Back into reef tanks!

[Bcrowe2012]

Well after about 4 years of no tanks I finally decided to start a tank up. Ive had the equipment for a while so I don't have to buy much to get started. I'm using a 40 breeder with 20long sump/Refugim. This time I'm going to use primarily dry cured rock and cycle it with fish food. I plan on buying pods and mini brittle stars etc. once the cycle is done. This time I want to avoid swarms of aptasia and various other critters that hitch hiked on the live rock I had last time. Any advice would be appreciated as far as what to add and all that.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

It sounds like you have a good plan. I have the same basic setup, and also was away from the hobby but for more than 10 years.

 

[Bcrowe2012]

What brought you back to the hobbie?

 

[Fish Keeper82]

Id monitor phosphate after cycle. You might need some GFO as you are likely to have some high phosphate that will contribute to undesired algae growth.
i cycled mine as you plan to do yours and my dry rocks leached phosphate for 2 months after tank was cycled, also fish food will introduce a lot of phosphate since nothing is going to consume it.

After tank cycle I did a big water change, my PO4 was 1.41ppm took 2 months to get it down to an aceptable .03 ppm with GFO and 10 percent weekly water changes. No bad algae though.

There is a better way of chemically treating the dry rocks before hand to avoid this issue all together but i have never done it myself since i rather not deal with the chemicals.

 

[Bcrowe2012]

Hmmm...well I have plenty of time to wait, I'm in no hurry after I get it set up. I have gfo and a reactor so I'll be sure to set that up asap. I planned on using chaeto after the cycle is done as well. Thanks for the advice!