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I wanted to give a progress report. I had my 110g tank set up. It consisted of:

Koralia 4 powerhead
Aqua clear 70 powerhead
typhoon Skimmer
120lbs live sand
77lbs live rock (beautiful with lots of growth)
salt water 100g
emperor 400 filter
visitherm 300w heater

I checked the water and found ammonia 0, nitrate 0, nitraite 0, 300ppm alk and ph 7.8. All of these normal values. I waited until the temp reached 76F then purchased 3 damsels (blue devil, 3 stripe and one with a yellow tail) to help cycle. I dipped them formaldyhide solution introduced them with the 1/3 method of water introduction method x 2. I didn't have any dealer water go into my system. A day later I tested the water and found no ammonia. The blue devil seems to be either hiding or dieing. He is at the bottom near the sand within the rocks. The other 2 damsels see to be swimming around just fine.

I tested my water again and all the levels seem just fine with no ammonia detection. How long should it be before I should detect any ammonia?

I also purchased my zebra moray eel and my porcupine trigger (small). They are at the dealers shop now. How long should I wait until I place them in my tank?

Thanks

Ingasar

Damsels are pretty small, so it might be a couple days before the ammonia starts going up. On the other hand, you have live rock and live sand, which is great. It's possible that there is already enough bacteria on these that they are just sucking the ammonia from your damsels right up. I'd let it go for at least a week, if not longer, to see if this is the case.

Keep in mind that once you get huge predators in the tank they will make a LOT more waste, and you could get a mini-cycle when you add them or especially when you feed them.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

I agree with shini. You'll want to wait a week with good levels before adding the new fish.

The pH you said was 7.8? That's pretty low. It may be just due to the new tank, and may rise back to 8.2ish on its own. If it drops lower, you will want to take action by increasing buffers and doing water changes. Keep an eye on it. I personally wouldn't add more fish until the pH rebounds.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

What kind of sand is it, other than just live sand? Hopefully you have crushed coral, or Aragonite based sands. As these will help to increase and buffer the ph with the calcium they will be leaching into the water.

The same quesion for the LR, is it dead coral based LR, or just some standard rocks from another tank someone had, that have become LR? As the coral LR will also help to leach calcium into the system, thus help to increase the ph and buffer it as well.

As for the fish, I can't say I am happy with your choice of damsels for cycle fish. As 3 of them together in that size of tank will turn into a problem when they start to grow. And they will grow, lol. Damsels are not happy when housed together usually. And you are probably going to have one heck of a hard time trying to catch them later. Ending up with a wrecked up tank most likely. I would have suggested chromis for cycle fish. As they don't get very large, and they end up being a nice addition of a very active little multilevel fish. And they do have some nice colors as well.

You should wait at least a week to 30 days, inbetween adding each additional fish you are planning on. As the mini cycle already mentioned, can and most likely will happen with each addtion. The bad news is, that if the tank environment is not strongly stable, the mini cycle could turn into a full blown crash of the cycle bacteria. This is one of the major reasons so many people fail at SW, is they have no patience. They too quickly stock their tanks, and cannot control the crash of the cycle.

So always remember the 3 most importent things when it comes to starting a maintaining any SW tank; Patience, patience, and yes the third is patience. BTW, did I mention the importance of having patience when starting and maintaining a SW tank?

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There is always a bigger fish...

After 2 days I lost my blue devil damsel and replaced him with a chromis. I tested my water and found 0.5ppm ammonia, 20ppm nitrate, 0 ppm nitrite, 300ppm alkalinity, 7.8 ph. It appears like the tank is just starting to cycle.

These are from a multiple test strips so it may not be accurate.

The live sand is called natures ocean live sand.

The live was just cured from coral.

The dealer and I did not like the typhoon protein skimmer and decided to order a different one. I guess that the protein skimmer can wait a week or so.

The test strips may be off a bit, but they are doing what you need them to do right now, and that is to tell you the progress of the cycle. They will be fine for now. I would not worry about exactness at this time. As you are just wanting to know how the cycle progresses, and then when it completes itself. So the main measurements you are looking for is when the ammonia and then the nitrites drops back down to zero. This will show that the cycle is completed, and that you can at that time add an additional fish. However, it is always good to wait a couple/few weeks after the levels have evened out back to 0, to an addtional fish. As this will help you to know that the newly completed cycle is maintaining itself, and not just fluctuating. You will be looking for the same measurements after adding the additional fish, related to a mini cycle that will happen. After you have reached your goal, then you can invest in a new test kit.

As for the ph, and the possibility of the test strips being off, take a small sample of water to your lfs and let them test it for you. Most all lfs will test tank water free of charge. And because they usually do this on regular occassions, they usually have fresh test kits, thus being mostly accurate. And if your ph is that low and staying that low, you may need to invest into raising the ph and buffering it. A ph of 7.8 will do if your tank holds steady at that level and does not drop at all. 7.8 is considered the extreme low side of a good SW environment, with 8.0 to 8.5 being optimal.

As for the alkalinity, you really don't need to test for it, as it relates more to the corals. If you are going to be a FOWLR tank, the alkalinity is not a concern. Alkalinity is the measurement of bicarbonate in the water. The corals break down the bicarbonate into carbonate and use the carbonate in the calcification process.

As for the other parameters, they are not good, and definitely in a cycle, be it mini or large. You really should not have added another fish while they are elevated. But it is too late now.

Ammonia is dangerous for sea life period. And very to extremely dangerous over 0.2ppm, and yours is at 0.5ppm. Keep a close eye doing measurements daily. If it goes higher than the 0.5, or does not start dropping in the next 3-4 days, you should do a 30% water change. Don't do it immediately, as you will slow the cycle down. Give it a few days to compensate. If it does not compensate, then do the partial water change. And do not add any more fish until the ammonia levels are at 0ppm again

The nitrites should also be kept lower than 20ppm. Unlike the FW fish, SW fish cannot tolerate too much nitrites. Thus they need to be kept in check. Yours currently at 0ppm suggests that the cycle is just starting. Thus, daily checks are required at this time. Again, watch these measurements closely, and do a partial water change if they do not correct themselves when they rise. If they go over 20-30ppm, do the water change. And again, do not add any more fish until they have leveled back down to 0ppm.

The nitrates you are currently showing, may be coming from your tapwater. Many cities use nitrates in their water treatments, and you will sometimes see these levels directly from your tap. As for their toxicities to the fish, the fish can tolerate nitrates being elevted much more easily than the ammonia and the nitrites. 30ppm is usually considered the water changing time reading. However, they can tolerate levels up to 40ppm, usually without any adverse effects to the fish. But 30 is the optimal number. Your nitrate levels will rise much slower than the others during the cycle. And, in a SW tank with LR and LS, many of the living critters within the sand and rock, actually use the nitrates, thus uptaking them. This helps slow the increase in the production levels of nitrates.

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There is always a bigger fish...

I will check the tank levels soon again but I have another question related to tank set up. So far the fish look ok. I have no plans to add any fish for a while.

I am looking at lighting fixtures now. I am thinking about the 36 inch Nova Extreme T5 high output light. I have a 48 inch tank but I didn't want a tightfitting light under my canopy. Plus the switches are in the side.

http://www.current-usa.com/novaextreme.html

Can anyone tell me if this is a good light for my tank?

Thanks

New test results:

Nitrate 20ppm
Nitrite 0
Alkalinity 300
ph 8.0

Ammonia 0!

Thats 2 weeks since start up.

Please let me know your opinion on the lights.

Thanks

nova extremes aren't the best t5HO light available. They do not have individual reflectors, which is a large part of what make T5HO so potent. From what I've seen and heard, they are slightly brighter than a comparable PC setup.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Do you have one to recommend?

tek light

ati powermodule

Retrofit kits

I have a 4x36" HO retrofit kit. It is incredibly bright.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

What should I do next?

So far I have the zebra moray eel, Harlequin Tuskfish and the porcupine puffer. All seem to be doing great. I am looking for an active (lots of movement in the middle depth of the tank), colorful fish. I was thinking I might find a wrasse for this. Do you have any suggestions?

Also, I had a diamond goby that must have been killed because I can't find it anymore. Is there any fish like it that could survive in my tank set up?

The LFS has a purple tang from a previous owner that looks nice and seems to get along with its tankmates. Should I go with this one now or wait? I'm told purple tangs can be problems because of ich tendencies and agressiveness.

Thanks

Sean

How about a school of blue reef chromis (chromis cyaneus)? These schooling fish might provide a nice distraction for any aggressive fish and are nice looking.

that watchman, if not dead, may just be under a rock somewhere if you cant see it.
The target fish isnt a bad idea, but im not too up on the damsels of the chromis genus. Remember, even the Green chromis will fight and fight and you will constantly have to add to your shoal IMO.

Powder Blue Surgeon is my personal favourite. If not that then the Emperor Angel.

Does anyone have any suggestions for timers?

I have the Coralife lights with white, actinic and lunar lights. All of these have their own power cord and function independently of themselves. I am looking for good timers that can function independently for this set up. I am running into problems because some timers only have 2 setups, either daylight or night. I want to run actinic, then actinic + white, then actinic, then lunar.

Thanks

I just go to home depot and get individual timers (you'd need three) and use a power strip.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Yep, as Matty there has stated. If you get one of those "made for SW setups" type light strips with the multiple timers built in, you will pay about triple the cost of just three individual timers and and a multi strip extension cord.

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There is always a bigger fish...