Questions about cycling my new 12g eclipse...

[TwodaReefer]

Hello! I have always wanted a saltwater aquarium and have finally gotten one! I just bought today one live rock and two damsels to begin the cycle. I was wondering how long it is going to take to do the cycle and how often I should feed the damsels? (and what - i have brine shrimp, blood worms and flakes) If anyone has a good website on how to cycle I'd really appreciate the info. Thanks!

 

[TimSchmidt]

Well I don't use fish to start a cycle. But your fish will need to feed about once a day. Some do twice a day and some do every other day. I recommend once a day. You will probably have to do some water changes to help keep the fish. Brine shrimp are kind of like popcorn for fish, taste good - but not that nutritional for them. If they eat the flake that's good and supplement with your brine shrimp and blood worms. I personally believe a variety will keep you fish happy and colorful. You may want to look into mysis shrimp to add to the mix.

 

[SaltWaterNewb]

First of all, you should not cycle a tank with fish. It is harmful and cruel to the fish. Second, damsels are aggressive fish so you may end up being stuck with just those two fish. They are also very hard to catch. If you only have 1 live rock then you are going to need to get more. You need to have around 1 pound of rock per gallon of water. If you don't get more soon then your tank will cycle and when you add the new rock it will cycle again adding even more stress to the fish. Also, you should have known what to feed the fish BEFORE buying them.

So here is what I suggest. Catch the fish and return them. Buy more live rock, 1 to 1 1/2 pounds per gallon. Add all the rock to the tank and it will cycle on its own. No need to do anything to start the cycle. It just happens from the die off on the rock. Depending on the quality of the rock, this cycle could be anywhere from none at all to 6 or 8 weeks. The only way to know when it is over is to do water tests. You did get a water test kit, right? I also suggest that you do more research and especially read up on fish and corals BEFORE you buy them. Oh yeah, don't listen to what the people at your fish store tell you. Often times they either don't know or they lie to you so you buy more stuff.

As far as a good site, nothing wrong with this one.

 

[TwodaReefer]

okay, i didnt know that you could cycle the water with just live rock. I will take the fish back and buy more rock. I was also wondering what are some low level corals that I can get with a 50/50 light? once my tank is established of course.

 

[TwodaReefer]

There is so much contradictory info. Most places say not to add all of the rock at once. Just to add it slowly, test test test, and once it settles add some more.

 

[KidNano]

There is so much contradictory info. Most places say not to add all of the rock at once. Just to add it slowly, test test test, and once it settles add some more.

this is indeed a confusing hobby to get into. try to do as much research as you can and not get too offended when people jump down your throat because you did something wrong in their opinion. it happened to most of us.
Read this link and click on all the extra links that it takes you to and read them. also read up the Newbie corner article and archived articles in
www.reefkeeping.com

http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/sbegin-longterm.html

Good luck.

 

[goodreefer]

The best thing for this hobby is alot of research. And the next best thing is patientance.

 

[SaltWaterNewb]

There is so much contradictory info. Most places say not to add all of the rock at once. Just to add it slowly, test test test, and once it settles add some more.

Well, that is true and not true. If you are starting a new tank and have all the rock you are going to add to the tank then add it all at once. That way you have one cycle and when it is done it is done. But if you have to start slow because of money or whatever, then you add what rock you have and let it cycle and as you can get more rock you add it very slowly or better yet cure it in a separate container so that you don't cause a mini-cycle in your main tank.

 

[SaltWaterNewb]

okay, i didnt know that you could cycle the water with just live rock. I will take the fish back and buy more rock. I was also wondering what are some low level corals that I can get with a 50/50 light? once my tank is established of course.

Yes, you can. What causes the cycle is the die off from the rock. There is bacteria and lots of things in the rock like worms and pods and other various critters. When the rock comes out of the water the stuff in the rock dies to varying degrees depending on how long it is out of the water. So you buy some rock, bring it home, put it in the tank. The stuff that died starts to decompose. As this happens it produces ammonia. There is bacteria in the rock that "eats" ammonia. As it eats it produces nitrites. There is bacteria also in the rock that "eats" nitrite. So as this bacteria eats the nitrites it produces nitrates. Since in most tanks there is not enough bacteria to take care of the nitrates, nor will there ever be, you have to do weekly water changes to reduce the nitrate levels in your tank.

What you were doing by adding the fish does the same thing. The fish produce waste and that waste decomposes creating the ammonia and so on and so on. But using fish is bad because the ammonia and the nitrites are very bad for them and causes a lot of stress. So even though they may survive the cycle, they could be damaged and even if not, they will be very unhappy for the time the cycle is taking place. It just is not necessary when the live rock will create the cycle by itself. Using fish to create the cycle is an old school way of doing things and as the hobby has progressed it has been learned that it is not needed to have fish in the tank.

 

[SaltWaterNewb]

As far as coral, there are several including zoas and mushrooms and leathers. Keep in mind though that even though these might survive under low light, they won't give you the full beauty you would get under good lights. So what size tank do you have and what is the wattage of the lights? That will help determine what you can keep in your tank.

 

[TimSchmidt]

Very good advice all the way around. But please remember that we are all only giving you our personal experience or what we have found to be true. I would suggest mushrooms and maybe a bubble coral or some frogspawn. I suggest these because the bubble coral and frogspawn can eat to help offset less than "super bright" lighting. I also like ricordias.

Enjoy the hobby. I hope that is why we all started with this. :cool1:

 

[reefman23]

:welcome to nanotank.com.

I agree with everything said in the above posts. I do however have to say that the light in the Eclipse tank is in no way designed to support corals. It will not be enough for even the low light corals like mushrooms etc. You will want to upgrade the lighting somehow. Those screw-in type compact fluorescent lamps are very inefficient by design, meaning very little of the light is reflected back into the tank so almost half of the light is lost simply due to "restrike".

Jesse

 

[arejay]

Another option (although it's generally panned) is researching Biospira, not the conventional or patient way to do it, but there have been some nice success stories

 

[reefman23]

I firmly believe in avoiding shortcuts when it comes to reef tanks. Nothing good happens quickly in a reef tank! (or something like that... I cant remember the exact quote!)

Jesse

 

[SaltWaterNewb]

Yeah, don't waste the money. The tank WILL cycle on its own with just the LR. There is no need to kick start it or speed it up.

 

[TwodaReefer]

Thank you all for your advice. I have been researching nonstop and I think I have a pretty good idea on how to cycle. I put in about 9lbs of live rock in my tank yesterday and boy does it smell bad. But the live rock I got is supposed to be really good. Wish I could upload the pics but I took them with my iphone and dont know how to shrink them to the right size.

 

[SaltWaterNewb]

Very good. Yeah, sometimes the cycle process is not a pleasant one as you are seeing first hand but in the end it will be worth it. Just keep up with the research and ask questions when in doubt and whatever you do, don't get in to a hurry in this hobby.

 

[blaksheep67]

eclipse

How do you set up a regular eclipse tank as a saltwater tank ? should anythingbe added or taken out of the built in filtration ? I had a freshwater eclipse and I removed the filtration (except the bio wheel) and just stuffed it with sponges (worked great)

 

[reefman23]

Re: eclipse

How do you set up a regular eclipse tank as a saltwater tank ? should anythingbe added or taken out of the built in filtration ? I had a freshwater eclipse and I removed the filtration (except the bio wheel) and just stuffed it with sponges (worked great)

IMO it is not worth converting an eclipse tank to a saltwater setup. They are just not designed for saltwater. Two things that immediately come to mind are that the lighting is not nearly enough (a must-do modification) and the filtration isnt quite right (cant really change that) for saltwater. IMO you would be much better off saving $100 and keeping an eye out on craigslist.com and some of the other larger sites like reefcentral.com (in their classifieds sections and in the local clubs --> Northeast reef clubs) for a used setup like a nanocube or an aquapod. That is just my opinion from seeing other people try to convert the eclipses.

Jesse