Hi SD Reefers!

[Carq91]

Im Carlos im new to SDR well over im new to Saltwater/ Reef Tanks i have had a freshwater tank for years but decided to finally go saltwater and im in love with it! with a lil help from you guys i will get on the right path!

So i started my tank 1week ago last last Sunday the 30th with just water and saltmix, and added Natures Ocean live sand last Tuesday so will be a week tomorrow running the tank with sand. I just bought some live Fiji Rock on Saturday and put that in. oh by the way i have a 72gal bow front tank with a aquaticlife T5 6lamp fixture also have a 20 gal sump/refugium.

My fist question is how long do u think i need to let my tank cycle and when can i start putting in my fish and Corals?

I tested my water yesterday and My nitrite is 0 my nitrate is 0 my PH is 8.4 and my Ammonia is 0.

I hope to get lost of help new to this so any help and free stuff will be appreciated!

still looking for some free Cheato for my sump if anybody has some close to Oceanside.

Thanks from your new SDR buddy, Carlos Q

[Goldfish World]

Just keep it running a little bit more patience is the key to this hobby, keep up with the water monitoring and the first animal you should put in are the clean up crew.

welcome to SDreefs

[Carq91]

Ok thanks Goldfish World! and CLEAN UP CREW? what would that be?

[slicktoppomp]

Clean up crew meaning things like snails and hermit crabs and such. Critters that naturally help keep the tank clean. Welcome to SDR.

[Carq91]

Ok sounds good thanks for the help guys!

[XO PRESENTS]

Welcome to the boards bud.... ask away......

[Carq91]

[IMG][/IMG]

This is my Tank as it stands today! (:

[Radman]

Congratulations on the new tank.

A couple points, Go and read up on the nitrogen cycle. Google is a wonderful thing.
If a tank is really cycled you should have seen an ammonia spike and be having some positive nitrates for a while. When you added the Live rock there should have been some die off... Unless it was already well cured. IE you bought the live rock from someone here on sdreefs or, if it came from a lfs that had also cured it for some time. If the LR was shipped in direct from the tropics you would need to wait a month(s)s to add livestock because even in the best shipping case it would be several days from the ocean to your tank and most of the life on the rock would die. You would have to wait for micro bacteria populations to grow enough to consume the dead stuff and then become stable in each phase of the nitrogen cycle. So if your rock was cured rock, you will have a head start on that. Adding baterica cultures probably won't hurt, but the thing to keep in mind is that you need stable populations of each type of bacteria before your tank is truly cycled and also that every time you add (or remove) livestock you'll start a mini cycle again. Just because your parameters are at a certain level doesn't mean that your tank is ready to have a bunch of new stuff added.

So after you see the ammonia and nitrate spikes, the next step is to get some hermits and snails(cleanup crew). You're going to have an algae bloom in the near future, but having an established cleaning crew will help when it happens. When all that has happened then a couple small fish can follow. Then try only adding one or two new things once every couple of weeks. As I'm sure you've heard: Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank.

That all said... I'm sure most everyone of us in the hobby, couldn't wait and rushed the process at some time or other.... and the world didn't end! Good luck!

[Carq91]

Haha thanks Radman! My tank has been up for 3months now and it's doing just great a lol break out on Hair Algae but it looks like things are getting better.

If anybody would like to come over check it out and give me some pointers that would be greatful. I have fish and Corals already in my tank and looking great but the help could never end. Thanks to everybody on here that has helped I appreciate it big time!

[Navyaero]

ive had some algae issues as well but i threw in like 4 more turbos 10 more hermits and a couple of sand conchs them with lowering the light cycle to 6-7 hours a day got it under control