New tank cycle

[Guest]

Day 4, with bacteria, first test

 

PH: 8.2

 

Ammonia: beetween 0 and 0.25 ppm

 

Nitrite: 0 ppm

 

Nitrate: beetween 0 and 1 ppm

 

My question is if I should continue with adding bacteria until the seven day mark when it says to stop? I have not added rock yet, just sand lights, a biological filter, and a small mechanical filter, I will be adding 15-20 lbs of dry rock around a week from now and then plan to add my first fish/macro algae/coral ( haven’t decided which to do first ) around a week after adding the rock, is this all a good timeline?

[Tired]

You should really get your rock in. Your main biological filter for a reef tank is, after all, the rock. You need to get that stuff cycled before you can even think about adding anything, and you should not expect to go from dry rock to stocking in a week. Macroalgae is fine to add at any point, though, because it can tolerate some ammonia. Get the rock in, and then wait until the tank can process 2ppm of ammonia in 24 hours or less. 

 

What size is the tank, and what do you mean when you say you added a biological filter? Like a sponge filter? You'll very likely need more flow than your filters provide, so you should probably get a strong pump- corals need lots of circulation.

 

Do you have any access to live rock, maybe from an online source? It'll get your tank to a mature state much, much faster than dry rock can, and comes with some fun hitchhikers. Dry rock and bottled bacteria can work to cycle a tank, but without the ocean live rock to add all your beneficial detritivores and an assortment of non-pest algae, it takes a long time for the tank to properly mature. As in, it can take years, since you're trying to build live rock from dry rock without access to an ocean. All your beneficial organisms have to come in on frags and macros when you use dry rock. 

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, Tired said:

You should really get your rock in. Your main biological filter for a reef tank is, after all, the rock. You need to get that stuff cycled before you can even think about adding anything, and you should not expect to go from dry rock to stocking in a week. Macroalgae is fine to add at any point, though, because it can tolerate some ammonia. Get the rock in, and then wait until the tank can process 2ppm of ammonia in 24 hours or less. 

 

What size is the tank, and what do you mean when you say you added a biological filter? Like a sponge filter? You'll very likely need more flow than your filters provide, so you should probably get a strong pump- corals need lots of circulation.

 

Do you have any access to live rock, maybe from an online source? It'll get your tank to a mature state much, much faster than dry rock can, and comes with some fun hitchhikers. Dry rock and bottled bacteria can work to cycle a tank, but without the ocean live rock to add all your beneficial detritivores and an assortment of non-pest algae, it takes a long time for the tank to properly mature. As in, it can take years, since you're trying to build live rock from dry rock without access to an ocean. All your beneficial organisms have to come in on frags and macros when you use dry rock. 

I am planning a trip to my lfs in a little bit to pick up the rock, and so they also have live rock, but it is extremely expensive, so would adding a couple of live rocks and then do I g the rest dry have any Benifit?

I have a 20 gallon, and by beneficial filter I just mean some fine filter padding, a couple bio balls, and some of that ceramic filter material. For pumps I have a 10 gallon and a 20 gallon aqueon hob filter, I also have access to quite a few other filters and pumps if more flow is needed, I have anywhere from 80 to 800 gallon per hour pumps available to me, here is a picture of what the flow looks like from the top currently:

[Tired]

It depends on what they're selling as live rock. If it's ocean rock, with a lot of algae and little creatures on it, you should absolutely get a piece or two. That's much better than just dry rock. If they're calling it live rock, but it's just rock that's been sitting in aquarium water, it's not worth it. 

 

Take the bioballs out, a lot of people have problems with them. You don't need biological filtration in the filter unless you have very, very little rock in the tank. 

 

I can't tell if that's enough flow from a top view. You need to have steady, strong circulation around the entire tank, so that there are no dead spots without water flow. The only way to see whether or not you have dead spots is to add your rock and watch how the water flows. Corals rely entirely on water flow to bring them food and oxygen, which is why it's so important- think of water flow as being the corals' lungs. 

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, Tired said:

It depends on what they're selling as live rock. If it's ocean rock, with a lot of algae and little creatures on it, you should absolutely get a piece or two. That's much better than just dry rock. If they're calling it live rock, but it's just rock that's been sitting in aquarium water, it's not worth it. 

 

Take the bioballs out, a lot of people have problems with them. You don't need biological filtration in the filter unless you have very, very little rock in the tank. 

 

I can't tell if that's enough flow from a top view. You need to have steady, strong circulation around the entire tank, so that there are no dead spots without water flow. The only way to see whether or not you have dead spots is to add your rock and watch how the water flows. Corals rely entirely on water flow to bring them food and oxygen, which is why it's so important- think of water flow as being the corals' lungs. 

I decided to try to see if there was enough flow by putting an artifical silk plant in the water, and saw where it had movement, in the end there were a few spots where it was not moving much so I grabbed the little 80 gph pump, and put it in the main side of the tank that wasn’t getting enough water movement, it has helped a lot. 🙂

 

took the bio balls out as instructed, now my pond has more!

 

as for the live rock, the store has a large tank full of it, and they have normal filtration lighting and powerheads in the tank, the tank also has a large eel and a couple of other decent sized fish, so basically it is a display tank but with lots more rock than normal. Does that sound good and worth it?

[Tired]

Well, that could be dry rock that's just been in the tank for awhile, or it could be ocean rock. You should take a close look at it when you're in the store, and ask if they got it from someone who took it from the ocean. If it's covered in lots of algae and little creatures, like fan worms, sponges, and seaweed, that's good stuff and you should get some. Is it something like $8-$12 a pound? Because that's not uncommon pricing for live rock at a LFS. And if it's good ocean rock, it's worth that, at least for a couple pounds. 

 

 

That's some good ocean rock. A mix of colors of algae, and growing things that stick up off the rock. That big lump turned out to be a clam!

 

You can see more good stuff in the background. I got this from my LFS. It's pre-cycled ocean live rock, which means they kept it in a tub backstage until anything dead on it was done decaying, then put it out for sale with a normal light and pump. It's covered in good stuff, including several species of helpful detritivore worm, at least two chiton species, some limpets, and a great variety of other stuff. I found a tunicate (sea squirt) on one rock. 

[Guest]

55 minutes ago, Tired said:

Well, that could be dry rock that's just been in the tank for awhile, or it could be ocean rock. You should take a close look at it when you're in the store, and ask if they got it from someone who took it from the ocean. If it's covered in lots of algae and little creatures, like fan worms, sponges, and seaweed, that's good stuff and you should get some. Is it something like $8-$12 a pound? Because that's not uncommon pricing for live rock at a LFS. And if it's good ocean rock, it's worth that, at least for a couple pounds. 

 

 

That's some good ocean rock. A mix of colors of algae, and growing things that stick up off the rock. That big lump turned out to be a clam!

 

You can see more good stuff in the background. I got this from my LFS. It's pre-cycled ocean live rock, which means they kept it in a tub backstage until anything dead on it was done decaying, then put it out for sale with a normal light and pump. It's covered in good stuff, including several species of helpful detritivore worm, at least two chiton species, some limpets, and a great variety of other stuff. I found a tunicate (sea squirt) on one rock. 

I will make sure to take a close look at it! It is 8 or 10 a pound so I would expect it to be good rock, thanks for all the advice and I can’t wait to get the rock in, and then, well, the real wait begins

[mcarroll]

On 8/3/2020 at 1:15 PM, FreshwaterFishMan said:

extremely expensive

 

On 8/3/2020 at 2:45 PM, FreshwaterFishMan said:

It is 8 or 10 a pound so I would expect it to be good rock

Live rock only seems expensive, and costs almost nothing in the long run...saying nothing about all the dividends that it pays along the way into the future. 😉  Most of the problem is comparing it with dead rock.   That's not an apples to apples comparison, so just don't make it.  👍

 

As long as the stuff at the LFS isn't fake rock where they've just seeded dead rock with nitrifying bacteria, and it's really rock from the ocean, then it should easily be worth it.

 

(That's what I paid for my rock way back when, for what it's worth.)

 

Remember that you should need at most about a pound per gallon....you might get away with less.

 

The tank with the rock should "look" only about 1/3 full or so....leaving plenty of room for coral growout, fish swimming room, etc.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, mcarroll said:

 

Live rock only seems expensive, and costs almost nothing in the long run...saying nothing about all the dividends that it pays along the way into the future. 😉  Most of the problem is comparing it with dead rock.   That's not an apples to apples comparison, so just don't make it.  👍

 

As long as the stuff at the LFS isn't fake rock where they've just seeded dead rock with nitrifying bacteria, and it's really rock from the ocean, then it should easily be worth it.

 

(That's what I paid for my rock way back when, for what it's worth.)

 

Remember that you should need at most about a pound per gallon....you might get away with less.

 

The tank with the rock should "look" only about 1/3 full or so....leaving plenty of room for coral growout, fish swimming room, etc.

thanks! I got rock around a week or so ago, and after asking about the live rock, turns out it is just dry rock that was stuffed in a tank for a year or so, it still had some nice coraline algae on it, so I went with one medeum sized peice for each "island " in my scape, and did the rest out of dry 🙂 after live and dry rock combined it was about 16 ponds of rock, and for me it is well enough! thanks for the advice though 🙂

[mcarroll]

It was probably still pretty good if it had been in there long enough for some coralline to get established.  Good luck!!