how to proceed

[StephNewman]

Got all my parts for the tank, now starting to add the water. What should I do from there for cycling? Should I turn the skimmer on immediately? Should I turn the lights on and off as if stuff was already in the tank? Should I start filling it with live sand and rock, I already have quite a bit of sand in there and was planning on placing the top layer of my sand from my 72 gallon in when closer to transffering inhabinants time. Should I go ahead and put a cupful or so in to kick start things? Not sure where to go from here.

 

[latazyo]

add live rock....
set lights on a 6 hour schedule or so.....
turn on skimmer....
test water.....
relax for a while....
test water....
do water change.....
relax for a while....
test water....
do water change.....
relax for a while....
when all parameters are good...
add a fish/cleaning crew/hardy coral....
resume regular photoperiod...
relax for a while....
test water....
do water change.....
relax for a while....
remember not to add anemones and crabs for a longer while...
resume relaxing and enjoying tank...
test water...
water change...
etc

 

[Gooli]

it's quite simple really...

get the salinity to approx 1.026 and temp to approx 80.

Add all the sand and all the live rock.

let the skimmer run and do a normal day\night light cycle (although its not terribly important at this point.)

The next step depends on more details that you have yet to provide.

Is all the rock cured that you are putting in? is it all from the pervious tank? how much rock are you putting in to what size tank?

 

[StephNewman]

My previous tank is still up and running and is a 72 gallon, I am starting a 180 gallon. I plan on transfering all the rock from my 72 to the 180 when it has cycled due to almost all of the rock having corals located on them. Hope to get some live rock from RC members that are selling or giving away or buying some from LFS to put in the tank first. I had alot of sand givin to me from the previous tank owner so that is why the sand part is pretty much taken care of but could probably use alittle more that is actually living, which i can get from my own 72 tank or someone else that is needing to give some away.

 

[Hobbes8017]

Latayzo

Is there anything particular you are supposed to do while you "relax for awhile...."

any particular beverage she should have on hand???

 

[Gooli]

i recently upgraded from a 90g to a 180 myself

you need to have about 180 lbs of live rock in the new tank in order to have enough bacteria\bio-filtration to deal with the waste. so i recommend you add enough rock as soon as you can.


good luck.

 

[StephNewman]

thanks

 

[Im Lon 2]

Also Note: you will not go through a cycle until you start adding Live sand/rock to the tank. And even then if all the rock is fully cured, and not out of the water for a long period of time you may hardly go through a cycle at all.

 

[latazyo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8880142#post8880142 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Hobbes8017
Latayzo

Is there anything particular you are supposed to do while you "relax for awhile...."

any particular beverage she should have on hand???

typicall beer is consumed whilst relaxing...my beer of choice is represented in my avatar...although the civilized world may beg to differ


Steph, its pretty diffuclt to ruin your tank/have a disaster in the beginning...the only real disaster than can happen is adding fish and corals too soon

you gotta be patient...

other than that...like all have said...throw some light on that live rock and let it buck