lighting and other questions

[cafamore]

hi all

new to hobby I have a 110g tankw/ skimmer wet dry, tomato clown, yellow tang, blue damsel, 2 peppermint shrimp 40 blue hermits 6 turbos have a base of crushed coral 40 lb Fiji rock, sea cuke and a chocolate chip star

1 want to have a full blown reef
is 2 175 watt mh with a 48 inch strip flo 1 10000k and one 50/50 ok

2 can I add sand with fish in there?
3 have ordered 50 lb rock can I add it all at once?

what else do I need for cleaners

4 what are my next steps

tank is cycled 5 weeks

tested today
ammonia 0
nitrates 20pp
nitrites 0
salt 1.021
ph 8.2
alk 2.2

thanks in advance for help

[MRIGUY]

You can add the sand and the rock but you better watch your parameters. Your ammonia cycle is not yet complete. You may want to do daily water changes of 10 gallons or so just to help thinhs along. Also, you need to increase your salinity slowly over a several day period to between 1.024 and 1.026. FWIW

[Doug1]

Also your alkilinity could be up a little higher, probably low from the cycle using up buffer.

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I dont advocate holding marine creatures for ransom but......since you asked
Doug, plank owner

[FishDaddy]

Hi Cafamore,

Glad to have you aboard!
A good goal for your tank would be 110+ lbs of live rock and a sand bed of 4~6". This will provide the biofiltration you need. I would make additions slowly and incrementally. Even "fully cured" rock can have die off during shipping that can give you an ammonia spike. However you add it, be sure to test for Ammonia and Nitrites after adding to detect any spike and be prepared to do water changes. Here are some good articles re LR/LS:
http://www.reefkeepers.org/faq/cache/33.html
http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog...ek_090698.html
As for cleanup critters, a variety of snails is preferable over hermits. I, and others, have had problems with too many hermits, especially the Blue Legged Huns, which can become aggressive toward snails.
A variety of snails, especially Nassarius, can do the clean up for you.
See this article by Dr. Ron Shimek:
http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish/li...=&RecordNo=166
Your lighting should be fine for soft corals and many LPS but for SPS, you may want to upgrade to 400 MH's and supplement with VHO.
That will be later down the road as I would not recommend addition of corals until sometime after you have all your rock in and the tank settles down. You can expect to go through several algae blooms which is a normal part of a new reef system.
What is your source water? Excellent water quality is essential for corals and will help in minimizing the algae problems. Reverse osmosis/deionized water is best.
What kind of skimmer are you using? The wet/dry can be useful until you get your full complement of rock/sand established but would be unneccessary afterward.
HTH
Dick

[Minnreefer]

Fish Daddy has some great advise, you might want to think about getting rid of the damsel, they can be pretty mean to some fish. You might want to think about trying to store your fish in another tank or tanks while you put in the rock and sand, it will also be easier then trying to move the rock around without spooking or smushing the fish. That will also let the tank cycle more.
Just my 2cents worth
Jonathan

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"If we weren't all crazy we would all go insane" Jimmy Buffett

[cafamore]

thanks you folks are great. I would like to try to add the sand and rocks with the fish in tank because I don't have any other tank to move the fish to. when I get rid of the chip star can I bring him back to the store or eek flush him, wouldn't want to do that. the skimmer is a aqua clear 150 with a rio 1700. can I add the sand over the crushed coral. going to my usual Sunday lfs run tomorrow which way should I go. how many snails should I have total. I also have a feather duster can I or should I add more. which step is next . thank you this is so cool my boys are learning chemistry and biology faster than I am. never knew something could affect us like the tank has

Originally posted by minnreefer:
Fish Daddy has some great advise, you might want to think about getting rid of the damsel, they can be pretty mean to some fish. You might want to think about trying to store your fish in another tank or tanks while you put in the rock and sand, it will also be easier then trying to move the rock around without spooking or smushing the fish. That will also let the tank cycle more.
Just my 2cents worth
Jonathan

[BurnNSpy]

Your tank has cycled. Your salinity is low, you want 1.023-1.025. Alkalinity is at the minimum at 2.2, recommend sea chem reef builder. I recommend everyone read, Live sand secrets by Dr Goeman. He states that only 1" of livesand is wanted unless you have a plenum, then you need 4" at 1-4mm sizes. I also recommend that you remove all filters from the W/D and use it as a sump, it prevents your LR from performing the biological filtering you want. If a cuke is disturbed too much it might Nuke your tank with toxins, not recommended. I can see that you have done some homework, keep up the good work.

Good Luck,
BurnNSpy

[Doug1]

Mr Goemans isn't the only authority out there and his recommendation on 1" sand is fairly old fashioned dating back to the days of culturing infauna in the sand bed. Look into #reefs library and sep articles by Ron Shimek and Rob Toonen regarding sand beds. Not to say Bob is wrong there are more than one way to skin the cat or keep a reef, A lot of people have good success with deep sand beds,myself included, Its all good

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I dont advocate holding marine creatures for ransom but......since you asked
Doug, plank owner

[Alice]

Also, if you're going to go reef, you'd better ditch the chocolate chip star; it will eat your corals, especially SPS.

Welcome to The Reef Tank!


~Alice

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Reefkeeping is my life; I can't afford a hobby too!

[Brooke]

Just a couple of suggestions for adding sand.
Make sure you rinse the sand very well. (do this with "dead" sand only. Do not rinse live sand) Fill a 5g bucket about half full of sand and rinse it with water until the water runs somewhat clear. Then either get a quart jar or a ziplock bag. The ziplock works pretty good. Cut one of the bottom corners out of the bag and fill it with sand. Zip the top of the bag and you can put the sand down on the bottom like icing a cake. Hold the bag very close to the current sand so you dont cloud the tank. A quart jar works good too. Fill it about 3/4 with sand and tilt the jar in the water at an angle so it fills to the top with water. Lower the jar to the sand bed and pour the sand out. If you do this you can pretty much prevent the tank from over clouding. Also, do make sure any rock you are adding is fully cured. Ask the fish store when they got it in..how long had it been curing, etc. If in doubt, grab a handy 5g bucket or a clean trash can..fill it with some aged saltwater, add a powerhead and rocks and let the rock sit for a few days. Test the water for ammonia. If you detect ammonia in the water, don't add the rock to your tank. Change the water out of the bucket if the ammonia gets really high and add the rock to your tank when you no longer detect ammonia...or very small amounts. Depending on how ripe the rock is, this should only take a few days.

You definately don't want an ammonia spike in your tank.

Brooke

Good luck-
Brooke

[This message has been edited by Brooke (edited 01-28-2001).]