[kolokefalo]

Now this next part really requires patience and lots of it.

10. Let the tank run with just the live rock for about a month. I know that is hubris! It is a complete affront to yours and my good healthy American lifestyle of instant gratification. Damn it we want our burgers in a minute, our photoes in an hour, and our reef up and running as soon as cycling ends! My God, how can I be such a cruel taskmaster?! Simple, and please please pay attention. You are "seeding" your tank and one very important thing as well. You are giving time for any hitchikers on the live rock to show themselves. Aiptasia, Anemonia, parasitic bristle worms, and the dreaded mantis shrimp to name a few. To test for a mantis shrimp just put some raw squid in a mantis trap and drop it in on the sand. Leave it in there overnight. If it is trapped in the morning you are golden, if it isnt I promise you dont have one because after 2 weeks with no food you could feed him the squid by hand he would be so desperate. I usually replace the squid every other day or so before it really begins to foul, this keeps the denitrifying bacteria working while there is no bioload. The "seeding" is allowing all the tiny critters to prolifterate and create a minor food source for your fish. If you are going to use a refugium now is the time to hook it up and drop a piece of live rock in it, use the piece that seems to have some tufts of hair algae or Halymeda on it. You MUST dose Kalwasser during this time to give the coralline algae a good chance at getting started covering your base rock. Check calcium and DKH during this time and keep it at good levels, they will need it.

11. Did you do it? Did you have the patience to wait at minimum a few weeks, at best a month staring at your beautiful blank canvas? First, give yourself a pat on the back and give your tank its first dose of Iodine and then go ahead and reward yourself with your corals and inverts, NOT FISH! Whether they are store bought or online they should be attached to a small stone. I use the coral dip made by Warner Marine Research before placing any corals in my main tank. It has worked wonderfully for me with new specimens. Place all these in the bottom 1/3 of the tank and NOT directly underneath the halides for a week, even if they are light demanding SPS corals. They need time to adjust to your tanks light intensity and Kelvin temperature after being in a dealer tank, if they were bought online they have been in pitch black for a few days. After the week is up, move them to where you like them, the spot you have learned they need to be, and where you can see they are thriving. Watch them closely, if they are mushrooms are they straining towards the light? If so move them up. Are they laying extremely flat? Then move them down or near an overhang. If they are SPS are their polyps extending and the UV pigments coming back? If so, they are happy. Once you have them all arranged then go ahead and secure them in place. Let the tank go as is for 2 weeks to a month in this state...once you are confident in your corals/inverts health move to the next phase.

------REMEMBER to leave room for growth. I always buy my corals, polyps, clams, etc as small as possible. It is a great feeling of satisfaction to watch a tiny 2" square of Xenia cover an entire rock, or a beautiful bed of Zoanthus on a rock and you know they started as 3-4 single polyps.-----

So the tank is running great, the corals are thriving....but there isn't any movement. Time for the 1st fish. I bet right about now you are thinking I forgot about that dumpy little dime store corner filter eyesore in the tank huh? That $10 purchase is about to save your buttocks.

Run back to the LFS and get the cheapest crappy little 10g tank you can. Perform your first 20% water change on the main tank and deposit the old water in the 10g. Take that corner filter and drop it in the 10g with the old water.....you have now set up a quarantine tank with nearly identical water parameters of your main tank. Only overlook this step at your own peril. There is nothing worse than trying to give a fish a dip in Ich medicine and chasing it around the maintank with a net. Leave the fish in the tank for at least a week. Make sure it is feeding and shows no signs of Ich. Medicate if you must...and always feed a flake with some garlic on it. After a couple weeks, take him out and drop him in the main tank. Now it is ready for your next inhabitant. Repeat this step EACH time you add a fish and replace quarantine tank water with main tank water. Once you are done adding fish clean the little corner filter and put it away. When you want a new fish restart the process all over again...this discourages "impulse buying". Since I do this in coordination with water changes I only add a max of 1-2 fish a month.

You have now succesfully set up your reef tank. It has taken a minimum of 2 months and usually 3 months before I put my first fish in. From there it takes about 4 months for me to be done adding fish.

One last bit, here is the order I add my fish:

1st always the algae blenny, 5 turbo snails, and 10 blue legged hermits. ( Cater amounts of each to your tank size)
2nd the sand sifting Goby.
3rd any reef safe wrasses go in now. (Six Line, 4 line etc)
4th if you are having any type of schooling fish (Anthias, Cardinals)
5th Pseudochromis Fridmani (pound for pound the most beautiful fish imho and always a staple to me)
6th 1 dwarf angel genus Centropyge (Eibli or Lamarck angel usually)

You can now begin the arduous cycle of monitoring water parameters, feeding, testing, etc. However, you also get to begin staring into the glass with childlike wonder and what you have created. You can marvel at the growth of your corals and feel pride about it, you can share the fun of the hobby with others at the LFS or online, and most of all you have gained a knowledge and respect for these delicately balanced ecosystems which if we lost would mean the end of life on earth.

I hope this helps people out. Please add any comments, criticism, etc. Thanks in advance for reading.

The only thing left to do now is just wipe your nose prints off the glass.

[mtfabel]

Well I am impressed. That was very well laid out. A little long but i guess at least you coverred everything. Only 1 thing I disagree about. You said in the first part that lighting was most important. I will agree that it is very important. But water movement is equally important. You can have the best lighting in the world and watch everything die without good current. I know that you talked about powerheads. Powerheads are O.K. but you really need to invest in some sort of current switching system. Might want to throw that in there somewhere.

[glampka]

Great job!! Should become mandatory reading for all newbies!! Can it all be put in 1 thread & have it in the guides section?

[Taras1]

Ditto glamka!

[Sikkob]

Just wanted to say thank you for your how to guide has a ton of good information. One question though...how much water flow do you need for a reef system?

[kolokefalo]

Other than putting a 65 horsepower Evinrude on the side of the tank and starting it...you can't seem to get enough. As I stated though, what kind of tank are you creating? The front of the reef sees ALOT more current and wave crashing than the back. If you are creating a slow moving seahorse lagoon...current is on the low side. It all depends what you are trying to create.

My new tank will be a reef front, left to right in the tank. I plan on putting at least 500-800 GPH current hitting the face (left rock wall), and about 250 GPH rolling back. I am trying to simulate a wave rolling in and back. Is that overkill? Sure. Will anyone else really care what the current is like other than me? Probably not. However, that is the part of this hobby I enjoy the most. I am a freak for tiny details which noone else cares about. It just makes me happy to know all this crap is going on in the tank. Creating a tiny microcasm of life as close as I can get to the real thing is what I love. It's totally neurotic....but this hobby always seems to push you to go farther and farther. I don't know what it is....it's like crack.

[lynnvangsnes]

Hey, you and I think alike! And that's a good thing. It's very good info for a beginner.

[admann]

Great job, lots of good info for us new to the hobby.

[Tonz of fun]

Thank you. Nough said

[openwave]

I was looking for info like this, thx.

[Salt-lick]

Excellent guide, Agreed ALL n3wbies shhould read upon starting thier first tanks. Since 2 weeks ago I learned alot about this hobby.

[e_baer]

I only wish I had seen that when i started my tank 2 years ago! (my tank is doing fine now)

[FINDING_NEMO]

it is a pretty good guide, but from what i read and my friend told me which by the way owns a fish store. a wrasse should be one of the last fish in the tank since they tend to attack any fish that u put in after them

[mtfabel]

Depends on the wrasse. Some wrasses are very aggressive and some are actually quite timid.

[Lightsluvr]

Great for us newbies...there is light at the end of the great reef...

LL

[michelle's ocean fantasy]

Wow- great info as I said in the other 2 steps! BUT...can it all be listed "together" like everyone else said- so we can print it out and refer to it as we go?

[michelle's ocean fantasy]

Question: to MtFabel- Is your post referring to a "wavemaker"? I see them in the catalogues- not sure of the difference b/w a wavemaker and a powerhead- can you (or anyone out here) lay it out for me?- In newbie terms!! Thanks!!

[mtfabel]

Not necessarily. There are many different ways to create currents in a tank. Powerheads on a alternating timer is one way to accoplish this, a wavemaker as you mentioned is another, the squid current switcher also works, and then there are a some sophisticated peices of equipment that work really well. There are many differnet approaches to current. It boils down to what your specific needs are and the amount of money you have to invest in it. The difference between a wavemaker and a powerhead is that a wavemaker sucks water in and then pushes it out all at one time causing the water to move from one side of the tank to the other. A powerhead just blows water in the same direction all the time.

There is one specific peice of equipment that I am particularly intersted in and its the Oceans Motions products. Heres a link:

Oceans Motions

[michelle's ocean fantasy]

Thanks for the info!

[dclaghorn2]

Man! This was GOOD! Thank you! My LFS owner is pretty knowledgeable, well, he seems to be to me since I'm a newbie. But hasn't gone into quite this detail. Only question about the quarantine tank... where to put it? Under the main aquarium and light with fluorescents?

Thanks,
Dave

[tonycip]

what about the rock. and sespending it with pvc... I was hoping for a pic..

[Dredneck]

Great stuff, Thanks

I like the idea of going slow and I told the place I bought my aquarium setup I wanted to go slow (Ihave my equipment on order It will be in next week) - but He gave me Nutrifying Bacteria Liquid to speed things up even though I told him how I wanted to go about it all. Is that a good idea?

[Adam J]

Nick,I would just let it do its thing naturally.Its your tank though.

[icu-travis]

wish i had found this a year ago. very good read lots of good info

[WhatReef]

i believe you can speed up the process by adding something dead like a shrimp or fish, thats what i have done in the past and it takes half the time, but if you have the time its all good but all the dead fish or shrimp will do is seed your tank quicker and its a natural way, what ever that guy sold you prob wasn't worth the money, instead just use a dead shrimp or fish from the GS