Setting up new tank

Hello Everyone,

I am in the process of getting my new 90 gallon set up and I have a couple questions. I will be getting the final pieces I need to get the tank started to cycle by the end of the month (skimmer and inserts for the sump) and would like to get the project started the 1st of May. The questions I have are as follows:

I am going to get 100 lbs of live sand to start the cycle and wanted to know if it would be ok to place just a few lbs of live rock, maybe around 10-20 lbs or so and if that would be enough? The reason I ask is I have a 44 corner already running and will be transferring all of the fish and coral and rock I have in there once the new tank has completed the cycle. Would this be ok, or would I need more live rock or is just the LS enough to get the cycle going?

My second questions is, should I add everything at together once the cycle has completed (the beginning of June)? Or would I need to drip each fish as well as inverts that I have?

I'd like to have a game plan before I find myself the week or day of trying to get everything in the new tank as I don't want to lose any of the fish, coral, or inverts if possible.

Thanks everyone in advance for the help and I appreciate the input.

 

It would be good to aquascape the new tank with as much rock as you can during cycling to allow it to become home to good bacteria,starting with dry rock is fine it just takes a little longer.Using a couple of pieces of live rock from your 44 would help to seed it and speed things up a little.For acclimation to the new tank you could remove some water from the 44 and replace it with water from the new tank.If you do this several times it would be like a large scale drip acclimation and in the end you could transfer the needed amount of water into the new tank along with your livestock.

 

See comments in red.

 

Thanks Sailor and Civic! So what if I added the LS and say 10 lbs of live rock and then added another 30 lbs or so of base rock, would that work until I can move everything else over? The reason is, all my rock that I currently have in my 44 has coral all over it and I know it would not be a good idea to add them to thank while its cycling.

I do have one other question. I live on a canal in SW Florida and we have a great seawall with really nice pieces of rock. Would I be able to take a few pieces and put it in the tank to help it cycle or possibly dry it out and use it or would that not be a good idea?

 

See above.

 

OK thanks. Just curious, not a good idea as in it won't work, or not a good idea as it will disrupt the ecosystem of the canal by removing the rock?

 

Not a good idea as in you have no clue whats on that rock, and I wouldnt even think of introducing that into my system.

 

Good point, thanks Civic! The input is much appreciated.

 

If you are going to be putting in dry rock (to then make it live) there is a trick for people living in Florida... it's called Florida field stone and can be bought at almost any rock place for about $.25/lb.

Florida is one massive ancient reef and the limestone rock they pull out of the ground is old reef rock. When I wanted to save money in my early reefing days I'd go down to the rock place, buy some big, gorgeous pieces for like $5.00 then wash/soak it in RO water for a while with a power head running. The issue with this rock is that you don't know if things like phosphates from fertilizer have leached into it while it was under the ground. You can check that by buying a phosphate test kit and checking it after a week or so. Additionally, if you can run a carbon filter while it's soaking, that's good too.

If you don't want to deal with that and can make the drive over to the east coast, you can get stuff directly from Marco Rocks at a fraction of the price of when it gets shipped.

 

Rocket thank for the suggestion. When you say rock place are you referring to a local home and garden store or are more of a rock query who would sell to the public? I'm located in Naples and not sure of any stores like that in the area.