Cycling 75. My first SW!

Hi everybody! This seems like a nice community. I hope I can make a home here.

In the past I've had up to five FW tanks running in my house (random community, Discus, other SA and African Cichlids), but I had to cut that back when I moved. I learned a lot from that, but SW is new territory. Now I have a nice friendly 20g FW setup, and this 75 someday reef tank.

I'm on a budget and piecing this together as I go, so I'm not up to speed on the equipment yet. Any advice on what my next move or acquisition should be would be greatly appreciated. I have a 200 watt Ebo Jager heater, a Coralife 4x96 watt PC ($50 craigslist!) with 2 10000K and 2 actinic, an Emporer 400 without the biowheels, a Koralia 3, and a Penguin 550 powerhead.

I'm two weeks into cycling, and I'm trying to be patient! ;D I have maybe 3-4 inches of live sand from one of the tanks at the pet store I work at, and 42 pounds of Haitian live rock (going to get more and different types, but $$$). The sand had a fair bit of detritus, and the rock came with a few shades of coraline, macro algae, and assorted gunk that has died off to some extent. It's been in the tank for about two weeks now. Ammonia is zero, but wow those nitrites and nitrates are off the scale! I still see some green and orange color on the rocks, a couple little pink out growths, and some of the macro algae that might make it. Also, I can see the tracks of a few tiny worms that came with the sand.

I've started to get some brown algae, which I think is a good sign(?). Any advice? Should I sit tight? Wait till the nitrites come down before a big water change, or do one now to bring nitrates down? I haven't dealt with this much biodiversity before so I don't know what hurts or helps.

Also, posting here keeps me from messing with the tank too much. Hi!

Spork

 

Welcome to 3REEF!! now ill read your post;D

 

welcome to 3reef

 

welcome to 3reef spork. you shouldnt do a water change as of yet. let it cycle out still. it still has prob 2 - 4 weeks of cycle to go. good luck with everything

 

Welcome to 3reef. This is a great community. Let the cycle ride and keep testing!

 

Well i can tell you this from experience if your gonna have a reef tank that light is not going to be up to "par"

 

Haha, thanks for the fast replies folks! I guess most of that probably could have gone in another forum, but like I said, it keeps my hands out of the tank for now!

 

Agreed with MTS... you will want to upgrade that lighting pretty quick if you are wishing to grow anything

 

Heh, I like puns.

Well, I know watts/gallon isn't everything, but 384 has gotta be better than the 32 watt light from my FW setup I had a few days ago! Maybe I'm mixing up my definitions, but by "reef" I just mean LR, a few fish, and some easy corals to make things interesting. I can upgrade down the line, but I was hoping this light could get me started. Would changing bulbs help?

 

welcome to 3 reef spork

There are some PC users on this site. so a post under the general section asking
"what could I keep under this lighting" would be a good idea

Im pretty certain that some species of shrooms, Zoanthids, leathers, etc would be OK under 4 x 96 watt PC
and obviously filter feeders like feather dusters, tube and fan worm rock colonies etc
your also fine with inverts, crabs, shrimps, stars etc

but the lighting does limit you on what you can keep, and upgrade to T5 or MH would mean you have a much more interesting selection

Steve