First Tank, First Cycle..Few questions...

So i have a 120g with 120lbs of live sand and around 180lbs of cured live rock (at least i was told it was cured looks really good but not purples) and a 40g sump with 15-20 of that being a fuge with another 20lbs of live rock and live sand...It has only been 24hrs since the rock was added..48hrs since the sand and my water was made fresh with ro/di around 3-5 days ago...My questions are...
should i be running my skimmer???
should i do water changes???
Should i add a few hardy fish now or let the rock cycle the tank(If Soo how many)???
Lights???
When to add clean up crew???

I understand the cycling of a new tank but only the basics ie this happens then this happens then your tank has built up its bio filters...obviously a lil more in depth lol...

 

I'm assuming your tank isn't cycled yet. Having already-live-rock and sand should cut down the cycling time by quite a bit. Don't run your skimmer yet; it'll get rid of beneficial bacteria. You can start doing water changes if you want, although it isn't needed yet. Don't add any fish yet, as you risk losing them. For your lights, assuming you haven't run any at all yet, start with a four hour cycle, adding an additional half hour to that every week or so. You COULD start with a full 8-12 hour cycle, but you'd have a crazy algae bloom, not unlike the one I accidentally gave to my tank. You can add the clean up crew whenever you like. snails and hermits are pretty hardy, and should survive a cycle. Just don't do spending a lot of money on a CuC yet.

 

All living things produce bi-products of metabolism such as ammonia. Ammonia is toxic above roughly 0.2ppm.Beneficial bacteria convert the ammonia to nitrite a less toxic element but still toxic, another type of bacteria convert the nitrite to nitrates, nitrates are far less toxic and can be removed via water changes and specialized filtration methods. There are a lot of fancy names for those bacteria the complete the nitrogen cycle, this is a very simplistic explanation.

 

I appeeciate the help guys thank you very much...if anyone has anymore advice it would be greatly appreciated

 

Pics, or it didn't happen

;-)

Take it slow, keep getting good advice here, and one day months and months away,
you'll have the start of a magical reef!

 

Not necessarily months... Especially since he alter has live rock and sand

 

You are off to a great start with all of that live rock and a good sized refugium,just take it slow and keep testing parameters.When your ready for a first fish don't make the mistake of adding something that you wouldn't want long term,there are lots of threads on here regarding how to catch and remove a fish from a tank that is already aquascaped.

 

I think many people suggest that you add a source of ammonia. You can add a nice sized piece of table shrimp or you can ghost feed your tank (feeding flakes like you have fish).....once you create the ammonia source, your tank can complete the cycle...keep testing along the way.

 

Here ya go guys also just made this build thread...check it out..

http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/boomsons-90g-no-wait-120g-build-150028.html#.UlGO21BJNFs

 

I commented on it. Awesome!