Cycling a coldwater pico reef tank

[NanoTank1]

Any thoughts on the best way to do this? I hear it takes ages....

[Dr.Brain Coral]

Ask stu if he can send you sand and rock. When I was planning my tank I had planned to use bio balls in one of the back chambers but Stu recommended Brightwell xport bio or something. If he can send you thise you wont need to have a long cycle. Thats what Tamb did.

[NanoTank1]

Good point. I'll reach out to Stu on this.

 

 

Ask stu if he can send you sand and rock. When I was planning my tank I had planned to use bio balls in one of the back chambers but Stu recommended Brightwell xport bio or something. If he can send you thise you wont need to have a long cycle. Thats what Tamb did.

[BulkRate]

Ordinarily I would say simply wait it out... but to jump start a temperate pico (and save you a few months) it'd be well worth it.

 

It's not like you'll need a lot of either rock or sand.

[brandon429]

What about reversing it up

 

 

Cycle in a normal tank quick, full, then move to cold zone what dies off dies off, what stays was the six months worked up to doing all cold cycling with lower bacterial metabolism

 

I'd be more concerned about loss of benthic communities developed in warmer conditions (tons of tubeworms, pods, sponges, bryozoans hydroids worms etc)

 

But some good live rock cured up in a tank destined for the cold reef and them moved to a cold water isn't destined to be an ammonia pump, it brings some bacteria that will adapt and maintain the lower metabolism associated with cold living, just select low benthic rock

 

Minor temp and salinity differences are not the most powerful antibacterial actions I think a reverse up could work.

[AquaticEngineer]

Small clean up crew and a bag of rock and sand would be super cheap if you wanna get it going

 

The rock I sent to Tamb had a few anemones on it as well that seem to be doing well.

[NanoTank1]

Going to go with Stu on helping to jump-start the cycle. It makes sense to 'borrow' from an established environment.

[Tamberav]

Get it jump started with rock/sand! The cycle will probably take only a few weeks then to stabilize. I had some nem's so I soft cycled and they are doing great!

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

If you are local to the Pacific Ocean you are in luck.

 

Fish and Game have no issues or concerns about you collecting sea shells or live sand off our California Coast.

 

The live sand has a plethora of beneficial bacteria that will jump start your system.

 

If you can collect seashells be sure they are patrially sbmerged in the moving tide.

 

They will also harborthe bacteria for your system.

 

I have personally scoupped up live sand and brought home a few small pieces of washed up small rocks and shells from the shore.

 

Then I went home and placed them into our 2 gallon cold water system. Fired up my chiller and placed my order at Cold Water Marine Aquatics.

 

When my critters arrived places them inside my system and it was instant reefing.

 

None of my critters died and i never had to worry about checking water for ammonia levels or nitrite.

 

My system ran for two years without incident?

 

Hope this helps you out.