I am about to do it.

[euthyphro]

Origianlly I was going to start my aquarium in about a month or two, to take it easy on my bank account, however today I decided that I could not wait any longer. Tomorrow I will probobly start cycling my tank and I am going to add live rock with dead sand. My lps has this little package that you pour into your tank to seed dead sand, it was pretty cheap so I assume that they were not lying that it really does work pretty good.

I plan on cycling my tank for at least a month and a half.

Anyhow, I am going to have 15 pounds of live rock, 20 pounds of dead sand with that wierd seeding stuff, and I am only going to fill my tank half way to make sure that the sand catches on real good to that seeding stuff- it is a 45 gallon tank.

I will only be running a protein skimmer, and a powerhead or two. Should I worry about my lights? I have a 250w 20,000 k mh light with two actinic's and moon lights. What lights should I run and for how long.

After about a month or so, I will add another ten to twenty pounds of live rock and about another ten pounds of live sand with more of that seeding stuff. then I will fill my tank all the way with salt water.

I will put purple up in it daily during the entire process. And of course I will also be using ro water.

After this process is over, about a month or two total, I will then add one or two live fish, and a mushroom coral assuming that my nitrate levels are a-ok. Then I am going to add a canister filter, more power heads, and perhaps a hang on refugium.

Then every once in a while I will keep adding live rock and maybe a bit more sand along with some more critters.

Does this plan sound good? Should I put some live fish in my tank sooner to help the cycling? Once again, what kind of lighting should I do during the cycling process- I do know that some desired types of algea require light. Have I missed anyting?

I know that I am taking the very slow method, but I dont want my bank account to take such a large hit all at once, I like having some security. However I can not wait any longer, I have got to get this thing off the ground no matter how small, Unless anyone can see me headed for disaster that is.

[Dyngoe]

Hi Euthyphro,

Going slow in cycling is by far the best way. I can't empasize enough how starting off on a good foot will help you in the future. I would suggest a few alterations to your plan.
First off, the point behind cycling to to get the complete cycle setup. You really want to run your complete system including your canister filter and all of the water from the very beginning. You need to seed your canister filter with the bacteria since it will be resposible for breaking down your amonia. The skimmer is actually not necessary until you put fish in. Obviously a main goal is to grow beneficial bacteria. But, you also want to get your water stable. Once you have the compinents ready the next thing is to consider water. If you plan on doing a reef I'd look into getting an RO/DI water system soon. You can get them for ~$125 shipped on EBay. Until you get that you will need to buy RO water from your LFS and add salt to it. Or, you LFS may sell sea water. This is even easier to get started with. Should run ~$1/Gal. If your LFS doesn't sell RO water or saltwater, find another store. You can start with treated tap water to get cycled, but your coraline algae and won't grow as well and you will need to swap it out for treated RO water or ocean salt water before putting any coral in. Remember to prepare all of your water before you get sand or rocks. Putting sand into a tank with water creates a lot less dust than pouring water over sand.
The next consideration is sand. I highly recomend buying some live sand at the beginning from your LFS with your dead sand and better I'd suggest buying all live sand. In the long run the cost of the sand is minimal comapred with coral, fish, supliments, etc. Live sand is loaded with much more than bacteria. My favorite is Oolite but it is very fine and tends to dust up at the beginninig, but once it settles it really looks nice.
Now, let's talk rocks. This is not a willy-nilly decision. Rocks are expensive. You can use "dead" rocks for base to save some money. But all of the pieces that will be displayed should be selected carefully. Everyone has a different vision of their tank in mind. Look around and see what you like. Some peole make small islands of rock in the middle of their tanks, some build beautiful reef walls, while others try to make nice arches and tunnels for their fish. You want to make sure your pieces stack the way you want them to. Try stacking them at the store. Any LFS worth beans will let you give that a try.
Finally, let's talk about the extras and getting it going. Once the system is put together and you've added good water, snad and rocks, you need to think about adding a small bio load. One nice thing you can do is get a few hermit crabs an snails after a few weeks. If you use ocean water, live sand and live rocks this could be as short as a week. Now, you will want to feed the crabs a small bit of food. Don't worry if they don't go right for it. A pellet or two will disolve and produce algae that many crabs will eat. Also, the critters in the sand will appreciate a meal. The snails are just preventive maintenance. You may start building algae quickly or slowly. Either way you will build algae. Having a few snails in the tank (3-4) will give you a head start on controlling it later. One thing that will control the growth of algae is the amount of food you provide the crabs and the amount of light you use. I don't know how big your tank is, but 250W of MH light will grow algae almost anywhere. But, feel free to use it. It will help build coraline algae as well as bad algae. Plus, a lit tank always looks cooler than a blank tank.
The final addendum to all of this is about water quality. Once you have everything running and you are adding a small bio load to build your cycle, you will want to start focusing on water quality. You should invest in a good test kit with alkalinity and calcium tests to boot. Before you start adding fish , inverts or coral, try to get your water to where it will be for good. You want your water to always be around 77F degrees. Check how your light affects this and add fans to compensate. Fans cause evaporation, so have a bucket of RO water available to top it off. Also, get your alkalinity up to at least 9 DKh and your PH to a stable 8.3. You will want your salinity to be at 1.024. Buy a specific gravity meter and test it at the LFS where you plan on buying your fish/corals. Whatever it reads there it should read at your house. Hopefully they know what they are doing and have good quality water.
I know this is alot, but I hope it helps.
Welcome to the addiction!

[nemo79]

I AGREE GOING SLOW IS THE BEST WAY BUT YOU REALLY NEED TO ADD ALL YOUR SAND, WATER, AND ROCK FROM THE BEGINNING. THE WAY YOU PLAN TO DO IT WILL ONLY AFFECT YOUR CYCLE. EVERY TIME YOU ADD NEW DEAD STUFF TO THE TANK YOU WILL RESTART THE CYLCE. I WOULD DEFINITLY RE THINK ON THAT PLAN.
i WOULD SUGGEST ADDING YOUR SAND, THEN ADD ALL YOUR WATER, NOT HALF WAY, ADD YOUR ROCKS...YOU CAN AQUASCAPE DURING THE CYCLING. IT ISN'T NECESSARY TO RUN THE SKIMMER RIGHT OFF THE BAT BUT I WOULD RUN YOUR FILTER FOR SURE SO YOU SEED IT WITH THE NECESSARY BACTERIA. I WOULD RUN YOUR LIGHTS FOR A FEW HOURS A DAY. I WOULDN'T SUGGEST DOING THE PURPLE UP AT THIS POINT. ADDING UNECESSARY PRODUCTS TO YOUR TANK ISN'T SUGGESTED AND FROM WHAT I HEAR PURPLE UP ADVANCES ALREADY EXISTING CORALINE ISN'T DOESN'T CREATE IT.
TAKE IT FROM US, IF YOU DO YOUR ORIGINAL PLAN YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO ADD LIVESTOCK FOR QUITE SOME TIME BECAUSE YOU WILL JUST CYLCE YOUR TANK EVERYTIME YOU ADD NEW WATER, SAND, OR ROCKS. DON'T DO ANY WATER CHANGES DURING CYCLING EITHER...THIS WILL DISTURB THE CYCLE AS WELL. GET IT ALL SET UP AT ONCE AND THEN WAIT.

[amcarrig]

If it hasn't been mentioned already, put the rock in first, then the sand. If you put your rock on top of the sand, there might be a collapse of the reef structure if you get fish and snails that do a lot of burrowing.

[m_lacom99]

+1 on adding your LR before the sand. Lost a couple of critters cause of that.

Second, going all LR inst necessary, to save some $ you can add mostly base rock and a couple chunks of LR to seed the rest, after a couple of months you wont see the difference.

Now for the sand, you could get some "dead" sand and seed it with just a cup or to of live sand, your LFS will sell you some for cheap i'm sure. My LFS gave me about 2 lbs worth.

I dont really like the bacteria in a bottle kind of deal, I use a big cocktail shrimp put that in a micron bag and just dump it in the tank. The shrimp will start to decay and decompose which will create all the bacteria you need to get your cycle started.

Oh and do add everything at once, like nemo said it will just extend the cycle time every time you add something new to the tank.

You can run all your lights during the cycle. that way you know how much heat they will give out like Dyngoe said and make adjustments accordingly.

Marc.

[Jason McKenzie]

One more to the list of people that do not recomend 1/2 the water. I would fill your tank with water. Place a heater and a power head in the water. When you are up to temp start adding salt to get the desired 1.026 SG. Then add your Rock. Then sand (rinse it well first, really well). don't bother with the packet of bacteria. Your sand will be "Live" with in a few weeks with out it.

Add a cocktail shrimp or the like to boost the cycle and sit back and wait. I wouldn't add purple up as your tanks PH is going to swing a lot and it will be a waste of money.

I have always ran my skimmer and lights during cycles but have heard people who don't. I don't think there is any hard evidence either way as to what is better

J

[euthyphro]

Thanks guys, I guess I will fill my tank the rest of the way. However, my lfs said that I should not run my canister filter untill after a week (Im likely getting one for xmas) so for now I will just have my bio balls floating around the tank. I think I will also run my protein skimmer just to break it in. Also, I will stop adding purple up for now. Is it all right if i already added calcium, I dont see why not. Also, I will start my lights on a timer just to see what happens...... Thanks for the advice yall!! it seems that my amonia spiked quite nicely with just the live rock so I think i will skip the jumbo shrimp thing if yall feel that will be ok.

[Jason McKenzie]

To tell you the truth I have never run a canister filter on a reef tank. That's what the LR is for. Save your money.

J