Need Advice!

if it's live sand, you don't need to rinse it. If it's dry, you'll need to rinse it very, very well. You put your rock in with the sand and water and use something to start the cycle, a few have mentioned a raw table shrimp - I'd suggest putting it into a mesh bag of some sort though because once it decays, it can fall apart. Another option is you could ghost feed your tank (just feed a small pinch of food as if you had fish) every other day and this can also start a cycle. I think the shrimp would probably be quicker though.

 

Okay, my sand is live, so that's good. So I don't have to wash off the rocks? And do I want the whole shrimp, or just a piece of it? Lol I really hope this thawed frozen shrimp works because that's all I had access to.

...I feel like a total nag with all these questions :/ but I want to get it right.

 

Get out! Fourm is a nag free zone! lol jk

I've learned this fourm is the friendliest out of all the ones online. I've been to a few and a lot of them are mostly (no offence to anyone) stuck up rich/hermit/old people. Even my local saltwater fourm I don't go on to because the whole community is so tight nipped that it's next to impossible to get advise or anything for thst matter. You picked a good place to get advise from!

 

Well that's great, lol, I'm definitely glad I picked the right one!

 

it doesnt have to be a whole shrimp.. basically u just need something in the tank that is going to start to decompose to start the nitrogen cycle.. a piece, the whole thing, or like oldfishkeeper said sprinkling some fish food in every other day will work just fine.

once you get someting in there to start breaking, do your first test a day later, check for ammonia... after a week or so do another check and check ammonia and nitrite... a week or so after your shirmp or whatever is in there you should start seeing some levels of ammonia and nitrite..

 

Alrighty. I'll keep my levels posted on here, and I'll take pics of the set up just as soon as I get it actually set up.

 

Everything's in place! Here's the parameters:

Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
pH: 8.4
Alk: 180
Hardness: 300

Sorry about the pic quality, I took it on my iPhone. And I have never been so frustrated at a pile of rocks in my life! Lmao, it took me SOOO many tries to get it to my approval.

 

Great job! your scape looks great! congrats on getting everything set up and started! now, the waiting and testing begins

 

There is nothing wrong with using premade sw provided it hasn't expired.Mr.B has been using it for years.I am not a fan of throwing a chunk of shrimp in the tank.I like using fish food.I just pretend I have one or two fish in there and feed accordingly until ammonia gets to 2ppm.Keep ammonia at between 1-2 ppm until you see nitrate.