs? and which ones.

My overall goal is a small reef. I will be upgrading my lighting to support invertibrates in the next couple weeks... I doubt I'll go for MH because, I do not want to deal with a chiller. As for fish, I know I want a pair of clowns again, doubt I'll want any more than 4-5 small fish.

Thanks in advance for the advice,

John

[stephenray75]

you can add the LR now if you want. make sure the sand you got is southdown and not the quickcrete play sand. that will cause alot problems since it contains high silicates.

[OrionGirl]

Quickcrete play sand is fine, the silica in silica sand is in the same form as a glass tank, it won't cause any problems.

Are you getting cured or uncured rock? Cured, or very fresh as from TBS, you should be able to add now, and it will likely drop the ammonia levels very fast. Uncured--you can add it now, and it will take a while to drop, but not a problem.

No. The damsels will be harmed by spikes, and then will need to be removed--no benefit to the tank at all.


Give it a while--in a new tank, there's not much to be removed (I wouldn't run a skimmer during a fishless cycle anyway).


Don't add the cleaners until the ammonia levels drop to 0, and nitrates have been reduced with a large water change. In terms of numbers--I prefer more snails than crabs or shrimp. I'd go with 5-10 astrea, 20-30 mix of nasarrius and cerith--but not until the tank has established a bit. Start with just a few, and add more down the line. For crabs--depends on the species--I don't like large populations of hermits, but 5-10 are okay. Ditto for shrimp--some like groups, others prefer to be solo.

What lights are you going to run?

[woninil]

I chose to remove the shrimp once the ammonia was up there-it really stunk and the tank is in my kitchen area near where we eat-yuck

I had 2 in a 29

Things went remarkably quick imo

[RuninRonin]

OK... The 55lbs of live rock came in today. It's in the tank now, haven't decorated it yet. First observation... I need more live rock.

Quick question, I have some lace rock from my original tank, thinking about putting it in the tank as well, on one side of each of the 3 large pieces I have is colored green (algae). Can I throw it in or do I need to clean that off first?

[OrionGirl]

I'd remove some of the algae--no need to introduce it. Should be fine to use though--lace rock is porous and quickly colonized.

[RuninRonin]

Thank you OrionGirl, I did just that a few days ago, My ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates have gone up a little bit, still waiting to complete the cycle. I was able to remove what looked like a gorilla crab!

New question... my heater is set to 76 degrees on the knob but, my digital thermometer is reading 81 degrees! The temperature has increased by 1 degree each day for the past 4 days??? Why???

Thank you, -John

[OrionGirl]

Couple things to consider. First--did the heater sit unplugged in the tank for 15-20 minutes? If not--unplug it, let it sit for about 30 minutes (since it has been on, it will need to cool down), then plug it back in. They do need this calibration to be accurate.

Second--can you confirm with a second thermometer? Always good to verify before worrying too much.

Third: Lighting? Pretty much all lights will produce some heat. In a closed canopy, this heat is trapped and will increase the temp of the water and the evaporation. I use 2 fans in the canopy of my reef--even with MH running, the tank stays steady at 78. If you can open a door to allow a bit of air flow, that will help--but you have to watch out for jumpers that way. I'd also plan on testing salinity a bit more frequently until you get it straightened out--the increased evaporation really can impact salinity.

[RuninRonin]

Update:

I am approching 6 weeks into my cycle. Some numbers:
pH= 8
Ammonia = 0 (was as high as 5ppm)
Nitrite = 0 (was as high as 5ppm)
Nitrate = 5ppm (going down but was off the chart 2 weeks ago)
Salinity = 1.029 (1.023 at start of cycle)
Temp: 81 degrees

So it looks like my cycle is almost done. The temperature is still bugging me, I have not had the ability to check with another thermometer but, I'll try to do that. I did unplug it for 1 hour then replugging it, yes it seemed to help but, the temperature is still a bit high. The dial on the heater says 75 but, it's 81 on my digital thermometer.

Lighting, I bought a new light setup with 2- 65W Dual Actinic, 2 - 65W Dual Daylights, and 4 lunar lights. I love this thing! Has a fan in the canopy to keep things cool too. Currently it's setup to run the actinics between 2-10pm, daylights between 12-8pm, and lunar lights the rest of the time. Any advice here???

Salinity is also a little high, I am guessing when I do a water change that it'll take care of that.

I've got some algae growth, brown "hair" algae on the top of some of the LR and a small bit on the sandbed. I think I had my lighting on too long for a few weeks. Clean up crew should take care of this right?

So far so good... I guess.

So, as soon as my Nitrates go down a little more, Can I introduce the cleanup crew?

Thanks again,

John

[OrionGirl]

You actually have to ADD freshwater to compensate for evaporation--you do not want the salinity fluctuating in between water changes, and trust me, adjusting salinity through a water change is not easy.