New reef question

M

mmcneall

New member
Hello,

I just got back into saltwater after about 10 years. Decided to wait until I had the money to do it right. I have a 200 gallon tank with a 55 gallon sump.

I purchased 200lbs of live rock. The rock seemed in very good shape as it had very little dead animals and the sponges still looked alive. I pulled them off.

I also added about 110 lbs of live sand from a friends tank that was just out of his tank about 2 weeks in buckets with saltwater.

I am using bioballs to start and will remove after everything is running well. I also have a protien running and a activated charcoal filter pad in part of the sump just until everything is cycled well.

Ammonia level is 0. Nitrate level is around 40. Salt is about 1.22 (was recommended to leave a little low to speed cycle) Water is 75 degrees same as salt will raise to 78 after cycle.

I can put a cocktail shrimp in but I was wondering if there is something else I should be checking. I used RO/DI water as well. Calcium looks good phosphates are good and PH is good.

I was antipicipating an ammonia increase of some sort with the amount of animal life that was still on rocks, but maybe not the right type of animal life?

Thank you for your help.

Mike
 
I can remove I see some people say good for initial start to get additional filter until cycle then take a few every day until gone. I can remove though if you think I should.
 
ok ty, should I just put a cocktail shrimp in the tank to get the ammonia going. Or just let it cycle and keep monitoring the nitrate/nitrites?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14671579#post14671579 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ihopss
Why are you starting your tank with bio balls,I would not do this if it where me.
Click to expand...

+1... sock set up would be your best bet especially for a reef tank.
 
I agree with every one here, take out the bio balls, and let your new system do it's thing. I would get the salinity and temp up to running levels as well but thats just my opinion. Also I wouldn't wast time on checking levels for about two weeks. Just sit back and wait. Take this time to research the livestock you want to add!
 
You could raise it as you do normal water changes or take some water out of the tank and mix the salt and then add it back in ( just don't add the salt directly to your tank). Don't worry about it too much though.
 
+1 for the no shrimp.

If your ammonia is 0 and your nitrates are not..then you are probably DONE cycling. When you start with that much good live rock, you could see absolutely ZERO ammonia spike. Any die off in the live sand/live rock could be easily handled by that much filtration....let's just say I just had the same experience in my 240g. I had so much good live rock that the only spike I saw was in nitrates from the end results of the die off I had.

Just check nitrite once and if that's zero you're ready to go with fish. Do some higher salinty water changes to get the nitrates back down and the salinty up to where you want it, but you're in good shape.

I'd also start looking at a cleanup crew...snails, crabs, cukes, shrimp, whatever floats your boat. :) But get the salinity up first...some inverts don't like change. :)
 
Nitrites test showed under .2 the lowest test. Showed 0 on the high test. I did a 5 gallon water change Phosphates before water change showing little under 1.0.

Does the low and high nitrite test both need to be absolutely clear 0.
 
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