I have some time - how to get early start on the cycle?

[saltyfishwater]

I have a few months before my tank (and the room it's going to be in) is ready.  What things can I do right now to get my cycle started early?  Some things I have acquired already:

• Someone else's chaeto from a mature tank
• Salt mix
• A 5 gallon tank

 

I was thinking I can start a 5 gallon saltwater tank and just let it run for a few months before my real tank is ready.  I can run the tank with the chaeto and feed fish food into it.  Eventually, the 5 gallon should cycle right?  I can use the chaeto as the bacteria media, as well as any bioball I put in the filter area?

I started a separate thread about cleaning the chaeto so I don't bring any pests into my new tank.  I'm guessing any cleaning procedure would also kill any beneficial bacteria that's living on the chaeto?

This is my 5 gallon:

[mcarroll]

You don't generally start a reef with cheato....macro algae "filtration" is something that some mature reefs run to help with excessive dissolved nutrients.  

 

Excessive nutrients is not a problem that new tanks have tho.  So no need for cheato.  In fact growing chaeto alongside a new reef can make a new tank very hard to balance and prone to some problems.

 

If you want to grow it anyway (eg you like to grow plants) then you can, but it will need specific care to grow and thrive – you can't deploy it like you see other folks doing where it's for "just for filtration".  

 

Not too many people grow macro in saltwater just because they like it.  Maybe someone will chime in though.  The best I could suggest would be to mimic how planted tank people do their thing however you can....they need to feed their plants, you will too.

 

This might be the opposite of your current trajectory, but here's something to consider...

 

Adding chaeto to a new tank just to seed it with more life (everything but Aiptasia!) is a GOOD IDEA.  

 

I wouldn't plan to grow it as much as I'd plan to "sacrifice" it though...it's unlikely to survive in a new reef tank anyway.  But in addition to bringing lots of different lifeforms along with it, the macro will dissolve as it dies and will release its nutrients to the tank over time too...a benefit to any reef that's trying to establish itself.  (Chaeto die off is a frequent disappointment to folks with new tanks who try to grow chaeto for "filtration".)

[saltyfishwater]

That's interesting, I've never heard that new reef tanks and chaeto may be problematic.  I come from planted freshwater aquariums, and plants make new tank syndrome cycling easier by taking up ammonia directly and helps with ammonia spikes.  I do like the look of plants, and I'm not really that interested in corals right now.  So I thought macro algae like chaeto would be a pretty important part of nitrate uptake even in new tanks?  I figure new tanks and old tank both have nutrient uptake requirements - if you're feeding fish, you're gonna have nutrients and it either gets taken up by coral / algae or by water change?  I was just trying to do this without the fish for now since I happen to have it.  And want to do some bacteria colonizing.

 

 

[mcarroll]

11 hours ago, saltyfishwater said:

That's interesting, I've never heard that new reef tanks and chaeto may be problematic.  I come from planted freshwater aquariums, and plants make new tank syndrome cycling easier by taking up ammonia directly and helps with ammonia spikes.

Corals will fill approximately the same role as plants....their preferred nitrogen source is generally ammonia, but they are very adaptable feeders so will use almost all forms of nitrogen too (amino's, uric acid, et al).  

 

But controlling ammonia by limiting the rate of livestock additions (thus limiting the rate of feeding) is the best way to minimize that ammonia spike.  Do the work up front, not after it's already impacted the system.

 

I highly recommend checking out at least a few of the reefing books mentioned in this thread.

 

11 hours ago, saltyfishwater said:

I do like the look of plants, and I'm not really that interested in corals right now.

11 hours ago, saltyfishwater said:

I was just trying to do this without the fish for now

Meaning this is really intended as a planted saltwater tank?  Or that you're going to switch to corals later?  (Define "later"?)

 

11 hours ago, saltyfishwater said:

So I thought macro algae like chaeto would be a pretty important part of nitrate uptake even in new tanks?

Nope.  That worry is sort of traditional, but also a little outdated.  In reality, the only worry you're likely to have is keeping your system's nutrients from "hitting zero".  There's nothing wrong with "high" nutrient levels.

 

11 hours ago, saltyfishwater said:

if you're feeding fish, you're gonna have nutrients and it either gets taken up by coral / algae or by water change? 

Yes to that, BUT you're out of context now, so the question is relevancy.   You aren't stocking fish or coral at the moment for whatever reasons, so there will be no feeding of them and no nutrient inputs.

 

11 hours ago, saltyfishwater said:

I was just trying to do this without the fish for now since I happen to have it.  And want to do some bacteria colonizing.

Bacteria don't really need any help. 😉 They just need a little time for their reproductive curve (which I believe is geometric exponential) to catch up with the nutrient load.  

 

It doesn't take long!  With a small, steady ammonia source, tanks will cycle in 30-40 days with no help whatsoever.  When I started, this was the standard way to do it.  I started with real live rock and I still used this approach....and I built my livestock load very slowly.

 

Personally, in your shoes, I would probably still trash the chaeto you have (or give it away) and wait until your tank is here.  

 

Outside of the pure fascination of growing some macro algae just to grow some macroalgae – which is a cool goal to have, if you do – IMO there's nothing or very, very little to gain from "pre-starting" your reef tank now as a "chaeto tank".

 

Get a new bunch of chaeto when your actual tank is ready.  

 

As has been mentioned in prior posts, sacrificing a chunk of chaeto from a mature, healthy tank, represents an EXCELLENT start to your tank's ecosystem.  

 

In the end you want all of the life that comes with the chaeto (even the bristleoworms!) down to the microbes and bacteria.  But you don't actually want the chaeto....it will want to die anyway, so just let it.  Everything growing on it that's reef friendly will find new space to live on the rock in your tank....which is a unique substrate unlike almost all freshwater environments.  (That's infinitely more true if you start with real live rock.)

 

FYI a scoop of "well used" sand from a mature, healthy tank is an EXCELLENT alternative to using chaeto how I've described.  Even a cupful of straight detritus from the sump of a healthy system would be great.  You can even do all three together for best effect.

 

All of those options go well beyond just establishing a bio-filter that handles ammonia BTW.   You're creating a good rendition of a full-fledged ecosystem when you start a good reef tank.  

 

Check out what this means by checking out some of the article I've collected under the "microbial community" section of my blog.  As good an article to start with as any would be this one:  The Nature and Consequences of Indirect Effects in Ecological Communities, although it doesn't focus on reefs specifically, it shows you why reefs are so tough and resilient.  (It's because all the species are so inter-connected, but that's an over-simplification....click the article!)

 

Last thought:   Why not do corals in this tank instead of chaeto?   Unless you hate the 5 Gallon tank/have no intention of keeping it, it would really make a nice little coral tank!!