Cycling a nano reef tank

[Mikeb86]

Hi guys I have been cycling my 32 gallon biocube and was ready to go get a couple fish. However we have been hit by a heatwave and my tank has reached 84 degrees and I want to upgrade my A.C before adding livestock. Do I need to keep dosing ammonia to keep feeding my bacteria until I put some fish in? Or can I just wait a few days when I get the actual livestock? How long can you run a cycled tank with no livestock? I do have a few pounds of live rock in it though. Thank you

 

[seabass]

Hi, and

 

No worries.  If you've built up a biofilter by dosing ammonia or ammonium chloride, the bacteria will survive for several weeks without dosing more ammonia.  However, if it's going to be substantially longer, then I would occasionally dose more ammonia to keep the bacteria fed.

[Mikeb86]

Thank you for taking the time to reply 😊 My tank is getting really hot and my LFS told me to wait until I can get the temps down. I just got the new ac, and I found these zoo med cooling fans on Amazon I should have tomorrow. Hopefully I can bring it down to 80 and I should be able to get back to my LFS by next week.

[seabass]

FYI, if nothing were to go wrong (like a power outage), a stable 84°F is on the high end of the safe range, but alright.  However, like you, I like keeping my tanks at 80°F.