New to Saltwater - seeking constructive criticism

[Jungle_vip]

No such thing as a stupid questions. Especially in this hobby

[rough eye]

cycling is ostensibly about nitrifying bacteria, this is true. but the life you will see emerge before you add fish: copepods, amphipods, various types of algae, sponges, snails, starfish, worms, not to mention lots of stuff you won't be able to see, all contribute to a diverse, complex, balanced ecological system. here's a little secret: people get problems like dinos and then they dose nitrates and phosphates to battle it. is it because those things are toxic to dinos? NO. it's to feed all the diversity that they didn't allow time to develop. a harder battle when there are fish and corals in the tank i'm sure. by the time your tank is cycled and you have 20ppm or more nitrates there will be no chance you can get a bloom of dinos.

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

So, keep testing and dosing ammonia where necessary until I have 20ppm nitrates? Is there any way of testing for these other forms of life beyond nitrifying bacteria?

 

When can I add soft corals and a nasarrius snail?

[rough eye]

1 hour ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

So, keep testing and dosing ammonia where necessary until I have 20ppm nitrates? Is there any way of testing for these other forms of life beyond nitrifying bacteria?

 

When can I add soft corals and a nasarrius snail?

i'd follow Clown's advice not to dose ammonia with live rock. what you could do (what i did) is add a little fish food (i guess frozen would work best) and let it rot in the tank. that will provide the ammonia. but some here say that's a bad idea.

 

as far as other signs of life, just watch and wait. i still never added a nassarius snail and was about to add one but seems one that came in on my live rock was seen for the first time after 9 month. it's still really small. but nassarius are good for cleaning up filthy sand. i'm guessing your sand isn't filthy yet so one would likely starve.

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

So, keep testing and dosing ammonia where necessary until I have 20ppm nitrates? Is there any way of testing for these other forms of life beyond nitrifying bacteria?

 

When can I add soft corals and a nasarrius snail?

Don’t add ammonia or frozen food like that. That would be mixing two different methods of starting a tank and is a different method than Clown and I are suggesting since you have mature live rock.

 

All you need to do is replace the high dKH water, add the Fritz Turbostart. Wait a a couple days to a week just to be sure the equipment in the tank is running properly, water level is being maintained, heater working and temp is maintained, lights and pump are working. Then test the water to check salinity, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate to make sure they are all fine (salinity between 1.024- 1.027, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0-20)… if everything is fine you can add your one very small fish (or two if you are adding a pair of something, like I was able to get a mated pair of neon gobies for my 5g). The fish waste and the food you feed it provide the ammonia source for the beneficial bacteria that are already on your live rock and in the Turbostart. 
 

I usually add a seachem ammonia badge to my new tanks to detect an unexpected ammonia spike between testing. Then I would test weekly, but you could test more often since you are learning so you can get the hang of it.
 

You will likely need to top off your tank because of evaporation, for that remember you are using fresh water not saltwater because only the H2O evaporates and needs replacement. I would use distilled water for this and consider getting an automatic top off (ATO).

[banasophia]

You can add some snails once you get signs of diatoms/algae. 

Can you post a pic of your tank so we can see how much rock you have? 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

There's 3kg of live rock - I think already a bit of algae growth on the top of the large piece in the middle

[rough eye]

can't really tell from the blue photo. what color is the rock?

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

2 hours ago, rough eye said:

can't really tell from the blue photo. what color is the rock?

Cream basically, with specks of brown stuff I'm assuming is algae.... What does colour signify?

[rough eye]

1 hour ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

Cream basically, with specks of brown stuff I'm assuming is algae.... What does colour signify?

that means the rock isn't really very established. mine had shades of pink, purple, green and blue, which meant it had a lot of different coralline algae growing on it already.

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Pic without the blue 

 

(I didn't realise how badly I need to clean the glass lol)

 

 

[rough eye]

here's my rock, 10 days after i set up my tank.

[rough eye]

and after one month.

[Clown79]

6 hours ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

Pic without the blue 

 

(I didn't realise how badly I need to clean the glass lol)

 

 

When you got the rock, was it from an established tank?

 

It looks like the liverock the stores get in and keep in a tank with just water movement. It doesn't mean its not liverock but not well established liverock.

 

I would definitely test ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Yes, it was from an established tank but not one with corals, only fish. And i would agree it does look like what my lfs were selling. 

 

I'll keep testing. 

 

If parameters are all good after a week could I add a strawberry pygmy Basslet & some zoas? (Aware a Basslet may mean no other fish).