Few more quick questions Thanks

[Ricky1066]

What are frags? I think they are small pieces of corals sold sepratly I see a guy On ebay selling them on rocks? are they how you start?

Base rock? I bought 73 pounds of rock one really big one is what they said was the base Does that mean it has to be on the middle? It is big almost round and has some kind of sticks coming out of it that are hanging like they are broke ?

My readings are all zero except ph which to me is low at 7.8 and amonia is 0.50 Nothing has changed since day one .I ambeing told to add something to start the cycle ,Shrimp,Damsel.Crabs,

any more opinions

 

[rickofco]

You could add a little fish food to start the cycle.

 

[cpl40475]

A piece of cooked shrimp will also help the cycle. DO NOT use any of the additives that are supposed to help boost your cycle. As far as BASE rock it is basically dead rock you can place it anywhere in your tank. Buy some live rock to help seed your base rock. DO NOT use a damsel or anyother live fish while cyclying your tank.

 

[Fuzzfish]

Yes, frags are generally smaller pieces of coral taken from someone else's stock. And yes, try a piece of cooked shrimp in the tank to speed up the cycle. It is normal for your pH to be low in a new tank, mine stayed at 8.0 for 2 months. Hermits and snails are cheap and assist with the cycle as well as algae control, which you should probably be seeing soon.

 

[ksouers]

PLEASE DO NOT ADD FISH TO START THE CYCLE!

Just some fish food is all you need. Any organic matter that will decay. In fact, a small piece of leftover broccoli from dinner is sufficient.

How long has the tank been up? The fact that you are showing ammonia indicates the cycle has started. Probably from critters and organic material on the live rock. All others are zero because the cycle is just starting. Eventually you will have nitrites and then nitrates. Shortly after the nitrites show up the ammonia should start going down. It's possible to have readings on all three at the mid point of the cycle. The cycle has not ended until you get zero readings on both ammonia and nitrites.

Some people will say the cycle hasn't ended until the nitrates are also zero. I'm on the fence on that one. It may take a very long time to reach that point. Once the ammonia and nitrites are zero it's time for a water change. And to add some cleanup crew, you will probably start getting algae at that point.


Base rock:
Live rock usually has lots of small holes in it and evidence of life in it or on it. Base rock is usually more solid, few if any holes and no evidence of life, though there may be some. Base rock will eventually become live rock as more critters start to populate it and bore holes in it. It is usually much cheaper than live rock, many people use it as the base or platform to build their live rock on, hence the name base rock.


Yes, frags are just fragments of corals. Often attached to a small piece of rock or a frag plug, sort of an over sized golf tee.

 

[Ricky1066]

wHEN I went to the store Iwas charged for live rock the same price for all I am attaching a photo of what he said was the base rock it has already started changing colors and has some sort of sticks on the top as you can see .HE also said they were fiji rocks is that correct?
Also I was told raw Shrimp not cooked, So when do you guys think I should add some snails I was told another 2 weeks I have had the tank up for 9 days now

 

[Ricky1066]

I keep looking at it and it has sticks on top that look lke broken tress stumps and ther are alot of new colors formiong on it since i got it liek the red bottom ..

 

[ksouers]

The coloration is coralline algae. That's good. The "sticks" are probably tube worms. Also good.

The rock looks OK to me. It doesn't look like Fiji, but then it probably depends on where exactly in Fiji it was harvested. The Fiji that I've seen has been extremely porous, almost like a sponge. It's really hard to tell where it came from just looking at a picture, and you can't really tell just by looking at it, either. Over all it looks like a pretty good piece of LR, though.