Any advice?

[devildog999]

Hi there,

Kinda new to the world of salt water, I had a 24 gallon nano a few years ago but wasn't knowledgeable enough at the time to handle it. Have been doing freshwater for over 5 years and have fairly well mastered that scene. Currently working on a 55 gallon salt water, have had water cycling in it for about 2 weeks with just 3 damsels to help things along a bit. Using a refugium on the back and a Fluval 405 for chemical filtration (just the carbon in the filter, nothing else to avoid high nitrates).

Now that that is out of the way, just looking for any advice that those who have been doing salt water for a while could give me.

Thanks much

[Gandolfe]

Take the damsels out before you add any live rock..they are agressive, hard to catch, and will kill expensive fish you put in or at least stress them out . I had to take my tank apart to catch 2 damsels i used to cycle my first tank because they killed 3 $20 fish..by over stressing them and flat out attacking them. just put a piece of raw shrimp in your tank to help cycle it..you don't need the fish

[devildog999]

Even if they are advertised as being reef safe and overly aggressive? One is a green chromus and I don't know the exact name of the other one but it is blue with a yellow tail fin.

[BIG_KAHUNA]

yeah seems that everyone has had the damsel problem at one point or another. Many recommend that if you really want damsels to introduce them to the tank very last, but even then you're more than likely going to have turf wars in your tank. The fish police will get you on here if you don't take those damsels out for the cycle. As Gandolfe said, a raw piece of shrimp in panty hose or something will rot and produce the ammonia needed to cycle the tank.
No worries though, I did the same thing when I first started out. After getting flamed on here and watching others get it, it does make sense. Ammonia is poisonous for the fish, burning gill tissue etc. They may survive it but why put a living animal through that if it can be avoided? So that's the thought behind fishless cycling.
Glad to see you're picking the saltwater hobby back up! I dunno what I would do without my reef tank to tinker with!
You should post some picture for us! We love seeing a tank's progress from day one on.
You do have rock in the tank right? how much? Lighting? Water movement?

OH! AND WELCOME TO REEF CENTRAL!
you wouldn't believe how much help you can get from some very knowledgeable people on here. Only reason my tank was a success. My #1 piece of advice: READ READ READ!!!! you can never do enough research in this hobby.

[devildog999]

Well then I will follow the advice and take them out but so that no one gets a bad impression, I have been testing my water frequently and have no ammonia issues. Strips come back happy. Either way though, I would rather jot deal with a problem later on. Thank you for the he!ads up.

I do not have rock in yet, waiting for it to be delivered. Have 75 pounds coming. After I put rock in, I plan on waiting about 2 weeks before I introduce any fish or corals. I have a Odyssey T5 professional 48" lighting system. As for water movement, all I have right now is the output of the refugium and the fluvial 405 on the very end of the tank. It is keeping the water on top moving so its not just sitting.

[RedStangGA]

I do not have rock in yet, waiting for it to be delivered. Have 75 pounds coming. After I put rock in, I plan on waiting about 2 weeks before I introduce any fish or corals. I have a Odyssey T5 professional 48" lighting system. As for water movement, all I have right now is the output of the refugium and the fluvial 405 on the very end of the tank. It is keeping the water on top moving so its not just sitting.

Wait longer. 2 weeks most likely won't be long enough for the tank to cycle. You'll need to monitor ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Your tank is sorta, kinda, but not completely cycled when ammonia and nitrite are zero and you start to see a spike in nitrate.

Is this live rock or base rock? If it's base I'd recommend getting a small amount of live from a LFS or fellow reefer. If it's live you'll have some die off to content with but that'll just help the cycle.

A cycle doesn't take a set period of time. If you use 100% fresh live rock you may not even have a noticeable cycle. But most people will advise waiting a month or more before adding fish and/or corals and to add them slowly.

Good luck!

[devildog999]

Will be using all live rock. Thanks for the advice