tank cycle

[xenogear81]

Hi, I have 120 gallon tank just setup july 18. I use 110lbs of cure live rock, 40 lbs live rock that is fully purple and the rest of the rock sit in tank for 35 lbs 1 month and 35lbs 4 months that I bought from a friend. I also use about 120lbs caribsea arag-alive special grade reef sand. 5 days ago i check for amonia, it show i have .50, 2 days later i check ammonia 0 and nitrite it show 0, 2 days later i check nitrite again still reading 0. I use the api test kit to check and follow the instruction clearly. Is my tank ready? at night i can see peanut worm, bristle worm, stormella snail wandering around the tank. Am I done with cycle? it only been 9 days.

[txav8r]

The best advice is to go slow. Better to wait too long than not enough.

[jay3]

If all the rock you put in was cured correctly, you can start adding fish and coral, but do it slowly as you tank must have time to adjust to the new bioload created by the fish.

[Kristy]

Hard to say... with the rock coming from different sources, there may be a couple of different die-off cycles going on and I wonder if you may actually see more than one spike. Can you tell us more about how the live rock was stored (with circulation or just sitting in a tub?)

Agree that you should keep watching and waiting, better than dumping in livestock that doesn't make it. Good luck!

[lt1z28]

Like jay 3 said you can begin to add livestock. Add only one to two fish at a time. Give your tank some time to handle the added bioload before adding any more fish.

[xenogear81]

thanks for the fast reply, One of 35lbs live rock just sit in a tank with filter running. If i decide to have addon refugium with caribsea arag-alive special grade reef sand. Will there be another cycle? Also should i take bio ball out or leave it there? Im planning to put in chaeto in also.

[Texreefer]

The small amonia level you saw was from the initial die off of bacteria on your rock. at 9 days you are no where near close to the end af a true tank cycle. for anyone to suggest for you to put fish in a 9 day old system is, IMO, not very sound advice. a typical new tank cycle lasts from 3-6 weeks. I waited almost 2 months to add my first livestock.. Do a lot of reading and then use the advice you get here as reinforcement either way as to the validity of what you have read.

[Texreefer]

thanks for the fast reply, One of 35lbs live rock just sit in a tank with filter running. If i decide to have addon refugium with caribsea arag-alive special grade reef sand. Will there be another cycle? Also should i take bio ball out or leave it there? Im planning to put in chaeto in also.

Anytime you add too much of a bioload at once you will get a cycle, no matter how old the tank is. only you and your experience can tell you how much that is, everything else is speculation.. Personally, I would remove the bio balls since you have a lot of live rock

[MKCindy]

Go back and look at past discussions on this. Mike is so right, your not done cycling yet.

This comes up every few months, and some will advise to go ahead. Don't do it. Watch the post, within a week or two they are back on here in the emergency forum wanting to know why their fish and/or corals are dead. Be patient and save yourself a lot of money and head ache. The results are well worth the wait.

[txav8r]

I'm surprised anyone on here would tell anyone with a 9 day old tank to go ahead and dump in a fish. That is way too soon IMO

[recoiljpr]

I personally would not add any livestock to the tank yet. I have a system (2 weeks old) like yours that has never shown ammonia, nitritates and low nitrates. But, I am not moving the critters from my other tank to this one for a while yet just to be sure.

What I am doing though is getting the micro-fauna going really strong first. I'm getting the pods, stomatella, bristle worms, mysis and scuds to really breed. I want those critters good, strong and testing my system. Once I realize it can handle them, I know it will be ready for the "real" livestock.

If your itching to add something, I would add those micro-fauna and let them test out the system and add to the system. Those detrivores are invaluable to the health of your aquarium. And that carrib-sea live sand is good for your bacteria, but very low on the micro-fauna. I would ask/barter/buy sand from LFS and other reefers and that should boost your sand quite a lot.

While I haven't been on these boards for long, I've seen enough people outside of the board nuke their system from moving too quickly. I know you want those awesome corals and fish and inverts to look at.

You will NEVER regret going too slow, but you MAY regret going too fast.

[Kristy]

We can offer up a cup or two of sand if you want to seed your tank with some established sand. Shoot us a PM if interested.
-Mike (& Kristy)

[blindside]

Patience is the key :) I have just learned this with my new build. And hopefully last build. Well till I'm ready to upgrade :) shouldn't be for a long time though... I hope.

[recoiljpr]

We can offer up a cup or two of sand if you want to seed your tank with some established sand. Shoot us a PM if interested.
-Mike (& Kristy)

Same with me (that goes for all you masties out there). I work in SA so I have no problem meeting anyone on the NE side (or meeting you austinites in San Marcos).

[justahobby]

Add a piece of krill or squid or whatever you got. Let it decompose. Continue checking your params. This will help build up bacteria and familiarize your with the cycle without shocking your tank by adding a fish poo and food.

[allan]

Additionally if you would like a small handful of chaeto to get your system up and running pm me and it's yours. It will be full of bugs and starfish and grows really good.

[xenogear81]

thanks everyone, im trying to get a refugium, but not sure which one is good, anyone have any good experience with one to share?

[allan]

I made my first one, and my second one not sure yet as I still have to pick it up.

They are relatively easy and fun to either make or maintain. The very basic design would probably be water in, sent through baffeling to reduce bubbles, then the fuge itself, with the third compartment as a return.

I was having problems with my chaeto in the fuge. I started with culerpra, a small handful from AD, which grew to a huge mass of green stuff. Then I got a handful from Mr. Cob and it started to grow as well. I then thinned out the culpra to the point where all I have is the chaeto. That's when I started noticing the chaeto was getting fragile. It would flake of pieces and there was a large section that seemed to be getting 'old', or at least not healthy.

I placed the wad of chaeto into the second baffle, and moved my HD light to cover down on its new location. About a week, maybe two, later I had to tear the mass in half and place the other half into the intake portion of the baffle.

I rotate the mass about every other day or so, and anticipate that within another week or two I will have to reduce the mount of chaeto that I have.

It's really need watching this stuff grow and all the bugs and fish that live inside the mass of green stuff.