10 gl Nano and cycle

[ekudl]

Hello All, I have a question about maintaing a 10 Gl nano for filtration. It has just completed cycling after 2.5 weeks. It was started with 3 inches of dead sand and 20 lbs of dead rock. Although I did seed the sand with a cup of Live Sand and a piece of LR from an established tank. I also have a Penquin 170 Biowheel started from the beginning as well.

 

My question is:

 

Does anyone think that now that my tank is cycled, (0 Ammonia,

0 Nitrites) I could simply turn off the Penquin Biowheel filter and rely solely on just the 20 Lbs of Rock in the tank ? Would the 20 lbs of rock that has been in the tank from the beginning be "Live" enough to maintain the cycle?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[tinyreef]

you might want to do it in stages. i.e. remove the bio-wheel first, wait a week, remove the filter cartridge, wait a week, and then remove the hob completely. altho i would just remove the bio-wheel and stop there.

 

the staged removal allows your LR/LS to adjust to the addt'l load that won't be processed by the bio-wheel and etc. as you remove it. take out the whole hob at once and you might have a mini-cycle. altho that's not a biggie if there's nothing in there now.

 

2.5 weeks is a little quick for me but then again i've developed 'forgetful patience'. i just let it sit and let my bad memory catchup with me later. the more time you spend now usually pays off later at least two-fold in time and grief. hth