I started my 150 reef about 3 months ago. I have 4 96 watt pcs and 3 175 watt 10k halides. My filtration consists of a wetdry system I took the bo balls out of and a 1200 gph return pump. I have 3 700 gph power heads and a venturi style skimmer in the sump with a 900 gph pump. I have 150 lbs of fiji and a sand bd cycled the tank with. The clean up crew consists of a mix of 150 turbos and mexican snails. I als have 2 pepermint shrimp, a coral banded, and a blood shrimp. I have six sand sifting stars to keep my sand clean. As far as fish I have a yellow tang, a naso, and a clown that sits in a long tenacle plate coral. One mistake I know I made was I didnt get enough live rock in the begining and I am planing on adding more very slowly. As far a the perimeters of the tank, PH 8.3, nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 2ppm, calcium 450, and ammonia is 0. Does anyone have any suggestions on adding more cured rock to the tank.
Need input, how am I doing
- Thread starter Mikef1
- Start date
Hi Mike, and welcome to Reefs.org.
It sounds like you are off to a pretty good start!
I would like to make a suggestions. Get rid of the sand sifting stars ASAP. The are bad for the sand bed. They eat the critters that make the sandbed beneficial. A sea cucumber woulkd be better for cleaning the sandbed.
As far as adding more liverock, are you sure you need more? You need space for your corals to grow and your fish surely enjoy the swimming space. I stuffed my tank initially with rock only to remove some of it later. That said, if you do add rock, you'll need to cylce it in a seperate container. You can set up a bucket (or something) with a powerhead and leave the rock in this bucket for a couple of weeks. Maybe do a water change on the bucket after two weeks or so. Then wait a day or two and test the water in the bucket. Once the water parameters test ok, add the new rock to your tank.
HTH
Louey
It sounds like you are off to a pretty good start!
I would like to make a suggestions. Get rid of the sand sifting stars ASAP. The are bad for the sand bed. They eat the critters that make the sandbed beneficial. A sea cucumber woulkd be better for cleaning the sandbed.
As far as adding more liverock, are you sure you need more? You need space for your corals to grow and your fish surely enjoy the swimming space. I stuffed my tank initially with rock only to remove some of it later. That said, if you do add rock, you'll need to cylce it in a seperate container. You can set up a bucket (or something) with a powerhead and leave the rock in this bucket for a couple of weeks. Maybe do a water change on the bucket after two weeks or so. Then wait a day or two and test the water in the bucket. Once the water parameters test ok, add the new rock to your tank.
HTH
Louey
when adding in new live rock I have found some places said it was fully cured and it wasn't cause my nitrates/trites to go up, i caught it and properlly cured the rock and then it was fine. just something to look for. Smell the rock, make sure it doesnt smell rotten.
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