Help please

[613ReefGuy]

Hi everyone. So I bought that Nano cube i had posted about before. I just picked it up, and now it is time to clean it and set it up. I have several questions if someone can please help me.

1) Fish will be okay in a bucket for now until I clean and set things up?
2) The live rock shouldnt cycle again right? It is in the same water right now.
3) If I have other live rock sitting in water that has never really cycled...can I use some of that in this tank? It has been in water for 3 weeks now, but the salt level of the water is through the roof since I was adding salt.......No no, I know.
4) Should I use filter floss in the back on one or both of the remaining chambers?
5) I am not keeping the sand he had, as this tank is a mess.....The girlfriend bought sugar fine aragonite sand. Can I use this or should I wait? I also have regular aragonite but it hit the water about a month ago, and then I broke down the tank because I was moving to fast. It is currently just sitting in a bowl, can this be used if I rinse it, and if I rinse it is tap water okay here?

Thank you everyone, it is going to be a busy night and I will post pictures tomorrow.

Please if you read this and know any answers please take a minute to respond so I dont get too stuck without knowing what I should do.

Thanks :)

 

[Bifferwine]

1. Fish will be fine.
2. It shouldn't. There's a slim chance it will, but it's not likely.
3. It sounds like that rock should be cured. But unless you have tested the water it's in for ammonia and nitrite, you don't know that. If those are zero, then you can add it. If not, the rock needs to continue to cure outside the tank.
4. It may be useful for the first several days to pull particulates out of the water. Once your water is clear, I would pull it out.
5. I would use the new sand now. Make sure your rocks are placed solidly on the bottom of the tank, then place the new sand around the rocks -- not the rocks on top of the sand, where they can shift. You can rinse the other sand with tap water and use that too.

 

[613ReefGuy]

Thank you very much Biff. Just waiting for the water to clear up, and heat up a bit.....then do some tests, and hopefully get the fish in by around 2am :)

Thanks for your help

 

[Bifferwine]

You're welcome! Make sure you are keeping your fish water warm and circulating.

 

[613ReefGuy]

All seems well so far on day 1. There was actually a Royal Gramma that was included and he has had me questioning him since I showed up to break the kit down at the sellers house.

He often appears dead at the bottom of the tank, and this morning his body was floating in the current right at the surface skimmer (current and plastic keeping him in place.) I look at him awhile, and then I sadly had to make the decision to grab the net and get him out of there.....and prepare for a water change to help the other guys....I scooped him into the net and as I was looking at him in the net he started bouncing around. What the heck?? I have read other peoples experiences with them being similar, but this guy is going to give me a weak heart if I have to always think he is dead, lol.

Biff since this tank isnt going to cycle, and it was set up for 8 months before this can I add a few small frags to it? I do love the fish, but the corals are really what I want to get into, and I would like to get some things going so they can be transferred to the larger tanks eventually.

Should I lose the Gramma? I would like to get a peppermint shrimp....too crowded if I keep them all?

 

[Bifferwine]

If you are checking your parameters, and your nitrites and ammonia are at zero, then you can add some corals.

That is not normal behavior for a gramma... It might be stressed from the move. You can add shrimp even though you have the gramma -- they won't conflict. But if you aren't in love with the gramma, I'd take it back to a fish store, because that will interfere with the fish that you do want to add down the road.