startup questions!!!

[bronco862]

hey guys!

i'm starting my 2nd reef tank.


if i take water, from an already established tank...does that take out the time it takes to cycle??? or do i have to wait for bacteria to establish itself on my bio filters in the nano cube???


how long will that take, if i must wait??

 

[elfloyd]

Most of your cycle will come from the live rock... i.e. dead things decomposing.

 

[bronco862]

really??? i never knew that. no wonder my once pretty rocks in my one month old 45gallon tall looked pale after a week of them living in my aquarium. i bought them from a guy that had them for 2 years in his tank haha.


so i guess starting from scratch is the answer.

i'll add some of my live sand, but i'm not adding LR from my other tank.


who has the best LR deal??? keen reef?? tim said he has premium fiji for $4 per lb.

 

[bronco862]

also,

does anyone know where i can buy replacement bulbs if the ones i receive tomorrow aren't working right???

petsmart sells http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3754269">http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3754269</a>

it says its for the biocube 29, but its the only 36w bulb i've found. does that fit the nano 24 dx too???

 

[ghotit]

m running 40w sunpaqs in my aquapod, check out the ballast you may be able to fire bulb at a higher wattage. Aquapod 24s came with 36w bubls stock but the ballasts are rated for 40W. not sure if its the same for yours , but may allow you some flex when you need bulbs

 

[smoothie]

Also adding a used filter of some sort from your current system to the new one will help even if you just toss it in the new tank

 

[maestro]

good info, i've had similar questions. thanks

 

[remoney]

I started my 10g with new waTER clean tank and a penguin 400 filter (no media) added rock and some bio balls ran it for about 20 minutes put fish in then about 4 hours later started adding zoas and shrooms. tank has been up and running for 3 months and everything in it grows rapidly. added purigen pack and seagel pack hince no skimmer on that tank.

 

[mopar9012]

remoney;498216 wrote: I started my 10g with new waTER clean tank and a penguin 400 filter (no media) added rock and some bio balls ran it for about 20 minutes put fish in then about 4 hours later started adding zoas and shrooms. tank has been up and running for 3 months and everything in it grows rapidly. added purigen pack and seagel pack hince no skimmer on that tank.

im going to guess the rock had already been fully cured?

 

[bronco862]

yeah that's what i was gonna say. i really dont think there is such a thing as curing a saltwater tank in my opinion. if you buy LR that's been sitting in saltwater at a lfs for a while you shouldn't need to. i think the ammount of ammonia that you have in your tank....is far less than any ammonia spike the lfs has had. you'd have to pee it in daily

 

[remoney]

it was i n my 55g sump just chillin. then i bought another rock that is in there a little later