What does live rock eat

[a fish called marius]

My tank is up and running now for three days.
I have some live rock in it and i see about 4 diffrent creatures on them, comming in and out of them what do the feed on.

What should the specific gravity be 1.020 .

What should the water temp be 25 deg celcius

Where do those hunderds of small animals come from I have seen in other live sand beds.

[jojo22]

Ok one at a time and we will get you squared away.

Live rock does not need feed,it will live off of all the undesirable things in your tank, such as extra food and dead matter. The litttle things pokeing in and out are preatty much the same, since you are still cycleing whatever you used to start the cycle will take care of that.

For a reef tank the SG should be a bit highter than that, I keep mine at 1.025 but 1.022-1.026 is what most people stay at, the important thing is to pick a level and stay there, swings in your SG will really stress your fish.

As for temp I do not know celcius but most tanks are kept at 76-80 degrees farenhite.

Last but not least the little guys in your sand will migrate there mostly from your rock. Once you see them it is a surefire sign your tank is matureing. I wouldn't expect them befor 6 months to a year though.

Hope this helps,

Joe

[a fish called marius]

thanks a million for awnsering all my questions helps allot
Temp is at 86 deg farenheight with no heater on how do i get the temp down

[Iconz]

I'm assuming your lights are on...

You've got a few options... I'll give them to you in order of cost lowest to highest...

Fans:

This is the most popular (and cheapest) way of keeping your water temp down due to heat produce by your lights. Basically, you need 2-4 4" fans (usually computer fans are used (80mm) in conjunction with a power adapter)... this can be accomplished with about $20.00 USD...

Better circulaton: The more circluation between your display and your sump the better when it comes to temperature. I say this because if you're display lights are normal, meaning alot better than you sump lights, they're probably going to produce more heat. This means that your water is being heated up more in the display than in the sump. SO, the more time the water is circulated in and out of the sump, the better. This is probably the least effective method of the three, and is probably not the cheapest.

Chiller: Pending on your tank size, I wouldn't consider this a viable option. Chillers are usually VERY expensive ($250 - $500+), and they're usualy used for larger aquariums (125+) and are most popular when MH lighting is used (due to the high heat output of MH lights). This method is probably the most efficent and effective, but its cost is its major deterrent.


Hope this helps!

Iconz


ALSO! Do you have any pix of your tank?! Seeing it could help me/us give you some more sugguestions!

[hummer]

found some thing yesterday called (fiji gold) coral&live rock supplement what do you all think of this stuff

[a fish called marius]

Thanks for the help will try the fans.
I went for a sand option for substrate i see brown spots apearing on the sand and on the live rock anny idea what it could be

[jojo22]

probably a diatom bloom. Hared to say without a pic, but that would be my first guess witha new tank and it is not much to worry about it's very normal

[greg97527]

if you want your tank to cycle in half the time you could start by adding a product called Ultraclear Bacteria. I have had much success with this product.
It is very normal for brown diatom bloom and also your ammonia and nitrite will spike during the first couple weeks. By using the ultraclear mentioned above depending on tank size you can cycle it in as short as 2 weeks. good luck. Hang in there, you are about to become obsessed. :)

[a fish called marius]

gees thanks you guys are so clever

[jojo22]

I personally would not suggest any of these "snake oil" products. If you look at the types of bacteria needed to start a cycle they are aerobic, this means that they need oxygen to live. How much oxygen do you really think is makeing it thru the packageing and to the bacteria, my guess is none. Now the bacteria inside could be of the anerobic type but that will only be helpful if you already have the aerobic types.

[greg97527]

it was just an opinion and only given after much success in setting up almost all of my tanks at the LFS I volunteer at. Like I stated before, some things work for others that may not for another person. This is a very very controversial hobby lol.

[graphixx]

another thing you can do is if you have someone with an allready established tank, see if htey will give you a cupfull of their sand and this will "seed" the snad bed or you can drop a cocktail shrimp in there and that will give it a good kick start as well

[a fish called marius]

Well this is a few nights later and i see allot of littel white spots with legs crawling and swimming on the live rock and sand. Just updating. The live sand i bought were the very expensive type that came wet in a plastic bag, that has 20000 or more bacteria inside the sand.

[greg97527]

that stuff is pretty decent actually, i tried some out and it did wonders. I still think you have pods which is excellent so early on.

[hummer]

i hope ite live sand works it very exp.$ at 27 to 40 $ abag so shpo around im starthing with 4 20lbs bag i hope it worth it too

[jojo22]

Bagged live sand is way over rated. I always start with DRY dead sand and it seeds with life from the live rock. No need to go just throwing money away in this hobby.

[Sweetpea]

I have to toss in here that I have used the bagged live sand for all three of my tanks and seen a greatly reduced cycle time...

[a fish called marius]

So last night i installed that is hopefully the last of the equipment
1 x sea clone skimmer
1 x hailea 300 cooler
3 x maxi jet pumps

The water is nice and cold now 78 degrees

I still have a big problem thou green algae growing every were Helpppp

[greg97527]

what are ur nitrate and phosphate levels?

[a fish called marius]

nitrate 5mg/l
phosphat 0.5mg/l

[greg97527]

phosphates are'nt too bad although 0 is what you want. that is definatley part of your problem.
NOW ur nitrates are definately unacceptable and certainly fueling ur hair algae.
How often do you feed? and how often are you doing water changes. are u using ro/di water or atleast distilled?

[jojo22]

Nitrates nor phospate readings are really bad. The only problem is that you do not know how much of these chems/compounds are being used by the problem algae therefore you don't really know what to do or what is causeing them. Just an example so everyone understands what i am saying.....You can have a problem with cyano and have a reading of 0 phos. this would be because the cyano was eating the phosphates faster than they where produced. I would not look at you test as some kind of golden key but more as a general window inside your tank. Especially when you are haveing a problem!

[a fish called marius]

There is no fish in the tank yet , it is still cycling, i think still have that verry severe diatomic bloom (brown spots) The lights is on the whole day though.
i think i can kill the algae by making the tank dark but dont know if this is best for the live rock

[jojo22]

I would leave the lights complely off thru the cycle. LR does not require and lighting and will be fine. You could even keep rock alive in a dark basement it does not make any difference.

[hummer]

good info jojo did not know that ....(lights out)is that for the whole 6 week cycle

[jojo22]

You can turn them on but it is not required. The only things that would require a light cycle are corals. I definatly would not suggest leaving them on for prolonged periods.