4 Specific Questions (moved from "Nudge" thread)

1) I will be starting/cycling a new tank with Live-Rock. The TONGA rock
looks amazing
to me, but also looks like it has lots more sensitive stuff which would die
during the cycle.
Should I add Tonga Rock AFTER the initial cycling. Is there an
"extra-hearty" type of Live-Rock that
should be used for cycling?

2) Does a FOWLR tank sustain inverts such as feather
dusters,crabs,Stars,urchins, shrimp etc?

3)I have about 25 lbs of dead coral and rock left over from the good-old
days. Just curious---will organisms adopt it and start making it LIVE-ROCK
also, thereby increasing the natural filtration?

4) What is this Bio-Spira stuff? I dont feel comfortable with it. My wife
picked some up when she bought the tank. Will it aid in stabilizing the
tank? Is it "may help,may not, but cant hurt"---or should I just avoid
using it completely?

thanks for your time and patience

Hey Stringer,

I haven't been doing this for real long but I do know a few answers for you.
I have a 90g running nicely and have done a ton of reading.

1) All rock that you get will need to go through cycling. There is a way to
add rock to an existing aquarium and cycle it but it is not the best idea.
If you can afford all the rock and get 'em there now, I highly recommend it.
Don't worry if some hardier creatures may die off. This is the time to put
your tank through that tough ammonia-nitirite-nitrate stage and get it over
with. (You'd be amazed how much stuff will live. Even a month to several
months after cycling you'll see creatures come out from he dark finally.)

2) On FOWLR, yes it will sustain all that you listed. However in many FO
situations, people put in fish that aren't reef friendly and many times
those non-reef friendly fish look at shrimp like food as well. I don't know
much about feather dusters yet but those fish may even look at your feather
duster as a turkey leg as well. Read up on all the fish you plan on adding
before you add them. Crabs and urchins will be happier with sand to walk on
the bottom. I was looking into urchins and found that a couple like
starfish for food so read up on your specific urchin before you put them
together.

3) I put about 18 lbs of dead rock/coral in my tank as well. The animals
walk all over it, pick at it and hide in it just fine. Purple algae is
working on covering it over nicely. So basically, yes, you can bring the
dead rock to life. Just keep it a low percentage so the live rock can do
its job to keep your tank healthy.

4) Biro-... I haven't worked with this yet.


In your question #2 you said "etc." What I do all the time is go to places
like http://www.peteducation.com/ and read about particular corals and fish
I like. Most of the time I do google searches too to get other
people's/website's opinions on those corals and fish as well.

Although his tanks are reef tanks, this guy went through a lot of trouble to
make a great website about everything he's done and witnessed in his tanks.
http://www.melevsreef.com/ Go check it out.

Good luck,

B



"StringerBell" wrote in message
...
1) I will be starting/cycling a new tank with Live-Rock. The TONGA rock
looks amazing
to me, but also looks like it has lots more sensitive stuff which would
die during the cycle.
Should I add Tonga Rock AFTER the initial cycling. Is there an
"extra-hearty" type of Live-Rock that
should be used for cycling?

2) Does a FOWLR tank sustain inverts such as feather
dusters,crabs,Stars,urchins, shrimp etc?

3)I have about 25 lbs of dead coral and rock left over from the good-old
days. Just curious---will organisms adopt it and start making it LIVE-ROCK
also, thereby increasing the natural filtration?

4) What is this Bio-Spira stuff? I dont feel comfortable with it. My wife
picked some up when she bought the tank. Will it aid in stabilizing the
tank? Is it "may help,may not, but cant hurt"---or should I just avoid
using it completely?

thanks for your time and patience

You can get cured live rock at you local fish store.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



StringerBell wrote on 8/26/2006 3:26 AM:
1) I will be starting/cycling a new tank with Live-Rock. The TONGA rock
looks amazing
to me, but also looks like it has lots more sensitive stuff which would die
during the cycle.
Should I add Tonga Rock AFTER the initial cycling. Is there an
"extra-hearty" type of Live-Rock that
should be used for cycling?

2) Does a FOWLR tank sustain inverts such as feather
dusters,crabs,Stars,urchins, shrimp etc?

3)I have about 25 lbs of dead coral and rock left over from the good-old
days. Just curious---will organisms adopt it and start making it LIVE-ROCK
also, thereby increasing the natural filtration?

4) What is this Bio-Spira stuff? I dont feel comfortable with it. My wife
picked some up when she bought the tank. Will it aid in stabilizing the
tank? Is it "may help,may not, but cant hurt"---or should I just avoid
using it completely?

thanks for your time and patience