can quality liverock change cycling process

[doney_80]

Hi this is my first saltwater tank and I just got a Biocube 29 and have had it set up now for about a week. I noticed today that there was a signifigant amount of a brown slime algae. I read about the algae and how to get rid of it. My question is I bought high quality liverock (28lbs), could this speed up the cycle process of the tank. I did use R/O water and temp is at 78 degrees salinity is 1.024 and nitrate levels and phosophorus levels are good. So could my tank have already cycled because i used good liverock? Don't want to start adding reef cleaners to early but like to get the algae under control as well. Every one says it will take any where between 2 to 4 week to cycle just want to make sure I'm doing this right so I have less problems later. Any and all thoughts appreciated

[bcrum51]

could have if there was little die off on the rock but to get a good cycle I would add a frozen piece of shrimp to be sure in a tank that same though a cycle can be generally short

[Elegance Coral]

Have you tested for ammonia or nitrIte? You have to test at least nitrite to determine how the cycle is going. It's possible to have no detectable cycle when using fully cured LR, buy there's no way to be sure without testing for nitrite.

I like Bcrumb51's suggestion. Throw a dead shrimp or two in the tank. Give it a few days and test for nitrite. If there's no detectable nitrite in about a weeks time, you're probably okay to start adding a few small hardy critters. If nitrite does show up in a couple of days, hold off on introducing critters until it is completely gone.

[viler]

I started with a bio cube back in January.

Originally i added 15lbs of cured rock and added a couple of other pieces later until i had a bout 30lbs.

I thought that the original rock had cycled and even had a local lfs test the water, seems between the initial die off and my water test the cycle actually started in full. it took time for bacteria to grow on the bio balls, my sand wasnt cured etc etc.

Later i read to remove the pads sponges and bioballs, which i did probably a little too quickly.

i lost several chromis during the real cycling of the tank.

go with the shrimp (i had mine in a pantyhose for easy removal /less break up.

as hard as it is, try to give it a month to fully cycle to let everything establish its own levels . yes you will have brown algea for a while but you can siphon those out.

look into leaving the back chmabers empty so they act more as a sump rather than a lot of nitrate factories. its a lot easier to siphon crud from the back if there isnt anything back there to trap it, also you can see a lot easier if a fish jumps the wall or if a crab climbs over and dies in the back.

[doney_80]

hi thanks everyone for the help i did all the test on my tank nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, phosphates, and ph every think was good. Call my LFS and they were kind of puzzled as well, but this is what we have come up with it. There is a very small possibilty it has cycled, but not too likely it is completely finished, but have put 2 turbo snails, 2 margarita, and 4 hermit crabs to start help with the algae and have used less intense lighting through out the day as well. Will let it set for another week. They said that the crabs and snails should be fine even if not finished cycling. Also I have live rock in back chamber instead of bioballs a protein skimmer and a koralia nano fan (heard it will also with algae and flow for corals in future) so i think i'm good to go just keep an eye on everything amd resume patients. Thanks again for the help folks!