Changing 75 gallon over to Reef:Questions

Once I get high nitrates, I can add livestock, right? I know the times vary, system to system, but how long, between the nitrites to nitrates should it be, approximately? I've been running the tank for a week, now. I'm getting antsy. Even a few snails would be an improvement. Besides, I'm getting tired of waitnig for the polyp to die:cry:(and hoping it doesn't). Plus, it'd be nice to start off the cleaning crew. Any advice on impatience? :wall:
 
You can stagger the sequence for the lights coming on and off any way you like. Front to back, back to front -- it really doesn't matter. I'd still suggest having all 6 bulbs on at the same time for no more than 8 hours. 15 - 30 minutes for each pair of bulbs building up / coming down from that is fine if that's what you'd like, or you could even go a little bit longer.

Once you get back down to 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite and have measurable nitrate, then you can do a large water change to bring the nitrate down. After that, you can start thinking about slowly adding livestock. If you didn't have an appreciable amount of ammonia to begin with, you won't get a good indication of nitrite or nitrate to know if those bacteria have begun to really establish themselves.

My best advice on enduring the impatience... Think about all of the critters you'd like to start putting in the tank, then add up how much money you'll have lost if you put them in too soon and they start dieing off. If that's not a good enough way to get through this time, I'm not sure what else will be. :)
 
nitrates are hard on inverts, make sure and bring that level down to a managebale number before adding.
40 or less would be ideal
 
I'm terrible.

Thank you, for your advice. I bought some ammonia test strips, and there's very little ammonia, after a week. The live rock I bought was pre-cycled. I've heard that some new salt tanks don't go through a complete cycle. Could that be the case, here? The polyp is still alive, and has expanded, fully. My protein skimmers ran all night, and i had some brown water in the collection cups. They haven't exactly foamed, yet. I let them overflow, when I first started them up, as suggested, and they stopped overflowing. I added back the water taken out, and made up some more change water. I turned the lights down to eight hours a day, but I'm afraid it might be too late. I have lots of algae. I couldn't wait, and went to Petco, today, and bought a margarita snail, a couple cerith snails, and 4 red legged hermit crabs. I figured, if a zoa could survive, these should be okay. I know. I'm a horrible person. :FIREdevil: I just couldn't wait, and all my parameters are still within acceptable levels. I've been testing since I started it up, and no problems, so far. (except the algae.) Please, don't condemn me? I was lured in, by a zoa, and cheap livestock. :help2: I plan to check, every day, for ammonia, and do large water changes, when needed. So far, it seems that I'm not getting a lot of foam. I keep getting light brown liquid in the collection cup, but it seems like it's just fromt the bubbles popping, below the neck. If I adjust the level of water, so that the bubbles reach the top, I get really wet foam. I've lowered the level to where others have said it should be, but like I wrote. Very little foam.
 
The thing is you want to have a good cycle. once the new tank has gone through a good hard cycle the bacteria is established and stabilized and that is when you are ready for fish/inverts ect.
You don't want to rush anything.
The zoa was one thing when it came in as a freebie on the LR but buying livestock even if its crabs is just kinda cruel.
You WANT to see the ammonia in your tank, that means its working. let it kick without adding anything else and certainly no chemicals ect until the ammonia is no longer present, you should see a spike in nitrites and then nitrates as the cycle takes its course. you will likley see an increase in both nitrates and trites before the ammonia is even completley gone.
All of this is a good thing.
BE PATIENT!!!
Cheap livestock is not cheap if it dies and not fair to the critter
 
I need to be more patient.

I have higher nitrates, today, and zero ammonia. All the livestock are still alive. So far, I'm lucky. I just couldn't resist getting the snails, and crabs. It seemed like the tank had cycled, already. Is it possible that it has? The nitrates are a little high, but still within acceptable levels. The petco.com rock was pretty clean of organics, and the lfs rock was completely cycled before I bought it. It went a short distance to my house, and into my tank. Is it possible that the combination of favorable conditions led to a quick cycle? The ammonia is, actually, lower than yesterday, and the nitrates higher. The polyp has developed some lavender in it's center. I'm hoping it gets more colorful as time goes on. Any suggestions on livestock for a soft coral reef tank? I've tentatively decided on a firefish, two tank-raised percula clowns, some blue/green chromis, maybe some pajama cardinals(I'd rather have bangaii cardinals, but can't get any tank raised, locally.), a lawnmower blenny, and perhaps a yellow tang(the yellow tang is probably not going to happen, since they get pretty big, and have a large natural range.), maybe a peppermint shrimp or two, maybe another kind of goby or blenny(neon goby), maybe a yellowheaded jawfish. Does anyone have any ideas on those picks? Any suggestions for alternatives, if these are not suitable. I know I can't add them all, and some will probably not be compatable. I'm trying to distract myself from buying more livestock. I should have waited to add livestock. I hope the crabs, and snails live. So far, so good, but now I'm worried they'll die. I'll have to keep a close eye on my water parameters.
 
How long does it take to cycle?

I tested my water, today, and no ammonia, no nitrites, okay alkalinity, okay ph, and 20ppm nitrates(or so, it's a color chart, and hard to get exact readings). I did my second water change on it. A little over 10 gallons. My salinity is at 1.025. All the animals are alive, and kicking. :headbang2: The protein skimmers are putting out really dark foam, and working great. I cleaned the glass, filter cartridges, and filter floss. The temp. is 78F. After two weeks, will I still experience a cycle? I'm experiencing some filamentous algae, as well as diatoms. Any ideas on the stocking list I gave? I've been keeping my hands off the tank, with effort. No rearranging the rockwork, no new livestock, no feeding. I topped it off, with saltwater, to raise salinity. Should I feed the snails, and hermits or are they fine with the algae, and detritus in the tank? I was thinking I'd wait a week, and then add some more snails, and hermits. Bad idea? Too soon? Wait two weeks? Three, even? :drool: Total newbie, here. I haven't had a saltwater tank in years, and have forgotten most of what I knew, which wasn't much. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
 
So far, so good.

So, it's been, almost, two months, and I have a bunch of blue, and red legged hermits, and snails in the tank. I have not added any new live stock, since the beginning of the month(literally, the first, I think.), and am not sure how to proceed. I rushed, and bought the crabs, and snails, but would like to do this right, so, I'm waiting to buy any fish. How long should I wait? Until the end of the month? Is two weeks, after adding the crabs, and snails long enough? The algae in the tank has subsided, as I've done more maintenance, changed water, and generally, improved my husbandry skills. Amazingly, the polyp has reproduced, and I have a second polyp, about half the size of the first one, now. I noticed it shortly after the beginning of the month. I've read that polyps can produce new polyps every month. Does that sound about right? I haven't dosed any Kalk, but I have fed the snails, and hermits some algae wafers, and NLS marine formula pellets, as well as some shrimp pellets. I have several different kinds of snails, and believe I have Nassarius, Margarita, and Cerith snails. This is according to Petco, and there are several unidentified ones, as well. I bought a small clip on fan to cool off the tank, and have found that if I close my bedroom door it stays at 78F in the tank. I changed out my carbon, and phosphate remover, at the beginning of the month, and added bio-chem zorb to the canister filter. My main question is: When can I add fish? :goldfish::tropicalfish::dive2: Next would be: Are my fish choices acceptable? and last: How many fish should I add at a time? Thanks. Any suggestions would be appreciated.:1zhelp:
 
Light Duration?

So, now I have cyano.(red slime algae), because I upped the light duration, and overfed, I think? Fsn77, did you mean 8 hours day length just while cycling, because after it cycled, and I bought a few zoa polyps, I changed the duration to 12 hours a day? I had researched online, and I kept reading that normal duration was 12 hours a day, so, I upped it. Should I lower the duration, with two coral trees, and 10 or 15 polyps in the tank?
 
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