Question about fishless cycling

[Robbie_Maxwell]

Hi i was just wondering if it would be possible to carry out the usual method of fishless cycling using dr tims ammonium chloride but dose more ammonia once the cycle is finished to get the bacteria population capable of handling a higher bioload from the start?  I say this because the only fish shop that sells marine fish is 3 hours away and only ship fish from march to august due to weather which means i missed the deadline🙄. I would prefer to get two ocellaris clownfish  at the same time rather than make two trips. The clowns will be the only fish in the tank which is a 15 gallon cube that i have just finished building. 

[FISHnChix]

If your tank is cycled then your tank will handle the 2 clowns. Before fish less cycling some even used clowns during a cycle.  They are super hardy. But if you are worried feed lightly at first.  Check levels frequently and keep some prime on hand just in case

[patback]

Could you explain your time line of when which items would be going in the tank?  It sounds like you already have dr Tim's and are wanting to get multiple fish??

 

What size tank, how much rock equipment?  Pics of the rock could help too.  

 

USUALLY multiple fish aren't a problem if it's a decent sized tank and the fish are small. 

[Robbie_Maxwell]

The tank is 15 gallons and I haven’t started the cycle yet. This was just a thought. I have 10 pounds of dry rock and i have another 10 pounds of live rock being shipped to me which will be my biological filtration. I have a 150 gph hang on back filter for mechanical and chemical filtration. I have a 300gph powerhead for additional flow. I only plan on keeping the two clowns as the only fish in the tank with a cuc and maybe a cleaner shrimp. I eventually plan on adding corals once my parameters are stable. Does this sound okay?  The salt ill be using is red sea salt and i have api reef master and saltwater test kits( i recently found out that these aren’t good so ill be replacing with the red sea kit when i can) Sorry if thats a bit long winded. 

[paneubert]

I think what you are proposing is actually pretty much what you are supposed to be doing anyway. You dose ammonia and then when it all cycles down to zero ammonia and zero nitrite, dose ammonia once more to confirm that it clears again in about 24 hours.  Is that what you are proposing?

[patback]

I like to keep it simple... if you get the live rock and depending on your readings after, I wouldnt add anything and would just let it cycle.  

I just last night added 3 clowns to my rsr170 with 20 lbs of dry rock and 10ish lbs of live rock from my existing tank.  Tank has been up for a week or two at most.  I suppose dr Tim's could only help, but if you have die off from the shipping process, I wouldn't add any more bacteria. 

[Clown79]

10lbs of dry Rock and 10lbs live rock is a lot for a 15g. Really 12-15lbs is enough.

 

 

With liverock you don't need to dose ammonia at all for cycling, it can kill beneficial life on it, defeats the purpose of using live rock.

 

You dose ammonia for dry rock only cycling and when you dose high amounts of ammonia, it takes longer to process.

You want 2ppm of ammonia to process in 24hrs.

 

Once the tank is cycled you can add 2 small clowns at once but I would wait a while to add any more livestock besides a few snails to give the tank time because nothing good happens fast in this hobby.

[Robbie_Maxwell]

Thanks guys. I probably just thought about it too much. Is it not 1-2 pounds of per gallon?  Ill just use 5 pounds of dry and 10 pounds of live instead? Thanks again. 

[seabass]

It's basically been said, but just to clarify, don't dose ammonia into a tank with live rock.

 

Ideally, when using a mixture of live an dry rock, you'd establish a biofilter on the dry rock first (so that it can process ammonia).  Then you'd add the live rock and let that cycle.  This way you are preserving the most life on the live rock as possible.

 

Some dry rock has a lot of dead organics on it (even after trying to clean it).  This can cause ammonia spikes.  Also, some dry rock will leach phosphate for quite some time.  This can result in algae problems from the start.  Depending on the rock, you might want to cure your dry rock separately.

[Robbie_Maxwell]

thanks.i will get a bucket and cure the dry rock separe and put the live rock in the main display when it arrives.