Ok heres the rundown

[Arcticafropuffs]

Ok heres the rundown:

A local fish store has live fiji rock lready in a tank and I guess you could say cycled and my fishtank only currently has saltwater with no fish/rock and so can I just throw this rock into my tank and add fish a couple days later? Or would I have to do something to the rock? Please explain =D.

Also, to keep an anonome, what would I have to do? Like I'm a beginner at saltwater tanks at the moment and I will not have a anonme with my clownfish anytime soon, but I want to look into the subject so that I can one day hopefully make my clownfish a little bit happier =D. Thanks.

 

[drparker]

If it's truly cycled and you can get it home and in the tank quickly without it drying off then you'll have a small cycle. I would suggest waiting a week and then testing for ammonia and nitrite before adding the fish, just to make sure you don't have a cycle.

When it ships to the LFS it will have a lot of die off and will need to cycle. Even though it's in one of their tanks it might not be completely cycled yet when you buy it. Also no mater how good you are you'll have some die off on the way home. So give it a week to be safe.

Nothing good happens quickly with this hobby.

As for the nem great to see your planning to wait and are doing your homework first. The general rule is to wait at least 6 months to a year for the nem. This give your tank time to mature and stabilize. More importantly it give you a chance to make mistakes, that we all do when new, and not kill it.

Read through the nem forum here and check-out Karens site for a wealth of nem info.

 

[Arcticafropuffs]

Thanks =D

 

[billdogg]

sounds like you are off to a good start - i would also suggest you go to www.wetwebmedia.com tons of info on all aspects of the hobby

 

[Skeptic_07]

what you do is setup your tank, get saltwater in it and the system running well, then get the rock and put it in. Wait a day or two and test for ammonia. once you start seeing that test for nitrites, once that is 0 you can go ahead and get snails and hermit crabs aka the clean up crew or CUC. It may be a long time before you get to this point. Also start your weekly waterchange routine 10% of the tank water as soon as the rock goes in. I have no idea why people go around saying not to do that and that it will 'disrupt the cycle' this is nonsense.

After the CUC is in there, keep testing and monitor your PH and alkalinity as well. Testing nitrogen levels becomes less important after a while and can be back off to once a month and you wont need to test for ammonia or nitrite anymore, just nitrate. When you feel the tank is stable then you can get a fish. do research first and make it a hardy one. Other test kits worth getting are magnesium and calcium. These are verry important: alk, mag, calcium, nitrate and phosphate. Watch out for nitrate and phosphate or PO4 that comes from feeding too mcuh. You can decrease these by adding a fuge and phosban reactor.

Eventaully your tank will become deficient in the first three of those, look at the chemistry forum for how to increase these levels. I'd recommend bulkreefsupply.com for that.

If youve never done this before, wait at least 6 months before getting something like an anemone or a clam.

good luck!