New tank setup question

[redrooster]

I am setting up a tank for my dad next weekend and have a question. When I set up my tank I bought an established tank and moved it water and all, so I started stocking it 48 hours later and had no problems, so I am not very informed on the normal start up cycle. It is a 47 gal hex. I will be primarily fish only, but will have Live rock and maybe a piece of sun coral or two(only non-photo coral) He currently has a 10 gal setup, with about a 2" cc/sand bottom and about 10 lbs of live rock. I am going to give him about 5lbs more LR out of my tank. When I fill the tank should the LR go in immediately?? Also since he will have a bit of a bio jumpstart from the established rock/sand how long should I wait before introducing a test fish??

 

[LakeEd]

Redrooster,

Typically, for our tanks, we use 1-1.5lbs of Live Rock per gallon the tank is. The live rock is where the biological filtration takes place for us. The bacteria on that live rock takes time to develop to the point that it is doing that filtration for us.

Adding 15lbs of "fully cycled" live rock is always a good thing, I just don't think it will be enough to handle much in the way of a bio-load on a 47gallon tank. That being said, adding more Live Rock (that may, or may not be cycled)... I would let that tank sit empty of any fish and just do testing of Ammonia and Nitrite. You will most likely notice an ammonia spike then fast drop... followed by a nitrite rise... until it finally falls.

At that point... do a 10% or so water change... and you should be ready to start SLOWLY stocking that tank.

The hardest thing for me is always the SLOWNESS that I need to do learn when doing something. Patients is a virtue... too bad I'm not a Dr.

 

[Krish]

I'd put the live rock in at start up. That way you can get your cycle (whatever you may have) to be completed all one time and not have it prolonged by adding in more rock later. As for how long, it all depends on the condition of the rock and if it will experience any die off. I'd just keep testing your water and wait until you read 0 ammonia and even nitrites if you just want to be safe. Hardy fish should be fine though where there is a little nitrite in the water, but best IMO to wait for all traces of both to be gone. Just my 2 cents...

Good luck!

 

[balogh03]

wait...are you filling up the 10gal or the 47gal? because i thought the 47gal was already full?

 

[redrooster]

The 10 gal is full I am starting up the 47 and taking down the 10. The reason I am using so little live rock is because it is not going to be a reef tank, I just want to give the fish some hiding spots. This may be confusing as I mentioned the sun coral but that is all there is going to be in the way of coral since it is just going to have VHO lighting. If it still looks bare however I may need to put in another 10 lbs or so. I am going to be running a reverse flow undergravel, and a hang on skimmer with carbon. I use no carbon in my system since it is a reef and I don't want to strip out the beneficial chemicals.

As a side note I had 2x15W coral life flouro's on the ten gal. I has been set up for about 18 months, as I was able to keep mushrooms alive in it as long as the weren't right on the bottom. They grew really slow though. I am going to move the mushrooms back to my system as the hex has too much depth to keep coral on such weak lighting. Also of interest is that I supplied the LR for the tank and my dad grew a very nice blue sponge out of nowhere in there. I talked to the guy I got my tank from and he said in his 8 years with it there were never any blue sponges only the green ball sponges that I havea proliferation of. That means that the spores for that blue sponge sat dormant for over 10 years on that rock before decided to sprout up again.

 

[LakeEd]

Its amazing sometimes what twists life can give us... isn't it? *Grinz* I would of never guessed something could remain hidden for that long, then all of a sudden show up! Congrats on your dad for creating the conditions that helped it do that!

Back to your original question then, now that I better understand your intended setup;

I would set the tank up... then monitor the water conditions for at least a week, ensuring you don't get any Ammonia spikes, and very little if any Nitrite... and if it looks good, then I would immagine you could safely start SLOWLY populating the tank.

 

[bklynmet]

I would only add the following to LakeEd's comments. If you are measuring nitrites, I'd wait for the readings to start descending (so it's later in the cycle rather than earlier.)

 

[Brenden]

I second the motion for more LR.

 

[Alpental]

The reason I am using so little live rock is because it is not going to be a reef tank, I just want to give the fish some hiding spots..

Live rock is not only important in a Reef Tank, it's also important in fish only tanks. It is the main source of biological filtration. The more rock you have the more fish you have.

 

[redrooster]

The tank was setup on Sunday. Used 1" CC on the bottom. Just regular floro lighting. HOB filter. 2 med powerheads (no sure what brand). Put in about 15lbs of LR. I told him to call me on Tuesday to tell me if it cleared as it was a little cloudy. I brought him a damsel to use as the starter fish. The only fish he had before was a baby panther grouper (about 1") I said leave the fish in the 10 gal I will come check the water next week. Apprantly as the Bears game was on he wasn't paying much attention. Well when he called me he had already put the fish into the new tank. Oops. The damsel is expendable so I am not worried about that. I told him to move the grouper back to the other tank if it showed any signs of stress, but I have heard that they are super hardy and I have a gut feeling he will be alright cycle and all. I will keep everyone informed as I am once again pushing the envelope by not quite doing things the standard way. (although not on purpose this time) We will see how things turn out.

 

[Krish]

The damsel is expendable

Don't let the damsel police hear you say that! :shock: Hopefully everything works out alright. With the jump start using rock etc from another tank, you may not get really high spikes in anything, but then again it is possible. Just keep an eye on it and if the tank hasn't completely cleared up, I'd run some carbon if you aren't already. Most of the time, it is just tiny particles floating in the water though that have to be filtered out (or settled in some cases) for the tank to clear. Keep us posted and good luck!

 

[redrooster]

The tank was crystal clear the next morning before he added the fish so that was good. He used to be an engineer at the Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago so he is an expert on lighting/filtration, but doesn't know that much about actual individual species. He knows enough not to have put those fish in, but I think now that he is retired sometimes he's just not thinking. He also used to breed freshwater fish to supply LFS so he at least knows what a distressed fish looks like. At one time we had over 35 freshwater tanks in our house. He still has a 55 gal that has a minimum of at least 1000 guppies in there. It had 12 fish 3 years ago when he started it and he sells several dozen a month to LFS. The tank also has breeder corridorus cats in it, but they don't overpopulate like the gupies do. Anyways I will keep you posted.

 

[redrooster]

At the 1 week mark the following was added

1 chocholate chip star
1 emerald crab
1 giant turbo snail

It has now been just over 2 weeks since set up. The 2 initial fish as well as the inverts above are still doing well. I am hoping to get over there this week some time and test the water. Will keep this updated as I am setting up a number of tanks and some( like this one) may be done is non convential method so others may be interested.

 

[Krish]

Sounds good

 

[ronj]

at 2 weeks ,what will the inverts, mainly the starfish, have to eat????

 

[burning2nd]

doesnt sound to to to to to to to to bad......


kinda how i did, it jump started. you might end up runing in to problems from this later down the road.

watch out for thos polica (little blue light on top of the compact car with the euro siron)

anyway howa about a pic man, post it up. im sure it looks good

 

[redrooster]

The starfish is a chocalate chip star so I doesn't eat much detritus. It would prefer to eat soft corals, but is hand fed a small piece of scallop/clam or such like every 3rd day. The live rock was all either from a tank in house or from my tank which is 45 minutes away. So the LR really didn't have any significant die off. My rock has no visible algae, but the stuff from the 10 gal did. I think that should be enough to keep one crab and one snail alive. (even thought the snail is the King Kong Bundy of snails LOL) I made sure to keep the rock submerged at all times so that none of the sponges died.

I will try to remember my camera so I can get some pics up of this tank.