Newbie Here - Pumped Up

Thanks everyone

My brother works at a marine fishery in Portsmouth NH and he brought me my water directly from his workplace (was right at 1.025, 80 degrees pH at 8.2) which was run through UV etc and the live rock I got seems pretty nice. It's been 48 hrs+ and still havn't seen any sort of spike in nitrates or anything like that. I'm assuming i just need to wait a little longer for that to happen.

I can def see some algae growth on a few of the rocks. I guess my big question now is since I used great water and I have the live rock/sand, would I ever even see an ammonia spike?

 

To answer your question about livestock. Im more interested in invertebrates more than anything else. Yeah I'll have some clowns, a tang, blennies and gobies in there im sure but invertebrates are where its at for me i think. Sea anemones, shrimps, crabs, starfish etc.

I havn't put a specific plan together on the aquisition order and/or timing of this all but willing of course to take my time.

 

Here is my essay;
Tank cycling:There are some who would tell you that once "the numbers" are all good the cycle is over and you are ready to go, I am not one of those. What many beginner (even some advanced) aquarium keepers are not (fully) aware of is that the full cycle takes at least 6-8 months. The reason being, mainly, is this is the time required to fully cultivate a total beneficial bacterial base and achieve a saturation of such. Also, allowing the tank to "season" and go through the inevitable mini-cycles and diatom blooms and get fully established is the key to a healthy and stable tank in the future. When using live rock and/or sand, the die off will start the cycle. You could have one fish after about the 6 week mark, let the tank get established by light feeding and going through a moderate light cycle (6-8 hours) for the next 3 weeks.At the 2 month mark, A 25% water change of the "total"water volume is in order. After that, add a few clean up critters (crabs and/or snails) and allow the tank to "catch up" to the added load (you may at this time add some live bacteria to help in this process) and give it another 2 weeks doing all your tests on a regular (weekly) basis and determine if the tank is stable. Water changes of 30% should be carried out once a month to once every 5-6 weeks. Coral should not be introduced (even soft) until the tank is around 3-4 months old. Too many beginners don't exercise the proper patience and discipline at this early stage of getting their tank going only to have problems and head aches down the road. Once the tank has gone through this full cycle period and the tank is stable, then and only then, should you add more difficult coral like hard coral. I always employed a bit of advice I got when I was starting out to add bacteria after each water change for the first and subsequent next 4-5 changes.
Another good tactic I learned is to add (whatever you are adding) a couple days after a water change. This gives the new creature fresh minerals and trace elements and a good 3-4 weeks (I adhere to 4-5 week intervals between changes) to adjust to the new water parameters, light, temp etc. before disrupting the tank for the next water change.
I hope this helps.

 

Good advice! Thanks UncleJed!

 

My pleasure.