new tank set up fish only

[mslade1979]

im setting up a 33g cube tank, looking for advice as i dnt want to get it wrong!! my stock as far is red sea prism deluxe 100g skimmer,fluval204 external with some bio ceramics,rowaphos,rowa carbon, r these suitable for the filter??????in line water polisher,uv light, hydor bioflo outlet for filter, and im using a inline de chlorinater for the water as i have no room for a ro unit! how much live rock shall i use??? im thinking 10 - 15 kg of figi????? am i on the right track with everything????? any help will be much appriciated !!! any advice on the stages of setup r also welcome, ie how long to leave tank b4 adding live rock, how long after live rock goes in to add fish! ive been told to leave as long as poss b4 adding fish to let the live rock flurish with inverts!!

 

[mslade1979]

also, i only have floresents for lighting which corals could i keep at a later stage????

 

[Jocko]

Wait so is it a fish only or are you going reef?

That's alot of filtration gear you've bought. My 20 gallon reef runs with only a skimmer and a refugium. Of course everyone has different opinions on that.

General rule of thumb is about 2lbs of live rock per gallon but that depends upon the density of the rock and on what you think looks good. More live rock gives more surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow, which means more natural biological filtration.

As far as how long to wait to add livestock, it mainly comes down to when your tank is cycled. If your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are zero then your tank is in balance. You can then add a little bit of livestock. Give the tank some time to rebalance itself after the new livestock before adding more.

As far as giving the life time to populate the rocks, you won't gain a benefit from waiting. In such an enclosed system, anything on the rocks that a fish is going to eat will be wiped out quickly once fish are in the system. So whatever life you got through waiting will just be eaten quickly anyhow. This is one reason for a refugium, but not worth losing sleep over. It's not that critical at this point. You'll end up with tons of life on your rocks as your system matures.

What kind of flourescent lights do you have? We'll need as much detail as possible, although if its just your typical normal output single bulb hood type light, then you're not going to have much luck with any corals.

Of course there's no reason you can't let the tank mature as a fish only and upgrade the lighting down the road. Just make sure to plan ahead. (I.E. if you want corals at some point, don't buy a fish now that is known for eating coral!)

 

[mslade1979]

thanks for yr help jacko!! to start with im keeping it fish only, but want to add corals in about a yr or 2, im planning on keeping 2 common clowns"tank bred" poss a mandarin not sure weather i can keep it in this size tank though!, or a couple of chromis i have 2 14watt t8 power glow bulbs built in to the hood producing 18,000 k, is this any help??