1. cycle, well, yes. If you just drop in a few flakes of fishfood, you'll get there in 4 weeks with live rock, 8-12 weeks with mostly not-live rock (limestone.)
2. the break-in: you keep your bioload real light, ideally with little inverts whose real technical job is to poo. Naturally to do this, they have to eat. It's not as if they're going to eat all the algae in your tank---but if you have no algae, feed them. And qt and tank-transfer your fish.
3. the grunges. You will pass through a set of phases each uglier than the last: hair algae, brown crud, red slime, various films, and bubble. It's just normal. Check your nitrate, hammer it down below 10 if you can; run GFO to get rid of the phosphate (never mind the test: if it's green it's likely filled with it) and ---tune up your skimmer and just do your maintenance. Change out the GFO medium once monthly. If you can't get the nitrate down, use NoPoX, which is about the safest version of carbon dosing: it works in concert with your skimmer to export the extra biomass.
3. the honeymoon: this is when everything is shaping up and things are so happy you overstock...oops.
4. the breakup...this is where you realize you over-stressed your system and need to repeat step 2 until life thrives again.
Reefing is a matter of good balances. The temptation to try new things is there---but you have to pull yourself back from 'too much' and keep a decent balance of elements. For your convenience I carry some 'pretty good' readings in my sig line. Test and maintain those and qt your fishes and dip your corals and you should be able to survive the learning curve. Mostly be suspicious of shortcuts and be solid in your readings. Nothing good happens fast in beginning ice skating---or reefing.
2. the break-in: you keep your bioload real light, ideally with little inverts whose real technical job is to poo. Naturally to do this, they have to eat. It's not as if they're going to eat all the algae in your tank---but if you have no algae, feed them. And qt and tank-transfer your fish.
3. the grunges. You will pass through a set of phases each uglier than the last: hair algae, brown crud, red slime, various films, and bubble. It's just normal. Check your nitrate, hammer it down below 10 if you can; run GFO to get rid of the phosphate (never mind the test: if it's green it's likely filled with it) and ---tune up your skimmer and just do your maintenance. Change out the GFO medium once monthly. If you can't get the nitrate down, use NoPoX, which is about the safest version of carbon dosing: it works in concert with your skimmer to export the extra biomass.
3. the honeymoon: this is when everything is shaping up and things are so happy you overstock...oops.
4. the breakup...this is where you realize you over-stressed your system and need to repeat step 2 until life thrives again.
Reefing is a matter of good balances. The temptation to try new things is there---but you have to pull yourself back from 'too much' and keep a decent balance of elements. For your convenience I carry some 'pretty good' readings in my sig line. Test and maintain those and qt your fishes and dip your corals and you should be able to survive the learning curve. Mostly be suspicious of shortcuts and be solid in your readings. Nothing good happens fast in beginning ice skating---or reefing.
