New Member

Welcome to the club. There's a lot of people that are very experienced in the hobby and can answer any questions you may have. Keep on reading and make sure you know what you want, it's a lot harder to change things in this hobby than freshwater.

It all starts off with curing your live rock.  Usually 1-2 lbs per gallon works.  Once your live rock has cycled/cured, then you can add a few species at first. Snails, crabs, or hardy fish would work. Then build up from there.

 

welcome dan, congratulations on starting this fun hobby! i am sure you will find lots of suggestions here to help with your set-up. where are you from, and how did you find us?

 

You're in the mecca of GIRS.

 

Pet's playhouse?   If so, that might have been me.
In any case, welcome to GIRS.   Don't hesitate to ask questions, everyone was new once and all of us are still learning.
I'm just over in Marion, so let me know if there is anything I can do to help you out.
-JB

 

Dan,
Welcome to GIRs!
My name is Jeremy and I am the Event coodinator for the Cedar Rapids area.
If you need anything just drop my a line, always glad to help.

 

Welcome CaptDan. I'm a noob too and the folks in GIRS have been incredibly helpful. Enjoy your new hobby! I'm still amazed at the new things that I see in my tank.

--AJ

 

You added inverts before you cycled the tank? That's usually not a very good idea from what I've read. Have you been monitoring your ammonia levels closely? Adding new live rock can sometimes cause a short re-cycling to occur. Make sure your ammonia is 0 before you add anything other than LR and sand to the tank. Do you have a skimmer or a biological filter set-up in a sump?

 

No worries CaptDan. One universal truth about this hobby is that there is a ton of conflicting information floating around about what is right and what is wrong.

One thing you'll find is that what works well for one person, may not work for another. A lot of it is just opinion.

There are some universal truths though, and a skimmer being a very good thing is probably one of them...

-JB

 

I'm only about two or three months into this CaptDan so considering that I've just gone thru what your going thru now, I'll share my experiences with you in hopes that something helps you.  I have a 12 gallon nanocube (you can see it here) and I set it up back in October.  When I set it up, I used the wet bagged "live" substrate (CaribSea I think) and I got 10 or 12 lbs of live rock from Bobo's.  I paid a premium for the rock, but it fully cured and had a lot of coralline algae on it.  I've been using Reef Crystals for salt and RO/DI water from Wal-Mart (the Culligan machine).  I'm not sure if it was the substrate or the rock, but I never had a measurable cycle on my tank.  I saw a small amount of algae growth, but other than that, there was no
noticeable cycle.  My tests always came back as 0 from day 1.  I tested
regularly so I don't think that I missed it.  I mention this because if your tank is like mine, you may not see a significant cycle and your snails and crabs might be OK.  At least, they should have plenty of food when the algae bloom begins.  Even if they are not, they are pretty inexpensive in the grand scheme of things.  Did your live rock come with any problems like aiptasia, mojano, hair algae, bubble algae, etc?  My rock had various problem algaes that have taken a long time to really get in check.  The last being the green bubble algae which I think has been gone for about a month now.  Getting your water parameters in check will help get this under control and your snails and crabs can do the rest.  One of the key things that I have learned over the last couple of months is to look at the source of the problem and not the problem.  Once you take care of the source, the problem is then much easier to address.  Once your tank is cycled and stable, then you can begin to start taking care of any problems that you may have like aiptasia.  JB told me about Aiptasia-X which does a nice job of taking care of aiptasia and mojano (I've used it on both).  I also got a peppermint shrimp.  The peppermint shrimp will eat small aiptasia, but the big ones will sting it and it won't eat them.  I've read others say that Aiptasa-X all by itself does not work and that it just hurts the aiptasia enough to prevent it from stinging the shrimp so it can be eaten.  To me, it seemed like it did the job all by itself, but that being said, a peppermint shrimp is still a good thing to have in your tank.  And they are pretty cheap (usually under $10).  I don't think anyone around here carrys Aiptasia-X, but you can order it online.  Different problems have different things that help keep it in check.  You can use lawnmower blenny or hermit crabs for green algae, emerald crabs for bubble algae, etc.  Keep in mind that if your adding something to take care of a short term problem, that once they get it under control, they may run out of food.  Have a plan for when that happens.
Are you using RO/DI water?  A friend of mine that set up his tank at the same time as mine started out by using tap water.  He had problems from day 1 with significant algae growth and he was having troubles getting the parameters in check.  Once he switched to RO/DI water, everything fell into place.
I know the some folks advocate having a fish in the tank when cycling and other say that's inhumane and use cocktail shrimp instead.  One way or another, you need to get something in there to provide the ammonia needed for your cycle to properly progress.
Another thing to remember is that only bad things happen fast with a reef aquarium.  Be patient, take your time, do the research, ask the questionsm, learn from your mistakes becuase you will make them (I know I make lots).  I frequently find that I've done something wrong and I need to change things to fix it (placement of non-agressive coral too close to an agressive anemone, etc).  I would encourage you to start up a thread dedicated to tracking the progress of your tank (with pictures).  I know I really enjoy following the progress of other peoples tanks almost as much as I enjoy watching the progress on my own.  Anyway, I hope that something from my experiences can help you...but there are lots of people that I consider reef gurus in the club and you should have no shortage of good information at your disposal.
--AJ

 

Dan,

The brown things are most likely diatoms. They are a natural part of the process with a new tank and will go away on their own if you keep the water quality good.

I recommend the "Octopus" protein skimmers. They are relatively inexpensive and do a fantastic job.

-JB

 

Dan,
I don't have a skimmer. Because I don't, I have to do more regular water changes than most do. If I had a tank of your size, I would definitely add one.

--AJ

 

Welcome aboard Captain!