New 28G FOWLR Setup

[JJ83]

A few days ago I started setting up my empty 28G. After a few hours of day 1 I finally was able to get my salinity right and got some live sand in the tank. I went and got some live rock the next day, but only ended up bringing home 5 lbs :headshake2: The guy there told me that I should just buy a few damsels and not worry about the live rock until cycled. I ended up with the live rock because I figured it would help the cycle and 2 Chrysiptera parasema (Yellow Tail) and 1 Dascyllus melanurus (Four Stripe). After some research I think I will be taking the damsels back pretty soon as I see they are agressive. :mad2: Im pretty upset with myself as I always research the hell out of things for my freshwater, but was stupid and impulse bought the fish for this one.

Sorry for my useless rambling Here is a pic of the tank I just took. The hideous structure in the middle will be removed once i get more live rock. I felt sorry for the fish with nothing to hide behind.

 

[Catpicklesdog]

It is preferable to get all your live rock at once to get it all cycled at the same time. Personally I don't agree with using fish to cycle a tank. Here's a link with cycling information that might help.

 

[JJ83]

Yeah, I've heard that it is better to get all live rock at once, but when I found it to be over $9 a pound I needed to get some somewhere else. I will have it all within the next couple of days hopefully. As for cycling with the fish, I agree with you and I don't normally do it this way. Something got the best of me and I went against my better judgment. The tank has been running 4 days now, 3 with fish and rock and my ammonia is 0, nitrIte is 0, PH 8.4, Alk is somewhere between 1.7-2.8 which reads normal, haven't tested nitrAtes yet, and the fish seem to be doing well. I figured I would have an ammonia reading atleast so I'm confused.

 

[im_a_tidyman]

wen i first started i did the same, except put in 12 kilos of LR, the (4) damsels i put in survived it, and i didnt suffer no cycle (LR was already cured, really fresh infact)...the nasty part was gettin the damsels out and taking them back, as you just pretty much used them, ive cycled a few tanks since and i would never resort to putting damsels in, if the LR is already cured, you may have winged it.