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Cultivated Reef

Cycle dry rock in a bucket?


Admonition

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I just want to make sure my understanding of cycling a tank is correct, so that my plan is appropriate.

 

I am starting a new 30 gallon tank and I want to cycle my dry rock in a 5 gallon bucket. I will be cycling the rock using Dr.Tims and dosing Ace Hardware ammonia. Once the rocks are cycled then I have essentially established enough bacteria to take care of the amount of ammonia I added to the bucket during my cycling period. Therefore I could then place the rocks in my new tank and the tank should be able to handle the addition of fish and corals so long as my bio load doesn't drastically increase ammonia past what I 'bucket cycled' the rocks in, just like if I had done it in the tank to begin with. And I'll just slowly add fish (with their fishy poop) to increase the bacteria colonies' consumption capabilities like normal.

 

Is this correct?

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Cycling dry rock in a bucket is fine. A 5 gallon bucket will not be enough volume to hold enough rock for a normal 30 gallon tank aquascape.

 

I would still recommend that after you cook the rocks in the bucket, that after you put it in the tank make sure that it can clear out 3ppm of ammonia to 0 ammonia 0 nitrites in 24 hours before adding anything except perhaps a light clean up crew. It will take just a little longer than just adding the rocks to the tank and instantly adding coral and fish. The reason is that the bacteria will not only grow on the rock, but also on the bucket walls, so when you move the rock to the tank, you will loose some of your bacterial colony. You may need a few days or weeks to make up for that.

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The volume with equipment and rock would be more like 20-25 gallons. I actually already have the tank running for a year and the live rocks in it will fit in a 5 gallon bucket. But I was indeed wondering if my minimal scape for this reboot was enough or not.

 

And thanks, I was thinking about the bacteria loss/left behind in the bucket. I'll definitely test the rate of ammonia absorbtion prior to reintroducing livestock

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