New tank setup--Advice needed

[jhuitt25]

Here is my setup:

25gal tank
20 pounds arag live sand
instant ocean salt
penguin 350 bio wheel
kents marine buffer
marineland heater
hydrometer/thermometer combo

Started cycling with 2 damsels, about a week into it, I got a brown algea forming on the sand, and a little on the side of the tank. About 3 weeks in the algea started to disappear. Now I am at 30 days and the algea is gone. My LFS tested my water and said it was done cycling and the ph and everything was OK.

Now I want to add live rock and inverts, this is where I need help. Someone told me that I should have used live rock from the beginning, because adding live rock now will make it cycle again. Is this true?

I have found live rock online for about $3/lb(Fiji), where it is $6/lb at LFS.
Any advice, good or bad experiences, about the addition of LR would be helpful. How much should I purchase for 25gal?

Also, the inverts, what would be a good combonation of inverts to add? I think I will trade the damsels for some clownfish. How many could I put in a 25 gal tank?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Max]

Ok, first problem is your tank is cycled for two damsels at this point and you'll really need to run a cycle again before adding other fish. Other wise you'll have mini cycles everytime you add a new critter.
If you don't want to go through another cycle all you need to do is add curred l.r. It will have a lot of the needed bacterial already in place and pretty much anything that could die off already has.
On the other hand you could order the fiji or other l.r. off line ," get rid of the Damnsels what ever you do they are a huge p.i.t.a". Let it cycle for 6-8 weeks ,"usually anyway sometimes longer sometimes shorter." and then add fish and critters.
When you say inverts are you talking about snails, shrimp and crabs or corals? If you're talking about hermits I'd go with red reefs and get about 1 per 3 gallons of h20 to reduce aggression/snail murder issues. Get as many different types of snails as you can IMO the smaller ones do a lot more work for you than the larger turbos etc.
As to the clowns you can have one pair of the same variety in the tank. I'd get two young clowns at the same time so that they can work out who's going to be a girl and who's going to be a boy.
hth and keep us posted
Chris

 

[jhuitt25]

what is the difference between cured and uncured. Is it possible to get quality cured LR shipped through the mail, it seems that it would die off during shipping. If I add 20lb of cured LR, would I be ready to add different fish and inverts(yes I was referring to crabs, snails, etc., not corals).

 

[Max]

you can from places like http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/ Uncurred l.r. hasn't gone through a die off so when it's shipped usually wrapped in wet paper all sorts of stuff dies. When you put it in your tank it can bring your ammonia level off the scale. Curred rock is usually fully cycled .
b.t.w. tampa bay l.r. has a lot of critters and it's shipped in water. That's good and bad you'll have an instant reef but, there are lots of hitchikers some good some bad. Also a lot of the rock has so many critters that you'll have to clear some of them off to get your inverts in. Usually l.r. from lfs doesn't have may critters at all and you can just glue your critter into place no fuss no muss no bother. It just depends on the look you are going after.
keep us posted and welcome to A.C.!!