New tank set up Questions

[FrostyMountain]

I inherited a 55 gallon and some equipment so I decided I would try starting a reef tank. Hope to incorporate some corals and reef safe fish. Willing to go slow. Here is what I've done to date. It has 50 lbs of carib sea live aragonite, 20 pounds of crushed coral bottom. Have about 60 lbs of cured live rock, 20 lbs new coral. It came with two Chinese (ebay) Mars Aqua) 165 watt lights. Have 2 600 GPH power heads running. Filled it with RO/DI water using Instant Ocean salt, 1.25 salinity. Ran the above for about 2 weeks, tested every other day, was getting pretty much zeros on Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, and PH. My PH tests 8 each time which I know is low. Am going to order a salifert kit in case the test I inherited is bad. Currently an API kit. Added a medium size shrimp to the water 5 days ago. Testing today shows negligible Ammonia, ( between 0 and 2.5, colors hard to read), everything else is zero, again PH is 8.

Got the same readings day before yesterday and day before that. Where am I at now. I am confused as from all I read I should be getting elevated then diminishing readings on Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. I just ordered a Reef octopus classic 1000 (don't have a refugeium), so protein skimmer not running yet, doesn't seem to be a need yet.

 

[tjm9331]

If the live rock was fully cured and there was little to no die off then you may not have much, if any cycle.

Your ammonia test is it between 0 and 0.25 or 0 and 2.5? Cause the colors between 0 and 2.5 should be fairly discernible the colors between 0 and 0.25 maybe not so much.

Also you say your salinity is 1.25 I'm hoping you mean 1.025 cause 1.25 is much too high.

your PH isn't too far off, you'll want to get it up to at least 8.2 before adding your first fish but that shouldn't take much buffer to do that.

I would say give it a couple more days and if the tests still show 0 then you are most likely good to go.

 

[Sapelo]

Have you added anything to start a cycle, such as a piece of food or frozen (aka dead) shrimp? That will help get your cycle going.
I would highly recommend reading all of this link:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1031074
But you are off to a great start. Kudos for Ro/di water, testing routinely and waiting to add fish, etc.
One last note: the ph really is not a problem at your level and honestly not a number you need to worry about chasing. I would not add anything to alter ph.
Welcome to the obsession!

 

[gone fishin]

I agree if you used live rock you may not see much of a cycle.

What do you mean 20 lbs of coral?

I will assume you mean 1.025 not 1.25 please verify?

The crushed coral may give you some grief down the road by trapping detritus in the substrate.

I would not worry about the pH especially just starting up, Your chemistry will be a bit shaky. I also would advise against adding any sort of pH buffer to bring it up. Do not chase the pH number. Eventually your Alkalinity, Calcium and magnesium numbers will be of more use than your pH.

There is a sticky at the top of the page called setting up, look for the big red arrow. It full of good info for now and later. Good luck just my 2 cents.

 

[FrostyMountain]

Sorry. Salinity is 1.025. Ammonia was for all purposes 0 maybe slightly to the next reading. Added a piece of shrimp a week ago. The coral is 20 lbs of bagged crushed coral. I will monitor for a week or two. If readings don't change, do I look for a clean up crew first then feed them slightly until I add other live stuff, and what first if I intend to have a soft coral with several small reef safe fish. I have read the start up section here, but don't know if I see no spikes in readings what to do next. Should I wait til I get a bio load before running the protein skimmer.

 

[gone fishin]

Sorry. Salinity is 1.025. Ammonia was for all purposes 0 maybe slightly to the next reading. Added a piece of shrimp a week ago. The coral is 20 lbs of bagged crushed coral. I will monitor for a week or two. If readings don't change, do I look for a clean up crew first then feed them slightly until I add other live stuff, and what first if I intend to have a soft coral with several small reef safe fish. I have read the start up section here, but don't know if I see no spikes in readings what to do next. Should I wait til I get a bio load before running the protein skimmer.

As long as the shrimp is decomposing then ammonia is getting into the system and getting get converted to nitrite. I would say yes after a week or so of monitoring and you do not have any ammonia or nitrites then you could add a small CUC.

I would suggest looking into quarantine (QT) for your fish but if you choose not to then you could start slowly adding fish as well.

As far as the skimmer goes you can run it now or wait. I personally would start running it. Some skimmers can take a week or two to "break in". Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[FrostyMountain]

Whats CUC stand for? Sorry

 

[gone fishin]

My bad, clean up crew

 

[tjm9331]

I agree with Tony, get that skimmer running and broken in.

I too would suggest a quarantine tank if you have the space for one, its the best thing for the fish and you, last thing you want to do is get some kind of parasite in your display tank (DT)

 

[FrostyMountain]

Ill get a ten gallon and set it up in the cabinet under the tank where. Should I quarantine a clean up crew also?

 

[CindyK]

Ill get a ten gallon and set it up in the cabinet under the tank where. Should I quarantine a clean up crew also?

Interested in the answer to this also, thanks for asking

 

[gone fishin]

Ill get a ten gallon and set it up in the cabinet under the tank where. Should I quarantine a clean up crew also?

This a debated question. I will give you my two cents worth, here goes.

Ultimately the question of if to QT or what to QT comes down to ones risk tolerance. Some folks will QT anything that is wet while others do not. Personally I QT all my fish and will dip and QT coral. Inverts I do not QT.

I QT fish with the following protocol. Upon arrival they will go through Tank Transfer Method (TTM) for ich, see sticky above big red arrow on the forum page. Also, I will treat with two rounds of prazipro for flukes and internal parasites during TTM. After the TTM is complete they will go into my main QT for 4-5 weeks of observation other possible illness and to get used to the foods, lighting schedule.

When I get coral I will dip them in coral Rx and them place them in a QT for a week or so then dip them again. While in the QT I will look for anything crawling around or anything looking out of the ordinary. I do not QT coral for potential fish disease or parasites, while it can happen I deem it a low risk. I QT coral because they have their own set of nasties that wreak havoc on your corals in the tank.

Inverts I do not QT, I deem them a low risk. I will usually transfer them between 3 containers of tank water to minimize anything. Also if you purchase your CUC from a place that does not have fish in the tank or connected to the main system then this helps to minimize the chance of fish pathogens in the water or an ich encystment on a shell.

As I mentioned early on in the post it is all about ones risk tolerance. Reading about the common illnesses and the way they infect fish will help folks to determine their risk tolerance. There are some excellent stickies in the fish disease forum I would highly recommend for all new reefers. Good luck