LFS suggestion for cycling seems suspect

[Surfingolas]

I am a newbie to the whole reefing hobby. When I was a kid I had a cichlid tank but I always wanted a saltwater tank. I finally decided to take the plunge and I just want to start off right. I live in the city and don't have a lot of space so I went for the biocube 29. I also wanted to do a fishless cycle with dry rock because I am afraid of hitchhikers and other stuff that comes with live rock and I don't want to be cruel and just throw a fish in there to weather ammonia and nitrite spikes. I was either just going to feed the tank fish food empty and monitor the parameters or use a product like dr tim's to kick it off. The guy at the LFS said I could "instantly cycle" my tank by buying a bag of established ceramic fluval rings for 10 bucks from their tank and throwing them in my sump using them as part of my filtration. I could then pretty much immediately put in a fish which would provide the necessary ammonia. I asked if there would be any spikes in my water parameters and he said absolutely not as the necessary bacteria would already be established on the ceramic rings. I looked all over a bunch of forums to see if this was a thing but couldn't find anything. From what I can tell, every tank will have to cycle and there isn't a way around it so this guys advice seemed a little bit too good to be true. I know people use fish to cycle their tank but it normally puts the fish under a lot of stress which I would like to avoid. Any help would be greatly appreciated

[BlueFenris]

The ceramic rings would be a good way to seed the tank with more of the bacteria you're looking for, and will help speed up the cycle, but by no means will it instantly cycle the tank.

[BulkRate]

Long-term the ring media's not the best stuff as it mainly supports the nitriying bacterial populations. But yes, unlike most stores' "I'm just getting started with my first salt tank" initial product recommendations their offer's not complete and utter hooey. Mostly - I'm not a fan of any claim to "instantly cycle" a tank - you'll still want to stock up slowly (like a single fish every 2-5 weeks/clean-up crew as the biofilter's constantly adjusting to any livestock additions or subtractions. Don't truck home on the first day with 4-5 fish, a few frags, some snails/shrimp and a sack of ceramic rings expecting it to end well.

 

Better with that tank would be a mesh back of Matrix or some other biomedia that you've had seeded for 2-3 weeks (you can probably get the stuff at that very store and use their system to do it). Or you can do the process yourself in your new tank with a bottle of Dr Timm's One-and-Only, a Seachem AmmoniaAlert badge and a dropper bottle of PURE janitorial ammonia to handle dosing. Dose until the badge reads Alarm or just shades into Toxic & keep it there with daily supplemental ammonia for a week or two. Biofilter is established when you can dose it into Toxic territory and have it read Safe within the day. No guesswork needed.

 

I wouldn't bother wish ghost feeding - that just sets the stage for algae issues. Save that for when you've got a basic biofilter already trucking along, and something in the tank that's going to be doing what all things do when fed.

 

Bonus with either approach is that you can use base dry "dead" rock which in general is MUCH easier to scape & sculpt outside your tank, and start w/o hitchhikers (good or bad).

[Surfingolas]

Thanks for the tip. to be clear he only suggested I buy 1 or two fish to start the tank. My fear was that I go there and buy two clowns or something and then they instantly die or make it a day or two. Ultimately I was planning to run my in tank media basket with purigen and some other filter media. The ceramic rings were just to get the tank going. While it would be nice to get fish swimming right away, I don't want to rush things. he Was pretty adamant that this was the best way to go. Nice to know he wasnt just giving me false info even though there may be better options

[Tamberav]

I am a newbie to the whole reefing hobby. When I was a kid I had a cichlid tank but I always wanted a saltwater tank. I finally decided to take the plunge and I just want to start off right. I live in the city and don't have a lot of space so I went for the biocube 29. I also wanted to do a fishless cycle with dry rock because I am afraid of hitchhikers and other stuff that comes with live rock and I don't want to be cruel and just throw a fish in there to weather ammonia and nitrite spikes. I was either just going to feed the tank fish food empty and monitor the parameters or use a product like dr tim's to kick it off. The guy at the LFS said I could "instantly cycle" my tank by buying a bag of established ceramic fluval rings for 10 bucks from their tank and throwing them in my sump using them as part of my filtration. I could then pretty much immediately put in a fish which would provide the necessary ammonia. I asked if there would be any spikes in my water parameters and he said absolutely not as the necessary bacteria would already be established on the ceramic rings. I looked all over a bunch of forums to see if this was a thing but couldn't find anything. From what I can tell, every tank will have to cycle and there isn't a way around it so this guys advice seemed a little bit too good to be true. I know people use fish to cycle their tank but it normally puts the fish under a lot of stress which I would like to avoid. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

I would not use them, I would not want to pick up ich or any sort of parasite or even something like bubble algae spores. It may speed up cycle but you can just buy bottled bacteria like Microbacter for that without worry of what that LFS has in his tank. You still need to cycle but microbacter helps get it going.

[squamptonbc]

I wouldn't do it for saltwater, and I would not trust anything from a pet store in my display tank including filter media without quarantine first. I'd rather go slow and steady with saltwater and just let the process take the time it needs, speeding things up isn't the best way in my view to start.

 

I've done that method with freshwater, but the media was all from my existing tank and that was due to an emergency and I still had some minor ammonia spikes.

[pappadumplingz]

Ceramic rings don't have any low oxygen areas for nitrate consuming anaerobic bacteria, so in the long run, they become nitrate factories. I'd just buy some Marine Pure ceramic media, which has the ability to house anaerobic bacteria, and use the bacteria in the bottle to "seed" it and the tank/

[cruiZe]

if you got really good live rock and transferred it to your tank without die off, there is no ammonia spike and you're ready for some livestock. I wouldn't count on that with a few little pieces of ceramic. If you want all dry rock it's a much slower process. I did some LR and mostly dry - but likely you'll get aiptasia. (and you could get them from the ceramic too)

[zsxking]

I honestly think that's one if the best way to kick start a brand new tank. Seeded ceramic ring would contain all the beneficial bacteria that you will get when done cycling. No anaerobic bacteria? You don't get those when you just done cycle your tank in the normal slow way either. The really better way is live rock from running tank. If you don't want ceramic ring, just regularly take them out after couple months. In my opinion though, they are perfectly fine bio media. It just normally isn't needed because it's redundant with live rock. That doesn't mean they are bad.

 

When I start a new tank, that's basically how I would seed it from my old tank.

 

When I started my very first saltwater tank, I even asked my LFS for some of their filter media but they refused to sell me any.

 

With that filtration for one or two fish? That's more than enough. There are many live bacteria product out there to speed up cycling by seeding it with bacteria. It is a proven way to start a tank. What your LFS offered is just a better version of any of those products.

 

In regards to if you trust the quality of his stuff, it's all about your experience and observation with them. No one on the internet can tell you that answer.

[Ricety22]

Buy bio spira and add pure ammonia, cycled my tank in 2 days