Back After 6 years

[Mindcrime]

Hey gang,
I could use a little guidance. I have been out of the hobby for about 8 years, a lot of things have changed! I picked up a new Fusion 20, Ghost skimmer, Meadia reactor, MP-10QD. I already have a small chiller. My last tank was live rock with HOB filter, so the skimmer and media reactor are very new to me. Should I be running these right from the star, or should I wait until the tank has cycled? What should I be using in the reactor?

Next question is about live rock. I see that there are alternatives now? Any suggestions or opinions?

I would like to get a controler for the tank, but mainly for monitoring levels (salinity, temp, ph, etc) opinions?

Thanks in advance, all this new equipment has my head spinning!

[Normang]

I have been told to wait on the filters until after the cycle is over, and I would wait on running the skimmer as well.

[Jellyingabout]

Run the skimmer from day1, it helps it bed it in and also helps remove a lot of waste that will slough of your rocks in the cycle.

 

I would also run your filters during the cycle to help them seed with bacteria. Don't clean them until the cycle is over, this prevents you from prolonging the cycle by upsetting the water chemistry, then give them a good rinse in salt water and proceed as normal.

 

I would run a phosphate remover in the reactor, and only hook this up at the end of the cycle otherwise your wasting money on media. You will likely have to change the media much sooner than the packet recommends the first time.

 

Artificial Dry rock is a great alternative to LR if your patient, just seed it with some bacto-start, maybe run a spoon of np biopellets too. The benefit of dry rock is no nasty hitchhikers from day 1.

 

I wouldn't bother with a controller they are just so expensive and only useful on huge tanks imo. they are so expensive, i'd invest the cash in better lights, everything in the tank will thank-you for it, in the past 8years LED's have come on leaps and bounds and the top end LED's really can't be beaten.

[bpb]

ill go against the grain and say dont run a protein skimmer until you start running into nutrient issues. Especially not during a cycle. Skimming removes lots of things both good and bad. They remove a tremendous amount of bacteria and pods in addition to just organic waste molecules. When you're cycling your tank, especially with dry rock, you want as much of that life to maintain preserved in the tank and not skimmed out. Lots of folks have done it both ways though, just how I make sense of it. If you can afford it, I think a controller is a great tool to have. It's not entirely necessary as you can purchase separate temperature and ph controllers/monitors. There are basically separate stand alone controllers for everything out there that an Apex will do in one cloud based unit.

[cromag27]

Use pure ammonia to cycle, no skimmer, no lights, no filter, no media, no nothing. rock, sand, water, ammonia.

 

Controllers are awesome. the most popular is the apex. it is far more advanced and expandable than most others. the support for them is great too.