new tank cycleing

[joqubr]

90 gallon main 20 gallon sump, rodi water, salt 1.024,

?? should i put a pinch or two of frozen food in the take to kick start the process?? the rock i chose was dry "real reef" and "walt smith 2.1"

live sand from LFS of about 80 lbs will be added friday

p.s. also at the time i am adjusting a heater in the sump to get me to 77°

 

[sbash]

I would throw a cube or half cube in. Kick things off, then hopefully the live sand will give it a nice boost. Check the ammonia every day and watch for the spike

 

[ReefEco]

Hey there - a little more manageable way to add ammonia would be to get a chunk of fish or raw shrimp and put it in a filter sock or mesh bag, and place that in. If using a shrimp, you don't even really need a bag - just place it in the tank and it will sink to the bottom. Benefit here is that you can remove it later as opposed to lots of tiny bits of frozen food all over the place. Assuming you are going for a reef aquarium, your salinity is a tad low, shoot for 1.025- 26. If the sand from your LFS is "live" it will also contain likely a lot of nutrients. If "live" means the typical bagged sand with just bacteria added, then not so much. Get some flow/circulation going in the tank as well, if you don't have anything already...

 

[joqubr]

got a powerhead doing some good and the return pump is giving some good surface break and flow

my goal is fish, soft and LPS coral

the sand from LFS is the owners own blend work, i put 10 lbs in a small tank to play with and it is very much alive AND after 8 weeks i don't see any un-wanted life

here's some stuff in the small tank

 

[joqubr]

 

[ReefEco]

Nice.

Make sure you are feeding those yellow corals at least twice a week - they are sun polyps, and not photosynthetic. They'll eat just about anything - pellet food, mysis, etc.

 

[Joshua Agostoni]

you could also toss in a bottle of DR. TIMS bacteria its amazing.

 

[JAMSOURY]

Nice.

Make sure you are feeding those yellow corals at least twice a week - they are sun polyps, and not photosynthetic. They'll eat just about anything - pellet food, mysis, etc.

Is this the same as mine? Lol no wonder I probably never see it extended. I’ve been relying on the light

 

[joqubr]

they eat well... i have a yellow colony as well (seen below). i usually put a little taste in the waster to get them to bloom - when the polyps come out i turn off the power head a feed direct once each gets a good bite i power up the head so they can work on getting food more like nature
keep in mid these are in my small tank - not the 90 gallon i'm starting

 

[ReefEco]

Is this the same as mine? Lol no wonder I probably never see it extended. I’ve been relying on the light

Hard to tell from the pic, but that looks like some kind of acan, rather than a sun polyp. They are photosynthetic, but you can (should) still feed them for growth and best health. Couple times a week should do it, and they might be more receptive to food at night...

 

[JAMSOURY]

they eat well... i have a yellow colony as well (seen below). i usually put a little taste in the waster to get them to bloom - when the polyps come out i turn off the power head a feed direct once each gets a good bite i power up the head so they can work on getting food more like nature
keep in mid these are in my small tank - not the 90 gallon i'm starting

Do these things like lower flow? The yellow ones look so cool

 

[joqubr]

low flow low light Tubastraea according to my research

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Welcome to R2R!

+1 on using something like Dr. Tims to help cycle your tank, I used Seachem Stability myself but just about any tank starter bacteria culture works well nowadays.