Well, thanks to a few books, LOTS of internet hours, and the help of you good people here, I have my tank up and running. It's a 42 gallon hex tank. I put almost 50 lbs. of sand in the bottom covered with 20 lbs of crushed coral. I only have 5 lbs. of live rock in there now, but I have lots of decorative rock, which I hope to turn into live rock eventually. Right now, my water is a little cloudy from the crushed coral (I did rinse it lots), but my filter is taking care of that (the tank has only been up and running for about an hour- I'm so excited!). What's the next step after the live rock? Should I let it cycle, or should I add some crabs and snails to help the cycling process? At the moment, I just have the one 65W LOA fixture, but I am surprised at how light it is (with the 4" sand bed, the tank is only about 20" deep). I am planning on getting another 65W and some actinic lights this week. I have egg crate on the top and the light sitting on the crate. Thanks in advance for any advice!

Patients my friend, patience. Thats the next step.

I would hold off on the crabs and snails. Let it cycle. Then when the algae bloom starts add the critters.

Don't rush the cycle. It will only add frustration.

Jamey[img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]

There is really no need to worry about lighting the tank untill after it has cycled.
Lighting it now will only help lead to an alge bloom. If you used the real fine sugar sand and your bed is four inches deep you might want to mix the crushed coral into it.

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Just how much do I need to spend in this hobby!!!!

Yeah..I agree with B...can't figure why you needed to add crushed coral over the sand...You would be fine with just the sand if it's as deep as you described....

Yes to Biggie's word also...relax and let Mother Nature do her thing...If you really get tempted to add stuff in there...just keep adding LR....

Good Luck!

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The NUT!
Alex's Ocean Realm
GO FOR A DIVE!!!
http://home.earthlink.net/~amariquit/thereef

Ok, I didn't know if the 5 lbs of live rock would be enough to start the cycle or not. I was wondering about the crushed coral myself, but I read several articles that advocated using it, although now I can't remember why! [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img] It does look cool though.

I just re-read the replies and I should clarify the depth of my sand bed. It's actually 3" sand 1" crushed coral, making the total depth 4".

The snails and crabs probably wouldnt make it through the cycle just add some more live rock and it should cycle in 2-3 weeks.

Just be patient don't rush into anything

I have grown wiser with time and listening to the people hear, one day at a time.

Brian

Dear frequentj,

We're only a few weeks ahead of you. Only substantial difference is that we put the live sand on TOP of the crushed coral. After a few weeks, the crushed coral started to look like dirty kitty litter... and the established tanks that I saw with this, looked even worse!


The detritovores and other sand organisms, will tend to cause the larger grains to accumulate at the top. This is what I have read from several sources. My only advice to you, could be to try to remove some of the coral, say from the right side... and fill it in with live sand. If you are building anything with rocks, you will need to get down to something solid. Simply wedging some big flat solid pieces underneath everything might be sufficient... your judgement should include estimating the effect of sand burrowers moving sand around and removing THAT support from your rocks... so make your structures independent of the sand, so if the sand disappeared suddenly, your rocks wouldn't move. We did this, and shored it up with Garf Grunge, which is large HARD gravel... some interesting pieces, but I would never put in a layer on TOP of live sand.

The published cycling info is all textbook, and refers to fish aquariums, not reef tanks. There are apparently too many variables, with all of the biological material added, and nobody wants to say anything definitive about it, except informally in forums like these. In our case, we never got a cycle or even detectable levels of ammonia or nitrItes (I verified the test kit), even with ten damsels and lots of live rock and live sand. 3 to 4 inches of the latter! I'm ready to conclude that cured, mature live rock and good quality live sand already contained the desired bacterial nitrogen buffer capacity.

Of course, I could be wrong, and I could come home from work today to find all the little buggers floating belly up in water that smells like Windex. This is the nature of the reef hobby, I think... there's no formula yet! I hope this convinces you to continue asking questions.

By this weekend, our algae bloom had mysteriously disappeared. One rock that was covered with the brown fuzz, is almost barren, except for a little mossy green algae that was there from the start. A blue-green algae has started to move into the vacated niche. Don't understand any of this! Must research algae now...

Avoid eBay, in my opinion. Am currently trying to coax the "eBay power sellers" and others that I bought stuff from, to actually ship the stuff out. They have the mentality of prison guards, when threatening negative feedback if you don't pay fast enough, but have been sitting on my money orders and cashier's checks for weeks, and are in no hurry to actually ship.

Inland Aquatics was reliable though, and their refugium was of first rate workmanship. Of Garf's stuff, it arrived a day later than actually promised... and the microhermits were all dead or almost dead. These "arrive alive" guarantees don't seem to include responsibility for post office delays...

Will order from ISPF soon and post more feedback.

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Cheers,
Rob
New York City

Sorry that I cannot offer much help, but this is the first time that I have seen anyone ask this question on any message board! Very wise on your part. What you normaly read is "I just set up my tank. Now what fish can I add." When I first started, I didn't have any references other than some old, outdated, books and my LFS. My tank crashed HARD! I only wish that I had these boards when I first started. Good luck and keep posting!

Mark

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Thanks for the replies so far. I really love this board because, like so many have posted, there is SO much information out there, many of it contradictory. If I have learned one thing from my research and reading, it's do it right the first time. If I had the money to buy lots of LR and LS, I would not even entertain the thought of adding anything until the cycle is complete. But, seeing as I am on a somewhat limited budget, and LR is $6.99/lb at LFS (and not all that LIVE), and the only LS is a bag of who-knows-how-old sand with seawater (I did not buy it), I wasn't sure if the small amount of biological material I have would be enough to cycle the tank. The LAST thing I want to do is overload my system.

By the way, I did place my rock on supports that are lying directly on the bottom of the tank to avoid shifting and dead spots (did not mention before). Thanks again for the input!

[This message has been edited by frequentj (edited 07-03-2000).]

Your tank has been up an hour? I personally would not add a thing to the tank for at least 3 weeks to a month. You mentioned that you have 5 lbs of live rock and the rest is decorator rock, what does this decorator rock consist of? Is it dry base rock or uncured live rock? Depending on what kind of rock you are dealing with will set the stage for what is about to happen in your tank. The reason I am recommending not adding anything right now is that you want to let everything settle in your tank. You'll also want to keep the tank free of any preditors right now. By adding a clean up crew, you'll need enough "food" to keep them happy. I'm not talking about actually feeding the tank but having these guys work for you to keep everything algae and detritus free. They will also help process any extra nutrients in your system.
Give us a little more information and we will be able to help you some more.

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i would let it run for a coupla months, that is the best way, build good critter base.


Jade