Jenny January 9, 2007 Share January 9, 2007 Exotic Aquatics! Absolutely! Its a must go store. Its worth the drive any traffic whatever its the best store hands down. They have tons upon tons of livestock salt and fresh. And the people who work there are really great. I have to take out money from the ATM then leave the rest of my money, credit cards at home because they have so much great stuff. Its a little pricier than online but worth every penny. We use plastic zip ties and magnets for our heaters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trble81 January 9, 2007 Author Share January 9, 2007 Thanks. We'll figure some stuff out. We're fixin' to go to Scales like tomorrow to pick up a skimmer and some other stuff (i.e. live rock) and get to cycling our tank. Testing levels will bring me back to when I was in Grad School (I was a Bio Grad.....and this is Mike, the "Husband") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak January 10, 2007 Share January 10, 2007 If you need a cup of sand to help cycling and help build up your pod and worm population lemme know. I'm free thursday... I'd really think you'd be way better off buying rock from people in the club than getting it from a store. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trble81 January 11, 2007 Author Share January 11, 2007 ... I'd really think you'd be way better off buying rock from people in the club than getting it from a store. I just posted in the For Sale/WTB forum that we are looking for LR. Hopefully someone has some that we won't have to drive 2 hrs to get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugar Magnolia January 11, 2007 Share January 11, 2007 Have you checked out Dr. Macs? http://www.drmaccorals.com/ Retail info: http://www.drmaccorals.com/RetailOutlet.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trble81 January 11, 2007 Author Share January 11, 2007 Have you checked out Dr. Macs? http://www.drmaccorals.com/ Retail info: http://www.drmaccorals.com/RetailOutlet.aspx I just took a look at their site. They location is about a 2 hour drive from where we are in Columbia, MD according to mapquest. And thankfully someone answered that they have live rock to sell and for much cheaper too! Thanks for the info though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trble81 January 11, 2007 Author Share January 11, 2007 Ok, I've got a couple more noobie questions for the masses. We have a Visi-jet venturi protein skimmer and I was just wondering how much of those fine bubbles should be coming out of the flow director bottom thingy? I adjusted the flow according to the directions and anything less would mean no air getting mixed. Second question has to do with Nitrate levels. I understand the cycle and all but I don't know what levels would be acceptable for our tank (which will be a fish only with live rock). Obviously the biological filter will kick off Nitrates and a high level is not cool for invertebrates but what would be an acceptable level for our tank so I know when to freak out and change a bunch of water, etc., etc.... As always, thanks again for everyone's help!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeltwayBandit January 11, 2007 Share January 11, 2007 I would guess that you want the air as wide open as you can get it without washing bubbles back into the tank, or burping too much water out the top of the skimmer. Its the bubbles that make the skimmer work, more bubbles is better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak January 12, 2007 Share January 12, 2007 Nitrates you always would like to shoot for as close to zero as you can manage... 10-15ppm isn't too bad on a fish olny though... what kind of test kit are you using? You want as much air in your skimmer as possible... more or less, if you're having trouble with micro bubbles in your tank try getting a filter sponge and putting it over/in the out flow of your skimmer back in the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trble81 January 12, 2007 Author Share January 12, 2007 You want as much air in your skimmer as possible... more or less, if you're having trouble with micro bubbles in your tank try getting a filter sponge and putting it over/in the out flow of your skimmer back in the tank. There are a ton of little bubbles going all over the tank. I guess we need to get a sponge to put in the out flow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TROLL January 12, 2007 Share January 12, 2007 I just took a look at their site. They location is about a 2 hour drive from where we are in Columbia, MD according to mapquest. And thankfully someone answered that they have live rock to sell and for much cheaper too! Thanks for the info though. I'm organizing group buy sometime this month or next for Dr. Mac- if you want, you're invited to be part of it Here's link to my post about it. Dr. Mac Group Buy Ok, I've got a couple more noobie questions for the masses. We have a Visi-jet venturi protein skimmer and I was just wondering how much of those fine bubbles should be coming out of the flow director bottom thingy? I adjusted the flow according to the directions and anything less would mean no air getting mixed. Second question has to do with Nitrate levels. I understand the cycle and all but I don't know what levels would be acceptable for our tank (which will be a fish only with live rock). Obviously the biological filter will kick off Nitrates and a high level is not cool for invertebrates but what would be an acceptable level for our tank so I know when to freak out and change a bunch of water, etc., etc.... As always, thanks again for everyone's help!! I still remember my old visi-therm protein skimmer! Nostalisgic!!!! (I still have it, hehe) Anyway, that skimmer is only rated to 60g, you'll really want it to skim a lot- not too much to the point where it start blowing up clean water into the cup. Try to work the air column into fine bubble so that way it'll actually bring up fine particle waste. I remember how it works- have to do a few fine tuning before you could get it bubbling right. It has to be like ginger ale like bubble rather than coke like bubble if you catch my drift. As for nitrates, it takes time as the bio load stablize and the system start to develop the appropiate micro-ecosystem. Usually 2-4 weeks, live rocks (well-cured) will boost the process but you can get nitritifying bacteria to assist the process, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandy7200 January 12, 2007 Share January 12, 2007 Most fish can easily tolerate nitrates up to 100ppm range, mind you they may not be healthy as they could be but, this won't kill them. Ammonia will kill them. In a fish only or soft coral tank I usually shoot for 20-30ppm nitrates. Take things slow, now that you have your hands a little wet and don't even think about adding a fish for a bit. This will give yourself a little time to create a "stocking plan" of the fish you want to keep and then you will need to add them in the right order to keep aggression low in a small tank. There are quite a few things you can work on and keep you busy while that tank is cycling. Glad you stuck around, hope to meet you guys at the Winter Meeting. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trble81 January 12, 2007 Author Share January 12, 2007 ...hope to meet you guys at the Winter Meeting. Dan I am not sure that we will make it to the Winter Meeting, but we are going to go to the open house at Scales on the 28th. Hopefully we will be able to get our first fish there that day. Any pointers on what kind of fish/how many/what order to put them into the tank? We have a few ideas of what we would like, just not sure we can put them in first. Thanks, Heather Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak January 12, 2007 Share January 12, 2007 Gobies, blenies, clowns, inverts (<-- you can have a lot of fun here (AVOID ARROW CRAB)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trble81 January 14, 2007 Author Share January 14, 2007 Mike and I would live to throw out a big "THANK YOU" to steveoutlaw for the terrific LR he sold to us this afternoon. We are happy to report that it made the trip from VA to MD with no accidents and we even have a few of the polyps opening up to test our water. We would also like to pose a question. We seem to have a very small (ie: smaller than a dime) starfish that made the trip with the LR. THis little hitchhiker is beige in color and has six arms. Is there anyway that anyone would know what type of starfish that is? Or, do we need to feed it anything? It is the only real living thing in the tank right now. Any insight would be welcomed. Thanks, Heather Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhoch January 14, 2007 Share January 14, 2007 Astreina star: They are fine, and you don't have to do anything special for them. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trble81 January 15, 2007 Author Share January 15, 2007 Another noob question for the masses: How quickly is the Ammonia supposed to rise? I'm testing it every other day (as per the kit) and was wondering when I'll start seeing some big jumps. I ask this because we had just gotten some nice LR with great coraline growth and I don't know if that will keep levels lower than usual. Basically I don't want to say, "Yea the cycling is done!!" and go out to get fish and then come back to see them all dead like a scene from War of the Worlds or something. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak January 15, 2007 Share January 15, 2007 Either wich way you want to give it 3 weeks to a month, your tank can go though a big cycle or even mini cycles with the use of established LR. Also what test kit are you using... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevil January 15, 2007 Share January 15, 2007 If you don't have one of these books, I highly recommend getting at least one. "The New Marine Aquarium, A step-by step setup and stocking guide". It's an easy read and pretty short. "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Robert Fenner. I still use this over a year later. The first one walks you through setting up all your equipment and provides great checklists for different types of tanks. The second one does the same (but to somewhat less detail on the setup), however is an awesome resource for the continued maintenance and stocking of your tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phisigs79 January 15, 2007 Share January 15, 2007 I put all my live rock from my 55g (Across the room so it wasnt out of water very long) into my 75g with brand new non-living sand and new saltwater. The tank never "cycled". No ammonia,nitrite or nitrates ever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fab January 15, 2007 Share January 15, 2007 Unless you transferred your rock pretty much directly from an established tank where the rock had been immersed for at least a few weeks and that tank is known to have zero ammonium and nitrates, you should plan on cycling it for a few weeks, even if you don't see pronounced spikes in ammonium and nitrate. Otherwise, you should see elevated levels within a few to several days. If you don't then consider cross-checking your test kit. Take samples to a friend or to a fish store and ask them to test it for you. Also, did you test your water quality and record it before adding the live rock? fab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trble81 January 15, 2007 Author Share January 15, 2007 Also, did you test your water quality and record it before adding the live rock? fab We did get the LR from an established tank. Actually, from steveoutlaw, and he had said that he had it for a year or so. We did test the water before we put the LR in and nothing was amiss. Jason, the test kit that we are using is the API Saltwater Master Kit. We plan on letting the tank hang out for a few weeks anyway, but we just weren't sure if we should be seeing any big spikes in amonia or nitrates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fab January 16, 2007 Share January 16, 2007 (edited) Unless the live rock was out of Steve's tank for more than a few hours and was allowed to dry out some, you might not see any noticeable cycling behavior. Cycling is just a fancy name for letting decomposition processes go to completion and for the direct and indirect products of decomposition to make their way out of your system. No die-off, no decomposition. No decomposition, no ammonium spike. No ammonium spike, no nitrate spike. No spikes, no cycling. No kidding. I'd bet Steve Outlaw's tank has been maintained at high water quality and that your new live rock had no appreciable die-off, at least not appreciable relative to the volume of your system and to its capacity to eliminate a small bump in ammonium and nitrates. You are probably done with cycling that rock. ... and a free star to boot! ... and even an extra arm!! fab Edited January 16, 2007 by fab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TROLL January 16, 2007 Share January 16, 2007 Make sure you have decent ratio of live rocks to gal, between 1 to 2 lbs to 1 gal. If low ratio then you might notice some spikes- it all depends on bio-load and feeding habit. Just make sure once you have livestocks in there, manage your feeding well so that there aren't any excessive material left behind where they could accumulate and eventually lead to spikes. Also, to be honest- adding live rocks from existing tanks, even those with over 6 months still may be at risk. Some live things in there might won't adjust well to different water parameter and might result in die-off. I've seen it happen before. That's why it's wise to cycle the tank for 2 to 4 weeks to ensure the system is in good parameter before adding livestocks. Other advice, try with one fish first for a month so you can observe the change in ecosystem then when you're content, add a couple more. When whole thing seems to be in perfect order, you may change the livestocks or add more. Make sure you work out list of livestock and carefully consider each species- their feeding habit, diet, behavors, etc so they'll co-exist well and don't throw the system out of balance. Some people make mistake by overstocking their tank and lose everything. Sometime they don't realize that most fishes that are bought from store are in juvenile stage, they end up with large and aggressive fishes in a year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fab January 16, 2007 Share January 16, 2007 (edited) Troll, When you said, "...low ratio then you might notice some spikes," did you mean "high ratio?" In other words did you mean, "if you have too much rock for the amount of water in the system then you might notice some spikes?" fab Edited January 16, 2007 by fab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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