Tank is Finally Cycled…Where to go from here?

[Dad2Wyatt]

The long wait is over! After (un)patiently waiting for my cycle to complete, these are the first additions to my 55 gallon tank!

1 False percula clownfish
1 ricordea mushroom
5 blue leg hermit crabs
3 red leg hermit crabs
2 astraea snails
5 nassarius snails
5 margarita snails
1 bumblebee snail
1 hitch hiker asterina starfish
I have 2 viparspectra 165’s arriving this week and am looking into better powerheads and filtration ASAP!

One thing that I’m starting to see is that I think I need some more negative space. These rocks are all pretty large and with a fresh system I don’t want remove them and risk upsetting the system. There are currently a bunch of little nooks, crannies, and caves but they are all small or difficult to see. Any layout ideas or other tips?

Also how do people get these beautiful aquarium pictures? I’m trying to get on that level

 

[Quietman]

You think the patience waiting for cycle was taxing...now the real patience begins...patience with discipline.

You're right to not to go moving things around tempting as it is to get another idea on how to make it look better. I think you have a great start there. Going through diatom phase by the looks of it.

Remember at the end of the day you'll have corals covering all the rock which will make your scape look completely different even if you don't move anything.

I might suggest getting some rock rubble that you can attach new corals to and then attach the rock pieces to your scape rocks. That way if you do decide to change down the road or the corals don't grow in quite to your liking it's much, much easier to move them as they've attached to rock rubble and not your major scape pieces (at least not for months usually).

Good luck!

 

[brandon429]

You must not add a fish until you’ve self read two hours in the fish disease forum about fallow, quarantine, and what untreated pet store fish do to our fish populations in the home tank

youll be adding fish in 45-90 days, so if you want that huge amount set up more than one quarantine system yesterday


when reading the fish disease forum you can see that skipping complete system preps before adding those fish isn’t an option, what sense does it make to cycle a tank to perfect zero nitrite and then still kill all the fish with uronema et al


skipping fish disease preps same action as:

I just got a new puppy barely weaned. He’ll live in my dirt back yard from now on with no shots, no parvo prep, just winging it. My neighbor did that and it worked fine. The clownfish already in the system above broke disease protocol, time to fallow. If it was just him going in that’d be different, but that’s a huge list of mixed species above.

 

[fushi]

The long wait is over! After (un)patiently waiting for my cycle to complete, these are the first additions to my 55 gallon tank!

1 False percula clownfish
1 ricordea mushroom
5 blue leg hermit crabs
3 red leg hermit crabs
2 astraea snails
5 nassarius snails
5 margarita snails
1 bumblebee snail
1 hitch hiker asterina starfish
I have 2 viparspectra 165’s arriving this week and am looking into better powerheads and filtration ASAP!

One thing that I’m starting to see is that I think I need some more negative space. These rocks are all pretty large and with a fresh system I don’t want remove them and risk upsetting the system. There are currently a bunch of little nooks, crannies, and caves but they are all small or difficult to see. Any layout ideas or other tips?

Also how do people get these beautiful aquarium pictures? I’m trying to get on that level

looking good, you do have a point about not messing with your scape, but I would recommend changing it now if you don’t like it. It’s way easier to change things before you add more to the tank. Why settle now, regret it, and then decide to change thing when it’s full of stuff and stable.

Your pictures look great, if you want really nice close ups you’ll probably a macro lens.

If you want to keep the rock you currently have you can always smash it up with a hammer and glue it back together with some super glue. Just make sure you keep lots of places for fish to hide, it keeps them happy.

You’ll find the most success by keeping things stable, so don’t let anyone convince you to chase numbers or fix things that are not causing a problem.

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[PeterC99]

Welcome to R2R!

You are off to a great start! Take your time, keep reading R2R, and keep learning about the hobby! The more time you put into learning about saltwater aquariums, the more successful you are going to be.

 

[Dad2Wyatt]

G

You think the patience waiting for cycle was taxing...now the real patience begins...patience with discipline.

You're right to not to go moving things around tempting as it is to get another idea on how to make it look better. I think you have a great start there. Going through diatom phase by the looks of it.

Remember at the end of the day you'll have corals covering all the rock which will make your scape look completely different even if you don't move anything.

I might suggest getting some rock rubble that you can attach new corals to and then attach the rock pieces to your scape rocks. That way if you do decide to change down the road or the corals don't grow in quite to your liking it's much, much easier to move them as they've attached to rock rubble and not your major scape pieces (at least not for months usually).

Good luck!

Good points!! And to be honest I like the current set up I have! I enjoy getting at different angles and levels to see different areas of the tank. My only reason for wanting to rearrange was to create an island for GSPs or some other high grower that I don’t want to take over

 

[Dad2Wyatt]

looking good, you do have a point about not messing with your scape, but I would recommend changing it now if you don’t like it. It’s way easier to change things before you add more to the tank. Why settle now, regret it, and then decide to change thing when it’s full of stuff and stable.

Your pictures look great, if you want really nice close ups you’ll probably a macro lens.

If you want to keep the rock you currently have you can always smash it up with a hammer and glue it back together with some super glue. Just make sure you keep lots of places for fish to hide, it keeps them happy.

You’ll find the most success by keeping things stable, so don’t let anyone convince you to chase numbers or fix things that are not causing a problem.

My only concern is that I wanted an island or more negative space for aggressive growers in the future! Right now every piece of my rock is linked in a chain by touching. So I have no islands and only a little open sand areas

 

[fushi]

My only concern is that I wanted an island or more negative space for aggressive growers in the future! Right now every piece of my rock is linked in a chain by touching. So I have no islands and only a little open sand areas

That is a valid concern, what type of corals do you plan on having.

 

[Dad2Wyatt]

That is a valid concern, what type of corals do you plan on having.

Obviously this will be a slow rolling process as I go through the learning curve but I want to work up to LPS and eventually even some hardier SPS. As far as softies I want to stay away from zoas and polys. I know the toxin risk is minimal with protection and they are beautiful so those may wait for another tank. For now GSPs and pulsing xenia, and clove polyps are my leading favorite softies.

as far as specifics I’m not 100% sure. I have a huge list I’m working on narrowing down right now, but almost all of them are considered at least moderately aggressive

 

[fushi]

Obviously this will be a slow rolling process as I go through the learning curve but I want to work up to LPS and eventually even some hardier SPS. As far as softies I want to stay away from zoas and polys. I know the toxin risk is minimal with protection and they are beautiful so those may wait for another tank. For now GSPs and pulsing xenia, and clove polyps are my leading favorite softies.

as far as specifics I’m not 100% sure. I have a huge list I’m working on narrowing down right now, but almost all of them are considered at least moderately aggressive

You you are right, those softies are known to cover entire rocks fast. You could embrace that aspect of them on this tank as most people end up upgrading their setup drastically when they start to get into sps anyway, or you can do what you were thinking and rescap, i just can’t really think of anything in-between.