New Tank Questions

Question
Todd,
First thank you for taking the time to help with my questions I really appreciate your help.  I just set up a 29 gallon tank with 13 lbs of live rock and the employee at the pet shop told me I could add some chemical with a few fish and a chemical that does the first cylce within 24 hours.  Do you know anything about this and will this deprive my tank of needed bacteria?  Also I just put my live rock in the tank and there were small hermit crabs in the rocks that came out in the tank. What should I feed them?  I noticed that one of the rocks has what looks like a 1 inch orange polyp on it.  What is it and is it harmful?  Any other tips are appreciated.  Once again thank you for your help.  

Answer

Hello,

This chemical that cycles will not deprive your tank of needed bacteria.  The crabs will eat the growth on the live rocks or you could put in some flake marine fish food.  The polyp is fine leave it there, they hitchhike on the rock it's fine.  I would wait a week to add fish.  Make sure you Temp is 78-82 Ph is 7-8 ammonia needs to be 0 Nitrite needs to be 0 and nitrate less than 15 ppm. This represents a cycled tank and is safe for fish.  Waiting a week will let the rock cure a bit.  If you bought uncured live rock then you will have to wait 3 weeks before your water numbers are safe.

Good Luck
Todd