Is it too soon

[MrTuskfish]

Do you think I should add more than three large dead shrimp in the tank, I am still not seeing any rise in ammonia from 0 after two days.

Pretty tank! However, your impatience shows up in every one of your posts. You need to grow a lot of bacteria before you add anything alive. Nothing much happens in two days. You are weeks away from adding any fish. Read some of the stickys on the cycle in the new hobbyists section. I may be the most impatient person alive, this hobby has taught me plenty.

Also, please take the quarantine tank suggestions above seriously. IMO, a QT is just nice to have, its mandatory. If you don't get the QT running now; you won't be ready for fish when your new tank cycles. Now, that will drive you nuts. Imagine having to catch all of your fish in your new tank in order to treat them for something that could have been eliminated.

 

[TarheelReefer22]

Sorry to chime in so late but looking at your picture I have noticed something that might cause you problems in the long run. The first thing is that you have a large amount of natural light hitting the right side of your tank. This will cause your algae to grow at incontrollable speeds. I only know this because my 150 gallon mixed reef is beside two windows and even with blinds shut all day I have to scrape once a day to keep it in check. This scraping is done in addition to five tangs, 10+ small snail and two large turbos oh and a lawnmower blenny. The other problem I noticed is the amount of rock and the lack of swimming room. For a tank that size you can afford to lose I would say a quarter od them and brak them up into smaller groups or spread them out. This would be beneifical for fish only or corals. Good luck looking forward to updated pics

 

[Chi Town Reefer]

I normally keep the blinds all closed on the side of the tank since the window goes from the floor up eight feet, just happen to have it open during the picture to light up the room.

 

[Chi Town Reefer]

One of the reasons I may seem impatient is because I think I may be the most impatient person ever. Second is because I am comparing my experience to my last tank (my first reef tank), I used already cured live rock and live sand and I never even had a cycle in the tank. I was up and running with fish and coral in the tank within a week. This time I did everything different so I am finding that my knowledge has been forgotten so I am now going back and reading a ton again. Thank you all for all the comments and help. I have also took out about 200lbs of rock from the tank, the more I looked at it the less I liked it. I will post more pictures tonight hopefully. Thanks again.

 

[SushiGirl]

How deep is that sand?

 

[Chi Town Reefer]

The sand is between 3.5 and 5 inches deep

 

[Chi Town Reefer]

Here are a few more pictures. I have taken about 200lbs of rock from the tank since the first picture, still don't know if I like the rock layout as of yet. The middle section of the sump is going to have sand and Cheato that's why its empty. The calcium reactor is also not hooked up yet. The canopy covers are currently off. Please let me know if you see that I'm doing something wrong in the pictures.

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[maddmaxx]

what are the dimensions of the main tank?

and also you could break up some of the rock you took out and put it in the left side of sump with the filter socks. this can only help, and have major bonuses to doing this. it will add rock for beneficial bacteria to grow(best type of filtration) also be a mega huge condo for pods to grow, I would really consider this if you still have the rock...

 

[Henchman24]

Chi Town,

I'm not sure if you understand the new tank cycling process. Basically you introduce an ammonia source. letting several shrimp decay is good way to start, putting them in a mesh bag makes less of a mess. I would use a good 20 shrimp to start a tank this size. When you start seeing ammonia & the shrimp turn fuzzy slowly remove them. When you have ammonia present bacteria grows that breaks down the ammonia to nitrite. Then another type of bacteria grows & breaks down the nitrite into nitrate. If you put in fish without this bacteria to break down the fish waste they will most likely die or be really stressed. You should see an ammonia spike followed by a nitrite spike. I charted my 40 gallon cycle as an example. It is annoying testing every day or two to follow the progression but important to verify the cycle completes. when the ammonia & nitrite are back to zero after spiking up & the nitrates are 20 ppm or below it is safe to add fish slowly like 2 a week depending on the fish size. you should also make sure the specific gravity is 1.022 to 1.025 range before adding fish. I highly recommend you go out as soon as possible and buy some live rock to seed the dry rock to help speed up the process. Many small pieces spread around the tank would be the best. The live rock will already have the beneficial bacteria which will spread to the dry rock. The cycle can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months.

Good luck.

 

[Chi Town Reefer]

That's a great idea Maddmaxx, thanks. The tank is 96 x 24 x 24

 

[SushiGirl]

I like the look with less rock!

 

[Deinonych]

I like the look with less rock!

I agree.

Check out the aquascaping thread if you're looking for some ideas. I found this to be extremely helpful.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2217633&highlight=aquascaping

 

[jweintraub]

Gorgeous tank and setup. Can't wait to see how it all progresses!

 

[accordsirh22]

i for sure like the second scape over the first. and make sure you have a refractometer to check that salinity

 

[coral_lagoon]

CT that's a nice looking setup you got there. I like the lighting too. Yeah give the tank a good solid 2 months to cycle before putting any fish. Like someone mentioned, have a 29-40 gal. quarantine tank setup too. Very important to quarantine each fish before putting them in the main display tank.. :beer:

 

[Shallow Reef]

Very nice, look forward to see more.

 

[SDguy]

Like someone mentioned, have a 29-40 gal. quarantine tank setup too. Very important to quarantine each fish before putting them in the main display tank.. :beer:

100% agree. Also, if you don't plan on buying large adult fish, you can get away with even a smaller QT. My current one is only 15g.

 

[griseum]

If you are still cycling your tank, you should turn off your protein skimmer. This will help. Leaving it on only works against you.

Otherwise the tank is awesome. Like the lights. Are they the Tunas?

 

[Chi Town Reefer]

If you are still cycling your tank, you should turn off your protein skimmer. This will help. Leaving it on only works against you.

Otherwise the tank is awesome. Like the lights. Are they the Tunas?

The protein skimmer has been turned off. I ended up getting 4 of the A360W Kessils. I love the controllability of them.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

Much better with less rock in the main tank. Also, if you plan on keeping a sandbed that deep (5in or so you said), you should study up on deep sand beds. They have some benefits but also some negatives.