New 105g tank

[Wicked5oh]

Will 40lbs of store bought live sand, and 65lbs of well established live sand in a new 105g speed or deminish my tanks cycle? 6 days and still no nitrite spike. Tank has 73 lbs of dry rock. I know I will need more rock and sand as soon as I can afford it, but will wait until cycle is complete.

 

[mcarroll]

You may not need more rock.

73# is probably enough + the sand bed - especially if you plan to start growing stony coral. You'll need the space more than the bio-filtration.

And if there was not anything significant generating ammonia, you might not see the cycle. Wait, then stock slowly and you shouldn't have an issue.

 

[Wicked5oh]

I have a couple damsels in their since saturday (Should have read some info before taking that rout), ill continue to take readings. Im still waiting on my ligts to arrive, 2x 165w LED. Running a Coralife super skimmer 120 HOB for now (having troubles dialing it in after hanging micro bubble catch). Ordering 2x Hydor EVO 1500 with wave controller next week. Im excited to get through the cycle and stock the tank.

 

[TheEngineer]

Welcome to R2R.

You can always take the fish back to the store where you bought them. I'd recommend that.

Fish aside, you should watch for an ammonia spike first and then nitrite and then nitrate. Even with some established rock and sand you will get a small cycle at least. I recommend turning the skimmer off until after the cycle. If you think the cycle is finished, you can try doing a ghost feeding and see if you get any spikes in your levels.

 

[aaron23]

Welcome, you're going to have a blast getting them out unless their permanent residents

 

[Wicked5oh]

Well I got them from petco.. No returns on saltwater fish. I'll wait and see how they are later on. I plan on putting an eel in the tank.

 

[Wicked5oh]

Using the API Saltwatet Master kit,

PH is 7.8-8.0 (going to get some ph buffer by end of week)
Ammonia is .50-1.0 ppm
Nitrite and nitrates are 0.

My salinity measured with an old odyssea hydrometer is about 1.020, but I think it may be a little higher then that. Going to order a refractometer by the end of the week.

 

[Waters]

Looks like your cycle is under way.....I would be careful using PH buffers at all though, especially this early into the life of the tank. IMO, a stable, lower PH is better than constantly relying on buffers to maintain a higher PH.

 

[Wicked5oh]

New lights arrived. I decided to just use two shelving braces, with 80lbs dry wall ankers. Lights are about 12" above water, going to add a pair of yo-yo's to be able to raise and lower.

 

[Wicked5oh]

Pretty happy with the lights this is all blue 1%.

 

[Wicked5oh]

Update:

Picked up 35lbs of established live rock, ended up getting a small zoanthid colony on one rock. And another person threw in a couple frags including some Xenia, GSP, 3 polyp zoa, two frogspawn. And two corals I'm unsure about. Still waiting on my yo-yo's for the lights to show up.

Looks like I'm at the tail end of my cycle ammonia 0, nitrite .25 nitrate 40-60. PH has been a pretty constant 7.9-8.0

I had the lfs test my water after work. Alk 12, calc 460, phos .50. I'm wondering if these numbers will settle down in a few days? Or is a water change in order?