Cycling a tank

[dragonxflare]

I just finally set up my 30 gallon JBJ Rimless tank, and put in the following:

Heater

30lbs. Nature's Ocean Bio-Activ Live Aragonite Reef Sand

15 lbs. of "Real reef rock" http://realreefrock.com

Normally, I use fish to cycle, but with Salt water, is this enough? Or do i need to put damsels, in here to cycle?

Also, how good is the "real reef rock" stuff? Is this comparable to live rock? my LSF said they are the same

Please help

[ZX6Reefer]

I'm not sure about that rock, but it looks like there won't be any die-off to start your cycle. Don't use fish to cycle the tank. Toss an uncooked raw shrimp in and wait for an ammonia spike. I was lucky and my current tank cycled in less than a month, but it can take longer.

[Dark_ice]

dont add any fish, your nitrates are going to be going nuts during the cycle. you can add a shrimp but ill only say this once. cycling is like everything else in this hobby, it takes time and you need to let it take its own course.

 

 

as far as the reef rock i run it in my 20 long. good stuff but i notice no difference of it vs live fiji rock. just looks cooler is all

[dragonxflare]

Is there a specific type of dead shrimp I should be getting? Ones from the grocery store?

 

Also, once its in my tank, how long do I leave it in there for before I take it out?

 

What are the advantages of adding pure ammonia? Does anyone know where I can get pure ammonia?

[FrontMan]

You don't need to cycle your tank. Your rock is live. Your sand is (semi) live. Start stocking slowly.

[LBC Fragger]

set the tank up and let it run for a week or two. Always do water test!!! I can not stress that statement anymore. Once you have 0 ammonia 0 nitrites and nitrates 0-5 you are good to go, but add slowly. Also here is a link to some background info on salt v fresh maintenance wise http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/saltwater-aquariums-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

[dragonxflare]

I currently do not have a test kit, I will be ordering it tomorrow.

 

Since I have live sand, and "real reef rock" this makes my tank cycled? That seems a bit odd to me.

[texass2323]

I currently do not have a test kit, I will be ordering it tomorrow.

 

Since I have live sand, and "real reef rock" this makes my tank cycled? That seems a bit odd to me.

Like the above post said, take it slow.. I would not stock it quite yet.. Wait a couple weeks and test, test and test the water.. If you do want to add a shrimp you can get it at the grocery store.. Make sure it's raw.. Good luck..

[jadedanime]

 

Normally, I use fish to cycle, but with Salt water, is this enough? Or do i need to put damsels, in here to cycle?

Ok firstly this is the 21st century...stop that. Those poor fish....

 

Is there a specific type of dead shrimp I should be getting? Ones from the grocery store?

 

Also, once its in my tank, how long do I leave it in there for before I take it out?

 

What are the advantages of adding pure ammonia? Does anyone know where I can get pure ammonia?

Unless you can test your water yourself...don't go the ammonia route.

 

Leave the shrimp in for a minimum of three days. Take it out, test the water. Wait....test again....wait....

 

There's inevitably going to be a lot of waiting while you're cycling, and I know it's boring at first, I'm cycling a new tank right now too. But sooner than later you're going to start noticing things: amphipods and little "bugs" on the glass (GOOD), little feather dusters (GOOD), pseudocory anemones (GOOD), majanos and aiptasia (BAD), worms (DEBATABLE)..... Cycling is a lot more live in saltwater than it is in freshwater already, so please no fish for cycling anymore? Ok?

 

You will know your cycle is over when ammonia and nitrite are zero....nitrate is on its way down and at least below 10ppm. You will have gross brown algae diatom bloom in your tank on everything. Now it's not definite that its the end of your cycle, your tank won't be stable yet, it'll bounce up and down as you begin stocking so you have to go slow during this time or else you have just made a big box of death.

 

Best of luck. Stop cycling with fish lol, and welcome to nano-reef!

[otest82]

Be patient. Wait for diatoms to show up,do a water change, then test. When all tests show acceptable results, start stocking slowly. My 2 cents.

[athompson]

This is just my 2 cents. I used 9lbs of live rock ( cured at my lfs for months and straight from the ocean before they got it), 20lbs of live sand ( caribsea arag-alive). On days 3 & 4 i got a small ammonia spike (.25). On the 5th day i had ~5 nitrates and no ammonia or nitrites. On day 7 i started getting a diatom bloom. I added my clean up crew then. Im now on day 18 and have a clown and 2 lps coral. Ammon continues to stay at 0, nitrites 0, nitrates ~0. The point of this story is that if your rock and sand are TRULY live, the cycling process takes far less time than if u start with "dead" rock. My advice, wait until u see diatoms before adding any lifestock, even if u think ur cycled.

[FrontMan]

Dudes. You used to use a shrimp when you were setting up a tank that used DRY rock and dry sand, and that was the way they did it 40 frigging years ago. There are much better ways to start a fresh tank in 2013. Even if this reefer needed to start a cycle (which he doesn't), dropping a shrimp in is not really very good advice.

 

Tanks set up with cured live rock and live sand already have the beneficial bacteria required to convert amonia to nitrates. Why waste your money on live rock and sand only to wait around for weeks for the cycle that is never going to happen? A tank set up in this manner can't even technically cycle because it already has the bacteria that is going to prevent a cycle. However, if you wait around for a cycle, some of that bacteria is going to die because there isn't any bio load creating amonia, which is what the bacteria use for food.

 

You should get an amonia test. API tests are crap and basically read .25 all the time with saltwater, which is probably what the poster above saw. Regardless, even .25 is a blip, not a cycle.

 

Sorry, I hate to say it, but this thread is filled with some phenomenally bad advice. Perhaps your local reefing club has a board that might have some better advice for you. I think that all you'll get here is confused.

[athompson]

No that is not what the "above poster" saw. I had it tested at the lfs with salifert. And i beg to differ with the api test. Ill be happy to show u what zero reading looks like with an api test. Ive used them for years with my freshwater tanks and use them successfully with my saltwater. I had a small amount of die off on my liverock, which cause a small ammonia spike, which corrected within 2 days. A "mini-cycle" if u will. I do agree with ur advice though.

[AFellowReefer]

If you buy real reef rock, it is essentially like cured LR. If you decide upon the real reef rock, then your tank will be MOSTLY cycled, however you will get die off and it will go through a "mini cycle" for about two weeks. I added real reef rock once and had a nitrate spike and then levels went back to zero. It took about 3 days. I waited for another week and a half before I added anything. All levels remained normal. I found it curious I had the last part in the cycle and that was it, but that is how it went. Other times I used real reef rock and went through the entire process from ammonia to nitrites to nitrates.

[rklontz]

Dudes. You used to use a shrimp when you were setting up a tank that used DRY rock and dry sand, and that was the way they did it 40 frigging years ago. There are much better ways to start a fresh tank in 2013. Even if this reefer needed to start a cycle (which he doesn't), dropping a shrimp in is not really very good advice.

 

Tanks set up with cured live rock and live sand already have the beneficial bacteria required to convert amonia to nitrates. Why waste your money on live rock and sand only to wait around for weeks for the cycle that is never going to happen? A tank set up in this manner can't even technically cycle because it already has the bacteria that is going to prevent a cycle. However, if you wait around for a cycle, some of that bacteria is going to die because there isn't any bio load creating amonia, which is what the bacteria use for food.

 

You should get an amonia test. API tests are crap and basically read .25 all the time with saltwater, which is probably what the poster above saw. Regardless, even .25 is a blip, not a cycle.

 

Sorry, I hate to say it, but this thread is filled with some phenomenally bad advice. Perhaps your local reefing club has a board that might have some better advice for you. I think that all you'll get here is confused.

Yes it does have some bad advice and so far it is from you.

From the first post the op bought it from an online retailer meaning the rock was shipped and it will have die off and will go through a cycle. Big or small cycle depends on how it was shipped.

The op did not just go down to the local corner and buy it from petco and have it in the tank within the hour. Even if the op had gone to the local fish store, if it spent enough time out of the water for it to start drying off then it will still go through a small cycle.

[FrontMan]

Yes it does have some bad advice and so far it is from you.

From the first post the op bought it from an online retailer meaning the rock was shipped and it will have die off and will go through a cycle. Big or small cycle depends on how it was shipped.

The op did not just go down to the local corner and buy it from petco and have it in the tank within the hour. Even if the op had gone to the local fish store, if it spent enough time out of the water for it to start drying off then it will still go through a small cycle.

 

There aren't many organisms on live rock that won't survive being shipped in a damp box for a few days. The rock may have some very limited die off, but it is live rock, which has the bacteria necessary to process the ammonia caused by any die off. Unless there are large portions of macros or sponges that have died, then there won't be a cycle. The OP's rock appears to be covered in coralline and not much else. What organisms specifically are on the rock that are going to die off in such massive quantities that a catastrophic cycle is going to happen?

 

[Jay Wee]

Pee in it at least once... That's how you used to do it anyways... And then you can say that you put a lot into the tank :-D

Haha that's awesome.

[Chadf]

 

There aren't many organisms on live rock that won't survive being shipped in a damp box for a few days. The rock may have some very limited die off, but it is live rock, which has the bacteria necessary to process the ammonia caused by any die off. Unless there are large portions of macros or sponges that have died, then there won't be a cycle. The OP's rock appears to be covered in coralline and not much else. What organisms specifically are on the rock that are going to die off in such massive quantities that a catastrophic cycle is going to happen?

That "coralline" is paint or dye.

[rklontz]

Real Reef Rocks claims that there product is fully cured and free of hitchhikers and pests and you can drop it into a tank and have no cycle what so ever. With that being said, there is going to be a cycle (maybe a small cycle but a cycle) and there is going to be a diatom bloom.

To throw fish in a tank with recently unboxed rock without waiting for a couple of weeks is foolish and potentially a waste of money. With the expenses involved in this hobby I do not understand why people refuse to wait a couple of weeks and let the parameters on their tanks stabilize.

[FrontMan]

Real Reef Rocks claims that there product is fully cured and free of hitchhikers and pests and you can drop it into a tank and have no cycle what so ever. With that being said, there is going to be a cycle (maybe a small cycle but a cycle) and there is going to be a diatom bloom.

To throw fish in a tank with recently unboxed rock without waiting for a couple of weeks is foolish and potentially a waste of money. With the expenses involved in this hobby I do not understand why people refuse to wait a couple of weeks and let the parameters on their tanks stabilize.

It's not foolish at all to start SLOWLY stocking this tank. You are just regurgitating stuff that someone else has regurgitated that someone else has regurgitated. There isn't any fact or science behind it.

 

What exactly is going to die off from the OP's rock in such sufficient quantities that is going to cause a rise in amonia levels that are so severe that the bacteria that is already present in the rock is not going to be able to process that into nitrates?

 

EDIT: to be clear, since it appears that no one on this forum quarantines their livestock, that I am advocating that OP can start stocking his tank AFTER QUARANTINING and/or medicating the livestock that goes in. Typically that's assumed, but evidently that's not the case here.

[rklontz]

So you are saying that there is never going to be a cycle or a die off regardless of empirical evidence and science its all hogwash especially since you have no idea what is in/on the rock. No ammonia or nitrate spike at all and no diatom bloom ever. As for what could possibly be in the rock? Who knows the only way to tell is either by destroying it to see or maybe an xray. Which is why we cycle tanks.

As I have stated several times there is going to be a cycle it may be small it may be large the only way to know is to wait and see.

 

Now you are saying stock after quarantining which is letting the tank cycle while you are quarantining. Considering the average life cycle/stages of Ich is 24 days after it first appears. That's a 3+ week cycle and one can tell if there is a problem with the tank by then.

 

I have been in this hobby for 30 yrs and have had a lot of success and a lot of failure and am not regurgitating what others have said. The majority of my failures is either from not waiting for cycles or quarantining.

[athompson]

Everyone has their own experiences. We all learn from them. There is no definite right or wrong in our hobby. At any rate, there will be a cycle in the tank, whether it is already established and one just moves it, or if you are starting from the beginning.

[Steensj2004]

I had a rather large re-cycle after just MOVING my old 29 across the house... Huge diatom bloom and some die off from the liverock... Always cycle, why wouldn't people take heed to decades of experience. One wrong move can crucify a tank, or it could not. Why take the risk of extra problems when your alrady sure to have plenty?