Tank Cycled?

[Travisgause]

So my tank has been going for two weeks now. I saw no changes in my parameters for the first 5 days or so, so I placed some fish flakes in the tank to get the amonia to climb. A little background on the tank. Its a Fluval Spec V. I started with 13 pounds of live rock from two different tanks (friends tanks). The live rock was teaming with feather dusters, coralline algea a piece of Ricordia Yuma and various other things. I hauled the live rock home in a 5g bucket submerged in water from the tank. Live sand from Caribsea. I do have a very small colony of brown algae in the corner of my tank. I have two Pepermint shrimp that hitchicked with the live rock. That's it for LS. Here are my parameters as of this morning.

 

[righttirefire]

Looks good to me. No ammonia or nitrites. Go slow still. They're might be enough bacteria to handle the little load you have. But as the load increased the bacteria need to catch up.

 

Looks like a nice start. What are your stocking plans? I've heard of people "overfeeding" before adding livestock to help boost bacteria

[Travisgause]

Stocking plans are soft corals, probably a single blenny.

I feed fish food until I got the amonia spike then I stopped

[Mariaface]

You want to keep the source of ammonia going stably, so that the bacteria doesn't starve. Go ahead and keep feeding at the same slow rate, since that'll emulate a 'bioload'.

[Travisgause]

Okay will do, thanks again

[Beer]

Will also help keep everything fed that's in there now.

[Travisgause]

Continuing on the feeding schedule, a pinch a day until I find a fish to live in my tank.

[mrbigshot]

the rock was in established tanks with a bioload and you kept it submerged. you can add fish now, it doesn't take long for the bacteria to stabilize. one fish will be fine for now. a month later add another if need be.

the algae is probably diatoms, they show up every time you start a tank. they feed off silicates. this is why you normally see them more on a brand new tank vs a previously run tank. they get nasty for at most 2 weeks and they disappear. usually followed by a green algae. just get a few members of your clean up crew to clean it up. 1 snail per 5g one helmet per 10g usually is what a tank will sustain without them dying off. blue leg hermits are much meaner than the red leg hermits. they both kill snails for there shells, in my experience the blues do it for sport to.

if you can get a trochus snail get one, they kick ass. i cant get them around here so i use large ceriths and a couple of turbo snails.

[Travisgause]

the rock was in established tanks with a bioload and you kept it submerged. you can add fish now, it doesn't take long for the bacteria to stabilize. one fish will be fine for now. a month later add another if need be.

the algae is probably diatoms, they show up every time you start a tank. they feed off silicates. this is why you normally see them more on a brand new tank vs a previously run tank. they get nasty for at most 2 weeks and they disappear. usually followed by a green algae. just get a few members of your clean up crew to clean it up. 1 snail per 5g one helmet per 10g usually is what a tank will sustain without them dying off. blue leg hermits are much meaner than the red leg hermits. they both kill snails for there shells, in my experience the blues do it for sport to.

if you can get a trochus snail get one, they kick ass. i cant get them around here so i use large ceriths and a couple of turbo snails.

Shit, I bought 3 blue leg hermits and 3 Cerith snails.....to much?

[mrbigshot]

not at first. eventually it may be. it will depend on how immaculate you keep the tank

[brandon429]

consider that if you didn't feed this live rock for a year but kept it in a tank, the bacteria would increase in and on the rock, not decrease as suspected, until events that could take years to process finalized. Totally opposite of what one might assume about nitrifying bacteria...

can anybody guess why (specific to this kind of rock)



This idea isn't critical to the start of your tank as youve already started reefing with it, but for microbiology accuracy in general it's a fun thought to pick apart. Due to specifically where it came from and what rode in on the rock, you actually do not have to feed the bacteria whatsoever and bac populations will increase as a months or years-long bell curve-- what is the biology driving that statement? one impact to your tank is the fact that you don't have to support your bacteria in anyway with any action, so how you begin reefing with this live rock won't lessen your bacteria in anyway, in fact early mistakes will drive them up not down.

Increased cycling control and tank prediction accuracy is a benefit of reviewing the statement for your new tank

[brandon429]

ok the wait was getting me lol

 

the answer was dieoff and respiration / digestion, we too make ammonia due to it and so do other respirers in our tanks too small to easily see. all cured live rock has respiring, and photosynthetic organisms mixed together. the portion that respires make nitrifier fuel without dying, so again live rock will perpetuate its bacteria with or without our intervention, thank goodness for all life on the planet.

 

The bacteria get fed without our intervention from many angles, another is random aerobic bacteria we contaminate, and the world contaminates, into our tank.

 

Terrestrial bacteria like those in your garden/under/on fingernails etc do not die instantly when you submerge them, even in saltwater. Since its not their adapted niche they sure might in time, but many will actually feed on, attach to, and compete with scums and other tank inclusions until they do die. when they rot, they make ammonia trace, on and on.

 

Skin cells waft into the tank and break down into constituents, amino acids eventually, and deamination yields:

ammonia

 

 

its amazing how many ways bac get fed naturally, we just like to speed it up and beef it up without our assistance.

[gulfsurfer101]

What cycle? You used fully established rock! Your tank was cycled day one! That's the only way I set a tank up. I transferred all my sps frags and anemone to my 20l the first day I set it up because that's how I f*#### roll homeboy!

[brandon429]

I too am a full on cheater of time. if I had a reef tat, it would say instant grat and loving it.

[Travisgause]

Sorry I neglected this post. Lots of info from you guys, thanks. The tank is doing awesome! I have so much to learn.