Hi Everyone,
(warning: long and verbose...)
I'm new to this site and also new to keeping a saltwater aquarium. My wife con (uh, I mean convinced) me to setup a saltwater aquarium for my two young kids. So, I've been reading as much as I can on this forum and other forum Google brings up. There is so much info it's making my head spin...
Anyways, Yesterday, I setup a new 29g Biocube HQI with Live Rock (40-50 lbs, 6 year-old) from a gal on Craigslist. It has tons of Coraline algae, purple/green mushrooms, and other stuff (I don't know what they are) growing on it. She told me the system is ready to go when the water parameters are inline.
So, I've been monitoring the water quality (temp, sg, pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate) and they are all inline. Except tonight, I measured a pH of 8.0 (it was 8.2 last night). So, I went to PetCo to see if I can get something to help with the pH, but the salesperson sent me home with two damsel fishes (to help seed the ammonia) and 3 hermit crabs and two snails (to help with my pending algae breakout).
So, am I doing this right?
- I was expecting my tank to build up Ammonia, but it didn't, or at least not yet. Do I need to wait some more, or is my talk already "cycled" due to the use of well established live rock?
- Am I too early in introducing the Damsel fishes? I did read that you can use them as "sacrificial" ammonia producing engines. Do I just throw in some raw shrimp to help "kick-start" the cycle?
- Do I need to "fix" my pH problem? How should I do this? baking soda? chemicals? Or just add more argonite gravel?
Sorry for the this extremely long thread, just hoping maybe someone can give me a clue...
Photos of my setup