I Did It

[SLC Flyfishing]

Well I went to the LFS and bought the live rock and sand etc. the rock and sand is in right now waiting for the first 5 gallons of water to heat up and then it's in! I got some good pieces of live rock but they were so big that I had no choice but to go with the clump look.

I'm very excited to be trying this out, thanks for all the help that everyone (especially skifletch) has given. I'll have many more questions to come for sure!

SLC

Pics coming

 

[SkiFletch]

*Gets out the popcorn and sits back to wait for pics*

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Well I've got a tiny snail that must have hitched a ride on the rock, and a ton of these little brown hairy things growing out of the rock as well! This is way too cool

SLC

 

[SkiFletch]

Nice. Brown hairy things, probably diatoms. Great snail food

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Nice. Brown hairy things, probably diatoms. Great snail food

They look like little brown tufts of grass about the diameter of a pencil eraser and about 4-6 mm long. also there is a feather duster worm now.

I'm concerned, isn't there supposed to be more than this by now? it's been 4 days since I put in the rock and there's not much there, also there's nothing but those little white bugs (forgot what they are called) on the one piece of rock. I need some advice/reassurance that everything is O.K.

SLC

 

[JamieH]

pics!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, the rock we get in the states is nowhere near as good as what those UK guys get, so the life you're seeing is about what you should be. The white things are copepods. good.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Yeah sorry about the pictures, My card reader on the laptop isn't working for some reason, and I cant find my docking cable for the camera. As soon as I get one of those issues worked out I'll post them. Also, I bought aragonite coral sand but not live sand, I bought 12 lbs but might have only used about 4, this being because my fiji rock pieces were huge, the substrate around the rock is 1.5-2 inches deep, will this be O.K. ?

Thanks again for the help.

SLC

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, substrate sounds just fine

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Great, thanks! You've been a huge help and I owe you one.

SLC

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

OK it's been 5 days and I've still not seen a nitrite spike, or any nitrite for that matter. Is this normal? I know I should go out and get a saltwater ammonia and nitrate test but I haven't been able to make it back to the LFS because of the holidays and all. Is there a chance that my tank could have cycled in that amount of time? I know that the live rock I bought wasn't advertised as cured but they said that they had had it for weeks and there is not a ton of critters on there?

Anyway just let me know what you think?

SLC

 

[maidenfan]

until you get your test kits i wouldn't trust anything ammonia shows up first then nitrites follow only when ammonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrates are below 20ppm should i think about stocking

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

until you get your test kits i wouldn't trust anything ammonia shows up first then nitrites follow only when ammonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrates are below 20ppm should i think about stocking

Obviously true, I would never even consider stocking before checking all water parameters. However my question was; could it be possible that I may have missed the ammonia spike and nitrite spike? Like I said, the rock may have been held at the lfs long enough to be cured, and I've read tons of instances where live rock cycled extremely quickly. I'm just wondering mostly if anyone else has had a similar experience.

Thanks anyway though!

SLC

 

[SkiFletch]

If you're close to your LFS and you got the rock back underwater pretty quickly then yeah, there's a chance you missed your spikes. My tank was cycled after 5 days...

 

[maidenfan]

sorry misread your post got feeling you were thinking of stocking agreed yes if the rock was well cured and put straight in your tank you could have already cycled