Adding TBS to existing system

[Bortass]

I recently upgraded my 55g to a 120g tank. I'm considering ordering a package to fill out the tank. The contents of the 55 are already in the 120. Part of the deal with the wife...

This is roughly what I have in the tank currently:
70 - 90 lbs of Florida aquaculture LR. I collected this over the last 11 years from a LFS. So I'm not sure the exact amount.

An inch or two of sand. I only moved a little sand from the 55 over, the rest is all new. So it's not very live.

1 Bicolor Angel. He was added about 2 months ago, before I new the 120 was even a possibility.

1 rock with green 'shrooms.
1 rock with some Zoo pylops.

Cleaning crew is:
1 peppermint shrimp
1 of the brown 'turd' cukes
10 or so hermits of various sizes
6 or so Astreas
5 narrisarus(sp?)

The tank was setup about 3 weeks ago. Amm, nitrate, and nitrite are all reading 0. If I had a mini cycle it was real short.

What size package would you recommend? I want to fill out the tank and want alot of diversity but I don't want to put the existing inhabitants at risk.

 

[figuerres]

Check out this page:
http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/thepackage/contents.html

and the package chart on:
http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/thepackage/package_chart.html

look them over.... you might pick a "Package" that gets you close to the right numbers in the formula ....
depnds on what you really want to do... do you want a DSB or a bare bottom ? you can order ala-cart at a higer cost if you just want to cherry-pick some stuff...
sounds like you could take most of a full package for the sand and livestock.... but about half the rock I guess...

perhaps a 90 or 100 package ??

 

[Bortass]

I've been checking out what posted on the TBS site. I've also poked around the real big "Our TBS" thread. That's one of the main resons TBS 's package has pique my interest. I love bio diversity

The biggest thing will be how much can my system cycle w/o impacting what I already have. I'm real thin on the cleaning crew but I'm leery of adding much more until after I get the rest of the rock in place.

 

[figuerres]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8803103#post8803103 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bortass
I've been checking out what posted on the TBS site. I've also poked around the real big "Our TBS" thread. That's one of the main resons TBS 's package has pique my interest. I love bio diversity

The biggest thing will be how much can my system cycle w/o impacting what I already have. I'm real thin on the cleaning crew but I'm leery of adding much more until after I get the rest of the rock in place.

well if you plan ahead and get a bunch of big holding tubs and make up a lot of water then you can be ready to chnage water every day or two for a while and that will help a lot.

if the sand and rock get to you in good shape and you have a good skimmer and such then the cycle may be very light... depends on things like what is on the rock and how close you watch the amonia spikes and chnage water to keep it low.

I have a 90 - I just got last week, moved a lot of sand and rock from my old 55.

from what I have seen so far my "cycle" was almost a non-event.
but that was about 70bls live sand and about 100bls live rock moved from old tank to new tank in about 8 hours.

then I added about 60bls of fresh tbs live sand the next morning and let things settle in.

sun,mon,tues,wed - no amonia at all.
n2 was trace amts on sun,mon
zero on tue,wed
n3 has a trace but not much,
I have a bit of stock added tonight and some more tomorw so I'll have to test each day for the next few days and see...
also I have about 30-40 galons of new chnage water ready just in case...

can you hold some things in tubs for 2-3 days just in case ??
snails and crabs and shimp will not like any amonia spikes ...

shrooms seem to take almost anything - at least from what I have seen.