Did i mess up or am i ok????

HI EVERYONE,

I just bought a 125gal from a friend that was up and running for over a yr.he said 4yrs but im not to sure about that.now we drained the water and took out rock.now i left the rock in fresh water to kill of the red looking algae for a few days.then took the rock out and let dry for 3 days.now i kept the sand and left water in it while the move and it sat for 2 days before running the whole system.it also had a refugium that was also kept with water.now i filled the tank with new water and salt and all levels check out perfect after running it for 2 days.i added the rock today and added a domino damsel,peperment shrimps and some of those hermit crabs.all is doing good.now how long do i wait to add tangs and such.or did i screw up the live sand and such.oh there is a protein skimmer skimming decent.also how long till it clears up its a little hazzy.thanks

 

Your tank needs to cycle.

Any biological filter/beneficial bacteria are dead.

I image you will start to see an ammonia spike in a day or 2.

Since you already have live stock in the tank, you will either need to do water changes, add bottled beneficial bacteria or add A LOT of cure live rock.

I would not add a Tang for several months, 3 at the very least.

 

you are going to have a cycle. If I was you, I would get the livestock out of it. Your sand is possibly going to release ammonia (I would have gotten new sand, hit and miss iwth that) however by leaving the rock in freshwater and then letting it dry out you killed all the beneficial bacteria that was on it. The die off will cause a cycle. While damsels are tough, I do not cycle with fish.

As far as adding tang, it is going to depend on the cycle. I would expect you start seeing ammonia pretty fast and will probably take a week or 2 to cycle. I would wait a couple month or so before adding a tang after the cycle as these guys are common ich (which caused by stress/water conditions frequently)

good luck and just remember to go slow

 

ok i understand the rock part but the sand i dont get if i already had live sand whats the diffrence if i bought live sand?can i grab copods and other critter in that nature out of my 75 gal and add them to my 125 tank?i added live rock in the sump and cheato and put a small circulation pump in it.

 

Live sand does not enough beneficial bacteria to cycle a tank initially.

How truly live it actually is, is debatable.

 

i see.so i should wait alittle bit.wish there was a way to seed it up.i have a 75gal reef/fish tank that i wish i can use to hel this tank speed up the process.this sucks.

 

Try starting a thread in sponsor Dr.Tims section.

Just go to the sponsor portion of this forum and you will be able to start a thread.

One and only I believe is the product he developed to assist in shortening the cycle.

I would not add any more live stock until you do.

As I posted previously you can also do water changes and add a large amount of live fully cured rock.

 

ok.thanks guys.guess i wait for now.its funny that my local pet shop told me once add live sand and you can add fish in a few days after.i did and my scopas tang died a week later.got anothe rone and he has been doing awsome.

 

the other issue I have with using "used sand" is that it always gets stirred up during the process and all the bad stuff breaks away from the sand and into the water colony. However, i have in the past used a handful of sand from another tank along with live rock to speed the process along some

 

yeah i did that.i put sand and rock i had in a 10 gal that is full of life in the sump.im getting ready to take all the sand and rock out of the ten gal and put it all in the sump.