My First Dip into Salt Water. 20.5" cube

[SkySouza]

Here is my original thread where i touched on some basics about the tank. That thread was more about getting information for the tank... this one is more about the set up and stalk list that I will continually update till i upgrade.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?438076-40-gal-filtration-help



I decided to wait another week for coral. I was told by a lfs that the tank is cycled as soon as you add live rock. what do you guys feel about this?

i am not going to stock with fish for about a month at least and it will only be one or two. mainly looking at coral. coral do not produce a lot of waste do they? so as long as i start with live rock and do 1 small frag a week i should be ok right? in theory anyway...



anywho, got a few pictures of the tank. still working on the support for the dome style metal halide. I have not installed the 400 either. Hopefully I'll do that tomorrow. I'm cleaning up the other 3 or 4 powerheads that I have before I install them. Doing that later this week as well.

The rock in the front is a ceramic piece made by some local company here. I thought it was pretty nice. I think it'll look great in time covered in purple coraline (sp.?) with a couple of neon polyps or something a long those lines.

also i'm sorry about the glare. I have yet to install blinds in my new home. please forgive me

 

[SkySouza]

Third picture down is the rock set up i am going to go with for now... with the tall white piece in the center. I've still got to pick up several smaller piece of live rock to fill in the gap and the emperor 400

Can't wait to see what it is going to look like in a few months

 

[Otherone]

If the LR Is 100% cycled when you buy it in theoroy yes however there will be die back - test kits are your best friend. I don't think corals stand alone produce alot of waste however the largest jump in nitrates and phosphates I noticed was when I started feeding the coral suspension food ( liquid and powder @ max rate). If you mix softies and stonies some of the softies can emit a toxin to defend it's self so to speak that can be harmful to the stonies - activated carbon helps rid the tank of this toxin. By the same token Stonies can attack, invade, and eat other corals in close proximitty. Give'm room. Once again test kits are strongly recommended.

 

[SkySouza]

what test kits would you recommend? After seeing the prices at my lfs I'm almost willing to just spend the money on probes and a controller. how do you guys feel about that? what are my options that way?