Update, Aiptasia, and a few questions, and some pic's

[Bob NY]

So far the tank is doing great. It's been a little over 2 weeks, and so far no cycle. All level's zero. I am thinking I may not see one. It was set up with 60lbs of bio active bag sand, 80 lbs of base rock, and 25 lbs of well cured LR. Tuesday morning I added another 75 lbs of LR I bought from a local reefer. The 75 lbs of rock I bought from the guy has tons of life on it. Including lot's of Aiptasia .
I am going to let things run for a while befor I add anything to the tank. However I would really like to get started on ridding it of the aiptasia. There is quite alot in there, so I am thinking I may be best off with Peppermint Shrimp, or Berghia Nudibranch rather than kalk, or Joe's Juice. At what point would it be safe to add the Aiptasia muncher's?

Next is a question of flow. I dont believe I have enough. All I have as of now is my Mag 9.5 return pump, and two Powerswep heads that are 190gph each. How much flow am I looking for? These powersweeps are pretty much junk so I am going to replace them. Would 2 Maxijet 900's, or 1200's be enough?

Lastly is a question of calcium, and alkalinity. What should I dose with, and how often? I dont have test's for those yet, but will buy them before I dose ofcoarse. Thanks for all the help.

Here are some pics taken right after I added the last 75lbs of rock.
I am thinking I may take a few pieces of the base rock out, as I feel it is looking a bit crowded. What do you think? I still need to aquascape. I just kinda threw the rock in there.

[reef_noob]

Looks nice. How big is the tank? 2 mj's is pretty minimal flow...maybe look into a cls or a tunze stream if the tank is big enough.

[Bob NY]

Chris, the tank is 90 gallons.
I do plan on getting a Tunze stream, but funds are low at the moment.
I was hoping to use a few powerheads in the meantime.
I also still have to upgrade my lighting. I was planning on this being a FOWLR,
but have now changed my mind, and will make a reef.

[reef_noob]

A couple of mj1200's will suffice for softies and general flow purposes for a little while. One big issue is that you will have trouble keeping the detritus/dissolved organics suspended in the water column with that little flow, so make sure to blast your LR with a powerhead and lightly vacuum the top of your sand bed when you do water changes.

[Bob NY]

Thanks for the info Chris. Hopefully it wont be long before I add a Tunze. I will however be sure to blow off the rock, and vacuum . I do have soe dead spot's in there now.

[cwrenge]

Chris....Aptasia are certainly like a weed in the farmers garden....so hardy they are , allmost unbeatable, IMO.. get some Pepermint Shrimp as soon as you can...! before you add fish , at least the ones(?) that will eat the Pepermint shrimp... then your chances are that the Aptasia will be eradacated...., i had a problem with them in my 55 reef, i couldn't add them to my tank so i took out the suspected rock and put it in a hospital tank with the Shrimp..... it took a couple days before i noticed the aptasia disapearing... ( Yaaaaaaaah ! ) so good luck,do your best whenever you select anything new for your tank.. cw.

[VWD]

Bob from long Island. You tank looks very nice. Rock is really nice.

I lived in Long Island as a kid, Jackson heights. long time ago.

[reefBoyDc]

nice looking tank! 2 weeks is not that long. wait another 2 before you add anything significant.

As far as dosing, don't worry about it until you have corals in there. Eventually, you will want to monitor your Ca, Alk and pH. That will tell you how often you should dose Kalk. Klakwasser (lime) will buffer your pH (helping keep it where it shold be), and boost your Ca and Alk, which is necessary for coral and coraline growth.

You may need to boost your Ca or Alk independently to get the right balance, but once that is achieved, Kalk will keep them balanced and high. Us liquid calcium to boost Ca, and SuperBuffer Dkh for Alk.

[Bob NY]

Thanks Vince. I am a bit further out on the Island than Jackson Height. I'm about 1/2 way out. Nice plave to live, but it's getting mad expensive here.

CW, I am goint to try the Peppermint shrimp, and let them do thier thing for a while before I add any fish. I dont think I will be adding any shrimp eater's in there.

Mike, Thanks for the advice. I definately plan of waiting a bit before adding any livestock. So far my level's have held solid at 0. I'm not sure if I will get any since the system has 100lbs of established rock in it. I will wait and see though.
I would like to get started on the Aiptasia ASAP though. At what point do you think it will be safe to add the shrimp? All of the crab's, snails, starfish and stuff that are in there seem to be doing well. Up until now I have had a FO system. This is my first expirience with Invert's. I'm not sure if the same stocking rules apply.
As for CA, and ALK. Aside from the Aiptasia, the rock I got has a ton of other things on it. I figure'd it would be best to pay attention to those level's and give everything the best chance it has under my insufficient lighting ( CSL Smartlite ). I am hopefully going to do a lighting upgrade later this week.

Thanks again for everyones help.

[reef_noob]

Copper Banded Butterfly fish will eat aiptasia, although they will nip at other softies and anemones as well. The major stocking difference between a reef and a FO is bioload. You can't keep as many fish in a reef tank as in a FO. You really should wait until the tank has been esatblished for a month before adding fish and go slow. You can prob add a cleanup crew after a couple of weeks, although a month would be better.

[menelaus22]

keep in mind that peppermint shrimp will also eat polyps... like zoanthids, etc. you might want to see how much damage you can do with the joe's.