Can I get some feedback on how I plan to cycle?

[Novi]

Ok so everything is just about ready to go for me to add water this weekend....

 

I have about 100lbs. of Dry ECO Rock I got from Bulk Reef Supply for my DT. I am going to have only 1" of Caribsea Special Reef Grade Substrate in there.

 

Now in my sump/fuge I am planning on putting in a DSB about 6-7" of Live Sand as well as a couple fistfull sizes of LR and Macro Algae to get things going.

 

I will also throw in a couple raw shrimp and let them decompose in the DT.

 

I do plan on running my protein skimmer from day 1 just so its broken in and pulling out whatever gunk it finds. It really shouldn't effect the bacteria growth I wouldn't think.....

 

I plan on running the lights maybe a week or two into the cycle.

 

Let me know what you guys think.... Change something, don't change something

[igozoom]

I'd get the livesand, or even some rubble, from an established tank vs. the bagged stuff from caribsea. If it weren't so cold, I'd say order some GARF grunge from GARF.org, but I'm sure someone here would be willing to part with a little sand and rubble to get the ECO Rock started. I'd also plan to double or triple the time you allocate for cycling in order to build up enough microfauna. I've heard that you shouldn't add coral until you have patches of coraline algae larger than a quarter. Sounds like a good rule of thumb to me.

[WaterDog]

Sounds good to me. We added the sand from CaribSea without incident, I might wait a little longer before turning on the lights though. We got a lot of algae from turning the lights on too early.

[zygote2k]

Run the lights as normal- let the algal succession happen and get things rolling.

[flowerseller]

I'm not a fan of raw shrimp or the like. Ammonium chloride is what I'da done if the rock was not "raw" rock that had dried.

I like the sand in bags personally, but getting rock, sand, water or all from established systems goes a long way.

When it's time to do the tank, I'd change most if not all water after the cycle.

I would wait on the lights but Rob's spot on, you will have some algae cycle once they come on, I just like completing the bacterial cycle first without light since nutrients will be high during. Hencee the big exchange on set up day.Then I'd add a product called "cycle" - bacteria since you will need to keep the population up as you add clean up and then fish coral down the road.

[Jon Lazar]

I would wait much longer than a week or two before turning your lights on. You don't have any corals, right? So there's no need to blast the tank with reef lighting. Mostly you will just grow nuisance algae with no herbivores to control it. You could add a clean up crew, but the hermits will also prey on your very small microfauna population. This is especially true because you're using mostly dead rock and dead sand. There's no problem with that, but it will take longer for your bacteria and microfauna populations to grow from any live sand you're seeding the tank with.

 

Table shrimp are fine for decomposing and starting your bacterial population. Just remember that once the shrimp have decomposed and the ammonia and nitrite are all gone, those bacteria will mostly starve and the population levels will return to an equilibrium near zero. When you introduce your first fish (and you should start with a herbivore), there will be a build up of ammonia and nitrite while those bacteria reproduce to catch up with the new nutrient levels. Overfeeding is the big source of ammonia of course, but fish are constantly excreting ammonia from their gills when they breathe.

 

It's not crazy to wait several months before adding corals to a brand new setup. This gives your tank time to grow microfauna and bacteria, and firmly establish the 99% of the tank's population you never or rarely notice, but which are critical to a healthy ecosystem. It also gives you time to make a few rookie mistakes and work the bugs out of your equipment without thousands of dollars of livestock hanging in the balance.

 

Good luck!

 

Jon

[Novi]

Cool thanks fellas

[Novi]

Pickin up some heaters.... Better to go with (2) 250Watt heaters or (1)500watt Heater? I know its always better to double up incase one fails but I was just seeing what the majority does. I plan to put them in my sump btw....

[Gatortailale]

I don't see the size of your tank/system. Two (or three) smaller is better. Then set them a degree apart. If your system is small and the 500 malfunctions, it will cook your tank a lot faster than smaller one.

[Novi]

I don't see the size of your tank/system. Two (or three) smaller is better. Then set them a degree apart. If your system is small and the 500 malfunctions, it will cook your tank a lot faster than smaller one.

 

Oh sorry... 90 DT / 30 Sump

[jason the filter freak]

I've always cycled tanks with normal lighting, heating, flow, skimming, etc. With a cup of live sand or two to get the sand bed going (and perhaps some dirty water), and some macro and let things run its course with a couple of dead shrimp. This way you can make sure your tank is going to run correctly (timers, flows, skimmer, etc run under load, at the correct times, in the right place etc.) I've also heard about people using ammonia to as extreme as peeing in the tank. There is really no totally wrong way to cycle a tank just make sure you do some testing to make sure your levels are going up and down as expected before adding live stock.

[Novi]

I could totally see my wifes face as she comes in and watchs me peeing in my tank..... "Hey Honey I need you to siphon this for me now"

[Grav]

Dry rock will discolor the water quickly. We normally do 2 100% water changes on it in the 1st 2 days... then start the "real" cycle.

[hypertech]

I've done 2 tanks with dry rock from BRS. One time with eco rocks and one time with shelf/fiji. If you don't soak it, it will discolor the water, but that can be fixed by running a little carbon. It will clear up right away.

 

You don't need to add anything to make it cycle. Some people like to do a muriatic acid wash on it, but I have not found the need myself.