Fishless Cycle w/Live Sand & Microbacter7

[FM's Round 2 Reef]

I've got a new 15g tank up and running for a little over a week now. Currently in the tank is around an inch of CaribSea Special Grade Arag-Alive sand and around 10 lb of BRS dry rock. My goal was to get everything situated and work through kinks in the setup to get comfortable with the flow, add a powerhead (and adjust flow settings), let the ATO run for a few weeks to get an idea of evaporation and refilling, etc. Everything is running great and no issues yet.

 

I've begun using Microbacter7, following their directions for "seeding new aquaria" which involves daily dosing of a small quantity of the product (around 3ml in my case) for two weeks. My only question is whether or not the organics that come in the live sand (and the liquid in the bag) are enough to cover the needed ammonia levels to cycle properly or if an additional ammonia source (ammonium chloride or degradable food source) should be added to compensate? 

 

I'm trying to avoid the risk of stressing live stock as much as possible, so I don't plan to add fish for around a month or so depending on testing results in the coming weeks.  Lights will remain off until cycled fully to avoid adding more variables that may cause algae blooms prior to (somewhat) stable parameters.

 

Salinity is low (1.022) and temperature is high (83) to give a small boost for nitrifying bacteria early on and once it's fully cycled I'll slowly (over 3-4 days) increase salinity and drop temp slightly until it reaches the desired levels and then perform a 50% water change and test after a week to make sure all is well before adding any corals or other livestock.

 

I've owned a 20g mixed-reef in the past (around 2 years in total) but I did everything wrong the first time and I've been out of the hobby for quite some time now.  That old tank got cycled with live rock and a raw shrimp so as you might imagine, I over-did it pretty much across the board (too much rock, too little flow, too much shrimp, too much light, too little knowledge) and want to fix those mistakes this time around to kick things off slowly and precisely. Any and all advice is welcome.

[Clown79]

You are dosing bacteria but there has been no ammonia source added.

 

With dry rock an ammonia source needs to be added or it will take a much longer time to cycle the tank. 

 

Ammonia dosing is the cleanest way to cycle a dry rock tank.

 

It takes 4- 6 weeks average for dry rock cycling, you are unlikely to be done in a week. 2ppm of ammonia needs to be able to process in 24hrs. 

 

Waterchange should be done once ammonia is 0 and nitrite is 0.

[seabass]

2 hours ago, FM's Round 2 Reef said:

My only question is whether or not the organics that come in the live sand (and the liquid in the bag) are enough to cover the needed ammonia levels to cycle properly or if an additional ammonia source (ammonium chloride or degradable food source) should be added to compensate? 

The liquid with the live sand contains nitrifying bacteria, but essentially no dead organic material.  This bacteria is enough to seed a tank with nitrifying bacteria (but doesn't establish a working biofilter).  Microbacter7 contains additional microbes and enzymes which might be helpful.

 

Like Clown79 stated, letting dead organics rot in your tank isn't the ideal method to build up your tank's biofilter.  I would:

• Dose ammonium chloride to 2ppm
• Wait for it the ammonia level to drop to 0.25ppm
• Repeat until your tank can process 2ppm of ammonia down to 0.25 ppm within one day

With the live sand and bottled bacteria, it's hard to say just how long this might take.  There's really no schedule.  However, it sounds like you plan to be patient.

 

Good luck this time around.

[FM's Round 2 Reef]

4 hours ago, Clown79 said:

You are dosing bacteria but there has been no ammonia source added.

 

With dry rock an ammonia source needs to be added or it will take a much longer time to cycle the tank. 

 

Ammonia dosing is the cleanest way to cycle a dry rock tank.

 

It takes 4- 6 weeks average for dry rock cycling, you are unlikely to be done in a week. 2ppm of ammonia needs to be able to process in 24hrs. 

 

Waterchange should be done once ammonia is 0 and nitrite is 0.

I had no intention of this being done in a week...I've always planned for this to be a month+ process. Your first sentence answers my question, though. Live sand = no die-off = no ammonia. nitrifying bacteria incorporated into the sand is the benefit in this case, but needs additional ammonia source. I'll get on it!

[FM's Round 2 Reef]

2 hours ago, seabass said:

The liquid with the live sand contains nitrifying bacteria, but essentially no dead organic material.  This bacteria is enough to seed a tank with nitrifying bacteria (but doesn't establish a working biofilter).  Microbacter7 contains additional microbes and enzymes which might be helpful.

 

Like Clown79 stated, letting dead organics rot in your tank isn't the ideal method to build up your tank's biofilter.  I would:

• Dose ammonium chloride to 2ppm
• Wait for it the ammonia level to drop to 0.25ppm
• Repeat until your tank can process 2ppm of ammonia down to 0.25 ppm within one day

With the live sand and bottled bacteria, it's hard to say just how long this might take.  There's really no schedule.  However, it sounds like you plan to be patient.

 

Good luck this time around.

I appreciate the clarification and the process!  The piece that I've been missing is that there isn't any dead organic material in the live sand to speak of. I guess I always assumed that there would be some amount that it would contribute.

[FM's Round 2 Reef]

On 5/27/2021 at 2:10 AM, seabass said:

The liquid with the live sand contains nitrifying bacteria, but essentially no dead organic material.  This bacteria is enough to seed a tank with nitrifying bacteria (but doesn't establish a working biofilter).  Microbacter7 contains additional microbes and enzymes which might be helpful.

 

Like Clown79 stated, letting dead organics rot in your tank isn't the ideal method to build up your tank's biofilter.  I would:

• Dose ammonium chloride to 2ppm
• Wait for it the ammonia level to drop to 0.25ppm
• Repeat until your tank can process 2ppm of ammonia down to 0.25 ppm within one day

With the live sand and bottled bacteria, it's hard to say just how long this might take.  There's really no schedule.  However, it sounds like you plan to be patient.

 

Good luck this time around.

First round complete. Dosed to 2ppm on Saturday. Was below .25ppm after about 2.5 days.  Went and dosed a second round back to 2ppm this morning. Coincidentally, tomorrow of the last day of the prescribed Microbacter7 dosing to kick things off so we'll see how it goes. If it can process fully by tomorrow morning, I'll continue to check to make sure ammonia and nitrite are zero through the end of the week and then do a water change and hopefully grab a fish after another week or so to make sure things are stable. Thanks again for the advice! Need to get some inhabitants in this thing so I can stare at it more...