Light time and adding fish

[murphy710]

Hello all,

 

new tank specs first, not setup yet but this is what I have so far.

 

fusion 30L AIO

2 prime 16HD lights

25lb dry rock

2 inch sand bed

150 cobalt heater

IM chaeto light for 1 compartment 

 

How long should I run my lights at first?

 

How soon can I put a fish in if using Turbo start?

 

thanks 

[Tired]

You can put a fish in whenever your tank can turn 2ppm of ammonia into nitrates in less than 24 hours. That's how you tell the tank is cycled, and cycling takes different amounts of times depending on circumstance. Theoretically that should be less than a week after adding bottled bacteria, if they do what they're advertised to, but it can be longer. 

 

Parameters are the best way to tell when a tank is cycled, and for that matter, the best way to figure out when to do a water change. There's no perfect schedule of fish addition and water changes that will work for every tank.

[seabass]

 to Nano-Reef.com.

 

6 hours ago, murphy710 said:

How long should I run my lights at first?

Depends on a number of things.  I assume you ramp up light levels.  If not, that might affect how long you run daylight mode.  But I'd probably recommend no more than 8 hours a day of full daylight levels.  But while you are establishing the biofilter, you don't need them on at all.

 

6 hours ago, murphy710 said:

How soon can I put a fish in if using Turbo start?

Despite what might be on the bottle, adding a bacteria culture (itself) generally doesn't build up the biofilter on dry rock enough to add fish.  As Tired pointed out, after you add the bacteria (but before you add any livestock), you should:

• Dose DrTim's Ammonium Chloride to 2 ppm.
• Then let it process that down to 0.25 ppm ammonia.
• Repeat the above until your tank can process 2 ppm ammonia down to 0.25 ppm within 24 hours.
• Then change out the water to export the excess nitrate.