Various questions from newbie
- Thread starter nevpugh308
- Start date
a book i would recommend nevpugh, is Robert Fenner's "Conscientious Marine Aquarist". Most fishkeepers consider it to be the "bible" in marine fishkeeping.
as in most cases in this hobby, you will get about 15 different opinons on one thing, but as for seeding a tank with live rock, most people add it all at the same time. and the bacteria from the live rock will spread to the tufa rock, but dont expect the tufa rock to have a bunch of coralline algae on it (it won't look "live").
as for cycle - throw in about 2-3 raw cocktail shrimp from the grocery store. then wait for your readings, ammonia mainly, to be at 0.
as in most cases in this hobby, you will get about 15 different opinons on one thing, but as for seeding a tank with live rock, most people add it all at the same time. and the bacteria from the live rock will spread to the tufa rock, but dont expect the tufa rock to have a bunch of coralline algae on it (it won't look "live").
as for cycle - throw in about 2-3 raw cocktail shrimp from the grocery store. then wait for your readings, ammonia mainly, to be at 0.
I am not at all familiar with that title, but I do know that this hobby is evolving almost daily and many opinions that are only 5 years old are woefully out of date.
It is no slam on the author- but hard copy publishing just cannot be as cutting edge as is needed in a rapidly expanding knowledge base.
Almost everything I have seen suggests adding all of your live rock and getting the tank cycled first thing. The live rock is the "rock upon which this tank is built"- it is central to almost everything from aquascaping and coral placement to the all important biological filtration.
Every time you add more live rock there will be some die off that will once again throw the tank into a mini cycle. Why not just get that part done once and for all?
Once the rock is in and the tank is cycled then begins the long process of the tanks maturation- I strongly urge you to read this thread on another forum.
This alone convinced me to set up my tank, add the live rock and clean up crew, and just let things be for a few months. I feel that in the long term view this will provide my reef with the best chances for success.
I read the Marine Aquarium by Dakin as my fist source of information. although it was copyrite 1996 and updated for reprint in 2002 I had to forget much of what was explained about equipment/start-up. I also found several inconsistancies through out the book.
