reef set up

i would recommend against putting a damsel in there at all, not even for the cycle, for one thats cruel, you can cycle the tank without one, and two, unless you want that fish to take over your entire tank and claim it as his own and attack and most likely kill any fish you add later on. simply put, if your gonna have a reef, and peaceful reef fish, a damnsel isnt a good addition. you'll end up po'd and taking all your rock out to catch them.

how do you cycle it with out fish or rock?

all need to cycle your tank is the live rock that your buying. it will have the bacteria that you need on it to start the cycle and you wont torture any fish or youself later on trying to get them back out. if you dont have rock yet you can use a raw cocktail shirmp as a kick start. just take one and toss it in. as it decays your bacteria will have something to feed off of. you really should have your rock in there though so you'll have the space for the numbers needed to support a reef.

Alright, I'll just circulate the water until the I get some rock in. I think I'm going to get 45lbs of base rock and 45lbs of live rock. Is that acceptable numbers to start with? Thanks for help!

That should be just fine to start off... It'll take a few months for the base rock to start to liven up, so once the tank has fully cycled go easy on adding bioload so the bacteria colonies will have the chance to fully populate the base rock to keep up with the load.

It's been said many a time but worth repeating, the only things that happen fast in a reef are of the bad variety. You are getting ready to enter the hardest part of this whole ordeal... waiting for the cycle to finish, looking at a box of water and rocks for 6 weeks or so is just torture.

where can I order some algae for the fuge? And what is the best species to get? Should I put it in the same time as the rock or is it ok to put it in before or after?

Thermos trade, of course... Listen, BJ helped me once and I've helped others by sending some chaeto via priority mail(you send me $5 for the shipping). Voila, you get your chaeto.

awesome! Do you take paypal?

no, he takes hallmark stuffed with cash!

If I make up some extra RO water in a closed container for top-off, how long will it keep?