46 Gallon Tank..now What?

[blakenkayla]

Okay ive been reading up and im wanting to start my saltwater tank.I was origonally gonna try a 10 gallon but everyone kept on so i got a really good deal on a 46 gallon tank so im going to pick it up this weekend.Now i know i cycle for a month without fish.But do I add live sand and live rock before i fill then tank up with water and let it cycle?And it coral safe to put in during cycling or would you wait until after i cycled?

 

[craigybaby37]

well i presume u know what equipment u need for starters....if not just say an ime sure we can help u out.

start by filling the tank with RO (reverse osmosis) water and getting it upto temperature of about 26C and then add your salt to get a salinity between 1.021 and 1.026 and then once thats done u want to add you sand or crushed coral as your base ( i used lived sand as it comes with the bacteria needed to give ya tank a little bit of a head start.

One you have done all of the above u want to add your live rock and then like u say just leave it to do its thing after a week or so you should have your diatoms outbreak which is normall and every other day test for nitrate nitrite and ammonia and when they are all at 0ppm u are ready to add ur clean up crew.

Before adding ur clean up crew just test ur calcium, you'll want it somewhere in between 400 and 450ppm

i wouldnt reccomend adding any corals until u tank is at least a couple of months old.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, adding LR is like adding a cloned filter with some dieoff in it (to borrow freshwater terms). It'll jumpstart/short-circuit your cycle. Should take anywhere from 1-7 days for the nitrogen cycle to be complete. There's a lot of other maturing that goes on during the first month though.

 

[steelhealr]

There are some really good starter threads in the FAQ's in Marine and nano. One method is to:
-fill the tank with water, add salt, mix, check s.g...then let 'age' for a day or so
-youi can then either add the LR and fill sand about it or add the sand and put the LR on it (I preferred the latter)
-let the sand settle
-using cured live rock is your cycle process

SH