Starting a reef..

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Dinfink

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Feb 12, 2008
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I have a mont old 12g Nano Cube with about 3-4 inches of half live sand half crushed coral mix ( I understand crushed coral isn't reccomended but I like the looks of it). I used all boxed seawater (and added a small amount of instant ocean salt because I didn't like the low salinity level) I have between 15 and 17lbs of 6 year old cured live rock with a lot of nooks, tunnels, caves, a lot of hiding places. The salinity is at exactly 1.023, my ammonia is at 0ppm, nitrate, nitrite all at 0. Ph is at 8.2, KH is 18 drops. It is at 79 degrees. I have some diatom growth (I keep the light on about 12 hours a day =oX... I love to look at it)... and I've been doing 20% water changes every week. Everything has been at this level since day one, and there hasn't been any kind of spikes at all. I have 2 damsels and a green chromis (to help cycle), 2 emerald crabs, 2 halloween crabs, and 3 scarlet hermit crabs with lots of shells. All of the animals have appeared healthy and active for the past month. I'd like to add more live rock, and turn it into a reef. I want two clowns a starfish and a goby, and I've been waiting it out. The guy I bought the damsels from said I can bring the damsels back if need be once the tank is done cycling so I have room for my desired fish.

I've never had a saltwater tank, so I guess my question is... How will I know when it's done cycling? And how/when can I get started on my reef if I keep everything at these levels? Are these levels ok? I don't know what to add, or when to add it. I want anemones, mushrooms, polyps, corals, and I know it takes a long time to be able to add them, but just how long, and what should I start with?
 
Umm.. it's hard to believe the water thing. You should have seen a spike of some kind along the way...

I suggest taking a water sample into your LFS and have them run some tests as well. Most will do it for free or a small fee for the basic tests. Also take back the fish in your tank while your there.

If everything is good, then you can add 1 fish now. I highly suggest a goby and NOT a mandarin. Yellow watchman is a good choice, or any other small sandsifter. I like yellow clown gobies as well. Stay away from the engineer, they get huge. Mine is like 13" now.

The clownfish should be the last 2 fish and should be introduced in a pair.

Starfish.. be careful, most are hard to keep and the ones that are easy get big. (serpent and brittle stars).

You can put in mushrooms and/or zoanthids. I would recommend you rethink the anemone idea or else the rest of the corals. In a 12g tank there isn't enough room to have an anemone/clownfish and other LPS/SPS corals. Anemones have a very far reach and can sting most things (corals) to death.
 
you cant keep anemones in a 12g..

you already have too many fish for you tank.. and using fish during your cycle isn't very nice..

you shouldn't use crushed coral just because you like the looks of it, because it will cause you to have dirty water.. which will cause you to have dead corals and sick fish, and you don't want that, do you?

you probably want to use Reef Crystals by Instant Ocean instead of their regular salt mix because the added elements will be required by your corals..

you will likely want something that eats algae (snails)

if you are using the nano cube stock PC lighting, you can only keep soft corals. This includes (but not limited to): Xenia, Mushrooms/Ricordia, Zoas, Green Star Polyps, Leather corals

your tank may be cycled now but it seems weird unless you pulled your sand/rock out of another tank and right into this tank, especially with the fish you have..

i wouldn't worry about when you can add corals though until you get the other issues resolved, let the tank run stable for a period of time, and arm yourself with some knowledge.. you need to read ALOT..
 
The local fish store is where I got started. the KH was incredibly high and I didnt realize it... and the first damsel I had didnt make it. So I started over. I have taken the water sample to the store. I test it myself, and have read the instructions thoroughly. Its been a month since I put the new fish in. What's the reason why I must take the fish back while I'm there? Are they going to get sick? Fight? What? They seem healthy so far, and dont bother each other. Mushrooms, zoanthids, check. I think I would really rather and anemone over corals. Is that a bad decision?
 
Dinfink said:
The local fish store is where I got started. the KH was incredibly high and I didnt realize it... and the first damsel I had didnt make it. So I started over. I have taken the water sample to the store. I test it myself, and have read the instructions thoroughly. Its been a month since I put the new fish in. What's the reason why I must take the fish back while I'm there? Are they going to get sick? Fight? What? They seem healthy so far, and dont bother each other. Mushrooms, zoanthids, check. I think I would really rather and anemone over corals. Is that a bad decision?
Click to expand...

The main negative effect on the fish, when using them to cycle an aquarium is ammonia poisoning and burning of the gills. The majority of burning occurs inside, and is only seen when the gill covers are sliced off and the inside is inspected, after death of course ;)

I would not put an anemone in a tank of this size, i feel it is too small..
 
"your tank may be cycled now but it seems weird unless you pulled your sand/rock out of another tank and right into this tank, especially with the fish you have.." The rock was taken out of a 6 year old aquarium.

"you already have too many fish for you tank.. and using fish during your cycle isn't very nice.." The local fish store suggested this. He said damsels are very hardy, and they didn't show any signs of stress =o( . and 3 fish are too many for a 12 gallon? They're very small, maybe an inch and a half at most, and I was told I could bring them back once cycled, which he said would take about a month.. But I didnt see any spikes in ammonia nitrite or nitrate... so I wasn't sure when it'd be cycled.

"you shouldn't use crushed coral just because you like the looks of it, because it will cause you to have dirty water.. which will cause you to have dead corals and sick fish, and you don't want that, do you?" I don't want sick fish =o( and I know crushed coral can promote that, which is why I put all the sand in it. I didnt even use all the bag of crushed coral... so there is actually more sand. Is that just as bad?? =oX

"you probably want to use Reef Crystals by Instant Ocean instead of their regular salt mix because the added elements will be required by your corals.." I just chose the ocean water because it had really good ratings and reviews from many different websites, and I figured no mixed saltwater couls be possibly be better than water directly from the ocean? Maybe I was wrong? I tested it before I added it and everything was dead on as advertised. and I did add some instant ocean to boost the salinity.

"you will likely want something that eats algae (snails)" I want snails... how many would be a good number? I hear they can reproduce quickly and the baby snails can become a problem... is that wicked wrong?



"i wouldn't worry about when you can add corals though until you get the other issues resolved, let the tank run stable for a period of time, and arm yourself with some knowledge.. you need to read ALOT.." My question there was for what period should I let the tank run stable?
 
Ok so scratch the anemone...
I dont understand why there wasnt an ammonia spike? If there wasn't a spike could it still burn their gills?? And after a month could it still spike? I just don't get it. Could I be making too many water changes or something of that nature?
 
The reason you have not had a spike, i would suggest to you, is because you have use fully cured live rock. As this rock will be completly colonised with bacteria, any ammonia you have in the system is instantly broken down and converted through the nitrogen process..
 
were you doing water changes from the beginning? that could prevent much of a spike as well as having the rock.

The reason you have too many fish is because while those damsels are small now, they grow up, get bigger. you're extremely limited with the size of your tank to the fish. If you kept the current fish and put in the clowns and goby, you'd have more fish than I had in my 75gallon . . .
 
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