How long was your tank set up before you added livestock, what was die off like?

[reefgeek84]

I just got done reading the "tank maturity" thread.

I am curious of people's wait time before they added livestock (fish, coral, inverts etc.)...

So if you could post up how long you waited after setting up your tank before you added livestock and what were the results.

It would be nice if people were specific with the route they took...

-How long?
-Water changes how often?
-What they started with LR,sand, starter/cycle fish etc?
-Sump/refuge?
-What died off?
-When things died off, timeline maybe if possible.
Etc. all the details...

Lets see 'em people.

[Sk8r]

I had an unusual situation: I got an established tank's live rock, well-corallined, and had a very mild cycle, after feeding a pinch of Formula One per day for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks we got our cleaning crew. At the 4th week we got our first coral and our yellow watchman. 5th week: firefish, several corals. 7th week, second firefish, more corals, and a chromis. 8th week, a mandarin. And more corals. Then a rabbit. The rabbit left for the lfs in the 10th week, having proved a coral-nipper.
Never lost anything but the snails the rabbit ate.
Water changes every 7 days, 10%. Meticulous testing. An 8th week bout with cyano, cured with Chemi-clean, an outbreak of grape caulerpa, which the rabbit ate (along with the snails and the cleaner shrimp.) Now a bit of vallonia, but no troubles: it's fading. I used part of my sump for a refugium with cheato, in about the 12th week, about the time we acquired a clam. I hope to be growing pods down there. WHo knows?
I'm a 52 with a ten gallon sump mostly taken up with machinery; Urchin skimmer, fills cup about every 3 weeks. I feed flake, pellet, shrimp, and cyclopeeze, with Phytofeast for the pods.

[ACBlinky]

I set up my first reef about a year ago. I bought cured rock and dry sand, set everything up and started testing. There was next to no ammonia or nitrite, the cycle was pretty quick because the rock had been in the store for about a month. I started a routine of weekly water changes right from the start.

My first inhabitants went in a week after NO2 hit 0. I started with a pistol shrimp and some hermits, then a week later added a few snails, more hermits and a little mithrax crab. One of the snails died the next day.

A month or so after the cycle I added the first fish, a tiny goby that I hoped would pair with the pistol. I didn't check to see if he was eating in the store (lesson learned) and he never ate in my tank. He started breathing very hard, became disoriented and died three days later. Everything in the tank was fine, I suspect he was sick when I bought him. Then I purchased a Lubbock's fairy wrasse, he did very well and I felt like I was finally on my way.

From that point on, I added livestock slowly, added a HOB fuge, removed some of the hermits and the mithrax when they started causing trouble and slowly started buying corals. I switched skimmers (from Prizm to Remora) after a few months as well.

The tank was initially a 14g, but soon after starting the tank we tore it down and upgraded to a 30g. I still have the wrasse and pistol, I've lost two fish in this tank - the goby, and a cherub angel that refused to eat (I hadn't quite learned my lesson, assumed because he was picking at the rock in the store he'd eat prepared foods). Everything else has done well; my experience with this tank has been incredibly positive.
If I could change something about the way I did things, I would have set everything up and left the rock alone for a few months with nothing else in the tank. There were some nasty algae phases, I think that could have been reduced by having a good skimmer from the start and stocking more slowly. It's only in the last few months the tank has really come into its own and really started to look mature, I'm very happy with the way things are going now.

Here are some pics, the first was taken at around two months, the second was taken a few minutes ago.

[reefgeek84]

Originally posted by ACBlinky
I set up my first reef about a year ago. I bought cured rock and dry sand, set everything up and started testing. There was next to no ammonia or nitrite, the cycle was pretty quick because the rock had been in the store for about a month. I started a routine of weekly water changes right from the start.

My first inhabitants went in a week after NO2 hit 0. I started with a pistol shrimp and some hermits, then a week later added a few snails, more hermits and a little mithrax crab. One of the snails died the next day.

A month or so after the cycle I added the first fish, a tiny goby that I hoped would pair with the pistol. I didn't check to see if he was eating in the store (lesson learned) and he never ate in my tank. He started breathing very hard, became disoriented and died three days later. Everything in the tank was fine, I suspect he was sick when I bought him. Then I purchased a Lubbock's fairy wrasse, he did very well and I felt like I was finally on my way.

From that point on, I added livestock slowly, added a HOB fuge, removed some of the hermits and the mithrax when they started causing trouble and slowly started buying corals. I switched skimmers (from Prizm to Remora) after a few months as well.

The tank was initially a 14g, but soon after starting the tank we tore it down and upgraded to a 30g. I still have the wrasse and pistol, I've lost two fish in this tank - the goby, and a cherub angel that refused to eat (I hadn't quite learned my lesson, assumed because he was picking at the rock in the store he'd eat prepared foods). Everything else has done well; my experience with this tank has been incredibly positive.
If I could change something about the way I did things, I would have set everything up and left the rock alone for a few months with nothing else in the tank. There were some nasty algae phases, I think that could have been reduced by having a good skimmer from the start and stocking more slowly. It's only in the last few months the tank has really come into its own and really started to look mature, I'm very happy with the way things are going now.

Here are some pics, the first was taken at around two months, the second was taken a few minutes ago.

Your tank looks great!!!! Thank you for sharing.

[reefgeek84]

Originally posted by Sk8r
I had an unusual situation: I got an established tank's live rock, well-corallined, and had a very mild cycle, after feeding a pinch of Formula One per day for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks we got our cleaning crew. At the 4th week we got our first coral and our yellow watchman. 5th week: firefish, several corals. 7th week, second firefish, more corals, and a chromis. 8th week, a mandarin. And more corals. Then a rabbit. The rabbit left for the lfs in the 10th week, having proved a coral-nipper.
Never lost anything but the snails the rabbit ate.
Water changes every 7 days, 10%. Meticulous testing. An 8th week bout with cyano, cured with Chemi-clean, an outbreak of grape caulerpa, which the rabbit ate (along with the snails and the cleaner shrimp.) Now a bit of vallonia, but no troubles: it's fading. I used part of my sump for a refugium with cheato, in about the 12th week, about the time we acquired a clam. I hope to be growing pods down there. WHo knows?
I'm a 52 with a ten gallon sump mostly taken up with machinery; Urchin skimmer, fills cup about every 3 weeks. I feed flake, pellet, shrimp, and cyclopeeze, with Phytofeast for the pods.

Thank you very much for sharing!!!