It has Begun

So I finished my dry run with all the mechanics of water flow, heat, skimmer, and etc... Over the weekend put my 60lbs of reefcleaner rock in and aragonite sand (next time I'm putting the sand down first ). Dropped the one piece of shrimp in last night. Couple of questions though...

I plan on putting an additional 20lbs of rock at the half way point in the cycle, can I buy LR or should I just buy more dryrock from reefcleaners?

My protein skimmer was very erratic in my 1week dry run... I would constantly adjust the skimmers level to provide the "proper" skimmate in the cup. Sometimes I had the valve barely open, sometimes the valve was fully open. Is this a result of flow, or is it because the water was fresh/newly added salt? My pump which came from the skimmer is rated @500gph my Return pump is rated @600gph (4' head height) with the ball valve 3/4 open. There is no restrictions on the overflow except for 2 90* elbows.

How long do I keep the piece of shrimp in the tank?

I'm not sure I want to have a refugium though I did build my sump to accommodate one. Is a refugium required?

My water looks a bit cloudy from the sides of the tank not so from the front any Ideas? Should I use a product to "clear" the water up?

I Bought a maxijet 600 is this too much for "flow" in the tank?

Anyway thanks in advance... This is exciting and I hope the cycle goes well.

- Eggs

 

I wouldn't use any products at all for clearing water, that will happen on its own, personally I would use a refugium, as you know a skimmer only removes about 30% of nutrients, the remainder goes through the nitrogen cycle, a good functional refugium removes a good portion of the final product of nitrates and phosphate the skimmer can't remove.
You will need to add rock if your going to seed your tank with coralline, I guess.

 

Looks good.

There is 60 pounds of rock in the tank?
How many gallons?

You really don't need to run the skimmer at this point. Your trying to build up your beneficial bacteria, the skimmer will only slow the process down some.

Again, I don't know how many gallons but the MJ600 definitely isn't too much.

You can add live rock in at the end of your cycle but the tank may go thru another mini cycle. You can pull out the shrimp after it gets nasty.

Welcome and good luck.


ohh, definitely no products. ultimately, you will be doing yourself a favor by never adding a product to the water that you can't then test for... patience, young grasshopper! Things in this hobby take time!