new 24gl nano cube

[crimsontideski]

Hello to all--
I got the cube rolling (water) on Wednesday of last week. I put 40lbs of live sand in on Friday after stabilizing temp. and salinity. Introduced a 5.5lb piece of live rock yesterday (monday). When will I start to see ammonia? Should I introduce more rock-- maybe a damsel or two?
-The pet store manager promises me that I don't need a protein skimmer. Is this true--- I find it hard to believe.
Thanks for the input!!!

 

[rlg07734]

Hi and :welcome to nano tank
I would recommend adding a bit more live rock another 6lbs should help you the rest will come as you place corals into the tank .......you should start to see ammonia at any point there is really no set time, as for the damsels you dont need them as there will be enough die off from the rocks to trigger a cycle ...and actually in my honest humble opinion it is cruel to put a fish into that where there little gills can be burned by the ammonia .....
With weekly water changes of 15-20% you should not need a skimmer for a system of that size ....HTH and welcome.....keep us posted and post pictures :mrgreen:

 

[skipm]

:welcome to nanotank.
You can indeed get by without a skimmer by performing weekly water changes to control nutrient levels, this also helps to keep all of you levels where they need to be.
When you see an ammonia spike will depend on the LR you added, if it was uncured you will see a spike soon but if it was precured it may not show much of a spike. Instead of adding a fish try adding a pinch or two of flake food to the tank, the food breaking down will get the cycle started for you. Feel free to post and ask questions, you may also want to try out the search feature.

 

[TimSchmidt]

Yes but just to clarify an point that I found helpful. Don't do a water change until AFTER the cycle. And light isn't needed during the cycle, it will just fuel algae blooms.

Tim

 

[reefman23]

Welcome...and like tim said, dont do a water change until after the cycle.

I have to suggest, though, that if you arent going to have a skimmer, you should practice largerer water changes...say 50% or so. I myself have a skimmer and I still do 50% water changes... I have a 20g display tank with a 20g refugium...each has about 15 gallons of water in them, and I remove all the water from the fuge and replace it with all new water.

Jesse

 

[EDGRAY]

Yes but just to clarify an point that I found helpful. Don't do a water change until AFTER the cycle. And light isn't needed during the cycle, it will just fuel algae blooms.

Tim

thats right TIM got it right do top off only and after cycle do the first water change and well you wont need a skimmer for nano's a weekly water change is more than enough not necessarily need a skimmer for such a small tank just keep slow and stack slow and let your tank mature and run the light as low as u can cause they are not needed in the cycle will create only a trigger for the diatoms and green algae just like tim mentioned and like REEFMAN said a 25-50% water change will be good too to keep a good water quality some will not recommend it but i havent had any bad results i have a 12g and do a 4g water change (and actually in my tank there is not 12g of water maybe around 8g the most )

most importan of everything :welcome my friend