I have had a fish only 55 gallon tank for over a year now and enjoy it very much. Now i want to go a step further and start on a small reef tank setup. I ran across a 30 gallon eclipse tank at a sale for 10.00 so i thoght that would be a good start. Ive read up on things i need and have talked to several local pet shops. So far i know i need to cycle the tank and some people say that takes up to 30 days?? So i bought some live sand 25lbs added that to the tank. Next i put 3 cheap fish in. I was told that would help cycle the tank also. Then i added Fiji Rock a few days later approx 20 lbs of mixed pieces. Some people have said during the cycle my fish may die. I just want to make sure i am going about this the right way. Then what should my temp be at in the tank? Right now it says 80 to 82 in the tank. I dont want to kill off the live rock. I want to add coral later also and i have heard temp is very crucial so is a chiller necessary? any help would be appreciated.
Need alittle Help??
- Thread starter bjftanker
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The initial nitrogen cycle (building up surfficient quantities of nitrifying bacteria to convert ammonia to nitrite to nitrate) may take around 30 days to complete. Depending on how well cured your live rock is, during this period you may see ammonia or nitrite spikes due to there not being enough bacteria to process the ammonia produced by both die off from the rock and from the fish, which may cause the fish to die.
Concerning the fish if they are damsels you may have a hard time adding any other fish to the tank (not that you would really want the bioload of more than one more fish in the tank IMO) since they tend to get very terratorial.
Whether you need a chiller or not really depends on where you live and what you lighting is- here in the UK it never gets particlularly hot so even with a 150 watt halide over my similar sized tank I have no need for a chiller.
HTH
Ed
Concerning the fish if they are damsels you may have a hard time adding any other fish to the tank (not that you would really want the bioload of more than one more fish in the tank IMO) since they tend to get very terratorial.
Whether you need a chiller or not really depends on where you live and what you lighting is- here in the UK it never gets particlularly hot so even with a 150 watt halide over my similar sized tank I have no need for a chiller.
HTH
Ed
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My tank ran at a constant 82 degree all through the summer 
I tried running fans on the surafce and this helped to get it to 80 degree but the evaporation was enomrous! 
I dont have a heater switched on in the tank so the ehat was purely from the ambient temperature, the halides (400w) and the internal pumps.
The only thing in my tank that i feel suffered from the higher temperature was my yellow polyps. Tey closed up for ages and refused to open. I gave them to a friend with far better temperature than mine and within a couple of days these polyps were opening up as normal.
All other corals in my tank seemed to be fine.
As for the fish cycling hte tank. Sorry to say at an old an fairly cruel way to cycle the tank when considering todays methods this can be done without adding a single fish
)
Adding good quality live rock in large quantities will mean that there is no cycle at all and fish can be added. If live rock cannot be afforded in large quantities then a simple forzen ahrimp thrown in the water woujld also help the maturing process.
Adding the live rock after the fish have been added may well have saved their lives IMO.
ED is right, if they are damsels then you are in for a nightmare trying to get them out or should you add more fish then you are l iekly to have seriousl territorial problems.)
Watch the tanks water peramteters and if they are ok after about a week then start to add cleaner crew. 1 per gallon is the recomandation
I tried running fans on the surafce and this helped to get it to 80 degree but the evaporation was enomrous! I dont have a heater switched on in the tank so the ehat was purely from the ambient temperature, the halides (400w) and the internal pumps.
The only thing in my tank that i feel suffered from the higher temperature was my yellow polyps. Tey closed up for ages and refused to open. I gave them to a friend with far better temperature than mine and within a couple of days these polyps were opening up as normal.
All other corals in my tank seemed to be fine.
As for the fish cycling hte tank. Sorry to say at an old an fairly cruel way to cycle the tank when considering todays methods this can be done without adding a single fish
) Adding good quality live rock in large quantities will mean that there is no cycle at all and fish can be added. If live rock cannot be afforded in large quantities then a simple forzen ahrimp thrown in the water woujld also help the maturing process.
Adding the live rock after the fish have been added may well have saved their lives IMO.
ED is right, if they are damsels then you are in for a nightmare trying to get them out or should you add more fish then you are l iekly to have seriousl territorial problems.
) Watch the tanks water peramteters and if they are ok after about a week then start to add cleaner crew. 1 per gallon is the recomandation
yeah they are damsels i have found out. But right now i can get them out fairly easily. So should i get them out of there. But if i do is it really safe yet to put anything else in the tank just yet. Because i hate to buy some clown fish or anything else that might not make it through the cycle. I can be patient. Also in you guys tanks how long did it take you all to start to see things growing from the live rock? I know it depends on well cured the liverock is but i was just curious. Then iv heard alot about a skimmer i have one in my big tank. Is it nessasary in this little 30 gallon?
if you are cycling the tank,I would just leave them in there until the cycling
is complete.see if your lfs will take them back when it is done, otherwise
you will have serious territorial and aggression problems when you try to add
other fish.you will need the skimmer if you are doing any type of reef set-up.
is complete.see if your lfs will take them back when it is done, otherwise
you will have serious territorial and aggression problems when you try to add
other fish.you will need the skimmer if you are doing any type of reef set-up.
Article on temperature:
http
/www.reefs.org/library/article/reef_temperature.html
http
/www.reefs.org/library/article/reef_temperature.htmlSimilar threads
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