Restarting a Coraline Biocube 32 after a 4 year break

[kfoerster]

Happy 4th to you all! I’m looking for some help/reassurance. I’m back at the salt hobby after a long 4 year break while I traveled for work. I’ve maintained a 60 gallon freshwater tank but just didn’t have the time for salt. But excited to restart now that life has been put on pause due to COVID 19.

Currently have my tank set up with a heater, water, filter floss in the Intank media basket, power head and using the original pump and lights that came with the tank. In the past I did not cycle with live rock but this time I’m choosing to do that. So I have added 2.5 pounds of live cured rock from my LFS. It was only out of the water for about 30 mins on the drive home.

Salinity 1.025
Water Temp: 78

My questions are this:
1) When should I start testing the water after adding the live rock? I’ve read that I may or may not see a cycle happen due to the live rock.
2) I used old salt hoping that it would be okay (it had absorbed some moisture) for my initial tank fill and now regretting it. My tank is very cloudy and does not appear to be resolving after a week. Any suggestions?
3) When should I add filter media and what would you recommend? I’ve read carbon, chempur, and phosguard as good suggestions. I want to go slow with this and let nature take its course. So I’m not anxious to add media unless it is necessary. My testing kit is on the way (the old one expired and I didn’t realize it).
4) Lastly run lights on or off for cycle with live rock?

Adding live sand (that I will be rinsing thoroughly) to the tank tomorrow when it arrives. Beyond that I’m happy to sit and wait it out. Just hoping to clear up that water a bit if I can. Thank you in advance!

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

That doesn’t look to be too bad to me as far as clouding. Are you sure is salt clouding and not small water bubbles? To cycle I’d personally throw a piece of cooked shrimp in there and let it rot. Speeds it up quick. If you plan on having corals carbon will leach all the elements out of the water that they use to survive. If your phosphates get too low you’ll hve a cyano outbreak and if you want tangs of damsels I wouldn’t bother with phosgaurd because that algea is free food for them. My four stripe kills it in my 32 biocube.

 

[kfoerster]

That doesn’t look to be too bad to me as far as clouding. Are you sure is salt clouding and not small water bubbles? To cycle I’d personally throw a piece of cooked shrimp in there and let it rot. Speeds it up quick. If you plan on having corals carbon will leach all the elements out of the water that they use to survive. If your phosphates get too low you’ll hve a cyano outbreak and if you want tangs of damsels I wouldn’t bother with phosgaurd because that algea is free food for them. My four stripe kills it in my 32 biocube.

Thank much for the response. I’m pretty sure it is salt clouding, I can see super fine particles flowing around. I’ll keep changing out the filter floss and waiting. I’ll consider adding some shrimp to help kick start that cycle as well.

 

[Perthegallon]

so start adding ammonia get it to 2 ppm then wait for it to drop after seeing nitrates and no ammonia start adding fish
I would buy new salt since its not worth stressing about amazone has instant ocean and thats very cheap in price good deal
Right now you dont need any kind of filter media thats only for when you have po4 and contaimnets
run your lights off as long as you can as it does no befits even when you have fish all it does is encourage alage growth

 

[Perthegallon]

so start adding ammonia get it to 2 ppm then wait for it to drop after seeing nitrates and no ammonia start adding fish
I would buy new salt since its not worth stressing about amazone has instant ocean and thats very cheap in price good deal
Right now you dont need any kind of filter media thats only for when you have po4 and contaimnets
run your lights off as long as you can as it does no befits even when you have fish all it does is encourage alage growth

Benefits*

 

[sfin52]

I would not rinse live sand. It's going to cloud the tank the filter floss should clear that in a few hours.

Bio spira will help seed the tank.

 

[kfoerster]

so start adding ammonia get it to 2 ppm then wait for it to drop after seeing nitrates and no ammonia start adding fish
I would buy new salt since its not worth stressing about amazone has instant ocean and thats very cheap in price good deal
Right now you dont need any kind of filter media thats only for when you have po4 and contaimnets
run your lights off as long as you can as it does no befits even when you have fish all it does is encourage alage growth

Much appreciated! This is the reassurance I was hoping for LOL........Turns out switching filter floss more often has now cleared the water up. New salt is already purchased and ready for water changes (just to ease my worry). Soon as the test kit arrives I will start adding ammonia. In my mind I knew that I needed an ammonia source even with live rock but everything I read kept saying my cycle my be super quick or not at all depending on how beneficial my live rock was. Which hopefully is the case but I'll add ammonia and watch it happen. Hope you had a safe and enjoyable holiday.

 

[kfoerster]

I would not rinse live sand. It's going to cloud the tank the filter floss should clear that in a few hours.

Bio spira will help seed the tank.

Thanks sfin52, I completely agree it is counter intuitive. I have read thread after thread about rinsing or not rinsing live sand and have elected to go with rinsing this time. Last time I did not and despite the water clouding clearing up over a few days every single time my fish or I dug into it it would release a BIG cloud of "dust". I may or may not (jury seems to be out on this) remove the "live" portion of the sand but that is okay by me if it means a non cloudy sand base later on to build on.

 

[Perthegallon]

Yes

Much appreciated! This is the reassurance I was hoping for LOL........Turns out switching filter floss more often has now cleared the water up. New salt is already purchased and ready for water changes (just to ease my worry). Soon as the test kit arrives I will start adding ammonia. In my mind I knew that I needed an ammonia source even with live rock but everything I read kept saying my cycle my be super quick or not at all depending on how beneficial my live rock was. Which hopefully is the case but I'll add ammonia and watch it happen. Hope you had a safe and enjoyable holiday.

you too please pm if you have any questions I just set up three tanks and I’ve made ever mistake imaginable in this hobby

 

[BarSnackz]

I would not rinse live sand. It's going to cloud the tank the filter floss should clear that in a few hours.

Bio spira will help seed the tank.

I concur!
Bio-Spira is a miracle that I finally found out about for my most recent build. Half bottle in on day one and the other half in on the second day, yellow tang in a few hours after.
Such an amazing product on how quick it works!

 

[Arabyps]

Seed it with bacteria in a bottle (i.e. Dr. Tims, Fritz TurboStart 900, Microbacter 7, etc.) Add a fish the next day to provide ammonia to feed the bacteria and keep the cycle going. Many videos on Youtube about this.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Welcome back to the hobby and although im concerned about old salt, add liquid bacteria and monitor tank

 

[kfoerster]

Welcome back to the hobby and although im concerned about old salt, add liquid bacteria and monitor tank

Thank you I am too. I hope to do some rather large water changes w/ the new salt after the cycle is complete.

 

[Perthegallon]

Thank you I am too. I hope to do some rather large water changes w/ the new salt after the cycle is complete.

I wouldn’t worry about getting the old salt out of your system because you need to wait 6 months before adding corals because you still have the ugly stage to go through and the fish you put in won’t mind the old salt

 

[kfoerster]

Okay thank you for that reassurance, much appreciated. I was upset with myself for using the old salt to get started but was trying to save money. Silly me for trying to do that in this hobby LOL

 

[WIReefer]

Welcome back!!!

 

[kfoerster]

Things are progressing nicely here and cycling is complete. Returned from vacation to 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 10-20 nitrates. I'm ready to add some fish. Stocking ideas?

What I do know for sure is that I want is the following:

Pair of clowns
Yellow Watchman Goby & Tiger Pistol Shrimp pair

Other options include:
Firefish
Royal Gramma

Given the above options what would you add first to get things rolling?

I have a cool hitchhiker that showed up today, he is a elephant slug. Beyond that no cleanup crew as of yet, since the tank is so new and not showing any signs of algae yet.