Filling my tank tomorrow, I have questions

[simmlink]

Hello All,

After buying my tank 4-5 months ago (50 gallon), I finally had enough to purchase my lighting and protein skimmer - got them in the mail today. I'm planning to begin my adventure tomorrow (fill the tank) and I have a few questions:

-I'm planning Live Rock and Sand; since I won't be adding fish for at least a month is it best to add the Rock and Sand all at once and let everything cycle together?

-Do I need to cycle the water before adding the Rock/Sand?

-Any recommendations on a salt brand? Heading to the marine store tomorrow morning to get necessary supplies.

-My lighting is Current USA Orbit (2x96w); they state that the lighting should not be used over an open aquarium and that a plate of glass or acrylic should be used. I have an acrylic tank with two 7in.x10in openings on the top - so it's semi open. Is this ok? The lighting is mounted 4in. above the top of the aquarium.

Help is appreciated. thanks!
Simmlink

[kuoka]

Add both the LS and LR together and cycle.

[rhythmicfire]

You can put in the rock and let it cure in your tank in bare-bottom fashion (no sand yet). After things have settled down with your water parameters, go ahead and siphon out all of the stuff that sloshes off the rocks; after this I would say your good to add your sand (You just don't want to trap all the garbage that falls of your rock in your sand).

After you mix the saltwater in your tank, you don't need to 'cycle' your water. Just make the specific gravity is within an acceptable range, and your water is heated. Once those things are done, go ahead and chuck in your live rock.

People will tell you different things regarding which salt to use. There are many threads about this. Anyhow, IMO it seems as though most people tend to gravitate towards regular Instant Ocean salt, Instant Ocean Reef Crystals, Oceanic, Kent, and Tropic Marin Pro. People tend to stay away from Coralife brand salts for some reason (in my experience anyways). For general purposes however I think the regular Instant Ocean salt will cut the cake for ya'.

[Vinnie71975]

Originally posted by simmlink
Hello All,

After buying my tank 4-5 months ago (50 gallon), I finally had enough to purchase my lighting and protein skimmer - got them in the mail today. I'm planning to begin my adventure tomorrow (fill the tank) and I have a few questions:

-I'm planning Live Rock and Sand; since I won't be adding fish for at least a month is it best to add the Rock and Sand all at once and let everything cycle together?

-Do I need to cycle the water before adding the Rock/Sand?

-Any recommendations on a salt brand? Heading to the marine store tomorrow morning to get necessary supplies.

-My lighting is Current USA Orbit (2x96w); they state that the lighting should not be used over an open aquarium and that a plate of glass or acrylic should be used. I have an acrylic tank with two 7in.x10in openings on the top - so it's semi open. Is this ok? The lighting is mounted 4in. above the top of the aquarium.

Help is appreciated. thanks!
Simmlink

I like Either Instant Ocean Or Reef Crystals For Salt, Cycle them all together, Toss in a Cocktail Shrimp and let it COMPLETELY Decay, Remove the Tail before tossing it in and Remember Don't put ANYTHING in until your numbers are 0 across the board( i made that mistake and Payed with the life of most of my Clean Up Crew)

[Playa-1]

My 2 cents. If its clean and cured live rock then i would cycle both together. If on the other hand it is uncured live rock that will have a lot of die off then i think that i would not add the sand until the live rock had cured. I don't think there is any right answer on a question like this. You can do it either way and learn from you experience.

[sidd129]

Just some friendly advice. For a good price on salt, Petco will price match an ad printed of the internet for Instant Ocean salt from Drs Foster and Smith. If they don't F&S has a good price on salt and decent shipping costs. I use IO as most do. It can take six weeks to cycle. What kind of skimmer did you buy? Do you have a ro/di or plan on buying ro water? Where do you live?(how is you water out of the tap?).

Was it petco or petsmart? hmmmmm.

[95accord]

how much LS and LR do you have?....i put water in the tank...added salt.....made sure everything was in check...added my LS and LR and i was good.....added fish a couple days after and everything is still A-OK. if you have alot of LS and LR...the tank doesnt need to cycle very long...as long as the bacterial culture is already established. mine was done cycling in one day. after one day all my water parameters were perfect.
in my situation, i was more worried about sediment (dust and other random particles) settling than water quality thats how fast mine cycled.

i even added a nice pink tip anemone shortly after....and anemones arent that easy to keep...and its doing just fine