Do all tanks cycle?

[awholelota]

I ask because I’ve had water in my tank for over two weeks, and it still hasn’t begun to cycle. More than half of the rocks came from an established tank. The other rocks came from a lfs that was cooking the rocks for moths.
The tank has had a brittle star, and several hermit crabs, along with some snails since the before I got water in it. The rocks, crabs, star, and snails were sitting in a bin for about a month with good water movement, and a skimmer running.


I have 40lbs of live sand, about 70lbs of live rock, and 55gallons of ocean water from the lfs. Some of the crabs have even died, and I’ve left their corpses in the tank hoping to kick start the cycle, but nothing.. . all parameters are zero. PH is 8.1, temp is 80.


So yeah.. will my tank eventually run through a cycle?

[leveldrummer]

no, not all tanks do, you actually cycled everything in the bin before adding it to your tank, as long as you didnt have it all out of the water for very long when you moved it, you shouldnt have any die off (which is what causes cycles on new live rock) i just did the same thing as you with a little nano tank, no cycle here either, it is rare to see a tank do this, but not unheard of, sounds like your off to a good strong start!

i would do a good sized water change (25-30%) wait a week just to be sure, and go ahead with your buisness, of course thats just my opinion, its always better to be safe than sorry and err on the side of caution.
happy reefin!

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by leveldrummer

no, not all tanks do, you actually cycled everything in the bin before adding it to your tank, as long as you didnt have it all out of the water for very long when you moved it, you shouldnt have any die off (which is what causes cycles on new live rock) i just did the same thing as you with a little nano tank, no cycle here either, it is rare to see a tank do this, but not unheard of, sounds like your off to a good strong start!

i would do a good sized water change (25-30%) wait a week just to be sure, and go ahead with your buisness, of course thats just my opinion, its always better to be safe than sorry and err on the side of caution.
happy reefin!

I agree

Whiskey

[awholelota]

i've done two 10% water changes in the past two weeks. i'm also plaing to do another one today or tomorrow. i just don't want to buy something here and there and then have it all crash before christmas. christmas parties suck

[Elegance Coral]

Just remember to go slow with stocking the tank. If you add to many animals to fast it may throw your tank into a cycle.

[caughtaniner]

ive stared 2 tanks now, both with-out a cycle. just bought rock from existing setups and kept them under water

[awholelota]

slow is hard... but slow is the name of the game so slow it is.
what exactly is slow? can i go out next week and pick up lets say... one coral a day till i have about 10ish?

[fish.freak]

that may be fast, do you know what type of corals you want?

[Geoff]

ahh, but what cycle are we talking about.

having a tank not nitrogen cycle is pretty easy, getting a tank to not algae cycle is a totally different ball game.

G~

[awholelota]

Originally Posted by Geoff

ahh, but what cycle are we talking about.

having a tank not nitrogen cycle is pretty easy, getting a tank to not algae cycle is a totally different ball game.

G~

what's an algae cycle consist of?

[awholelota]

Originally Posted by fish.freak

that may be fast, do you know what type of corals you want?

don't really have anything planned out yet. i know i'll start with easy coral. mostly zoas and leathers.

i actually found two zoas in my tank. they where little white stubs last week, but it seems like they're getting some color back, and are opening up again.

[paulg]

Originally Posted by awholelota

what's an algae cycle consist of?

Diatoms, hair algae, and sometimes cyano. Thats when it gets ugly.

[leveldrummer]

corals have a very small bioload, one a day might be a little fast, but probably wouldnt hurt, but since its a fresh tank, it would be a better idea to get maybe 2 corals, wait a week, make sure everything looks good, get a couple more, do that till you get the hang of what to look for, maybe even add a fish every week or two, just dont try to half stock it over night and you should be good, take it slow and pay attention to the warning signs corals will give you when they arent happy, that it your best way to tell if something is slipping out of wack.

[fish.freak]

Originally Posted by awholelota

don't really have anything planned out yet. i know i'll start with easy coral. mostly zoas and leathers.

i actually found two zoas in my tank. they where little white stubs last week, but it seems like they're getting some color back, and are opening up again.

Zoos are the best other hardy stuff is mushrooms and star polyps. I would spend some time to decide if your going to want to do sofies or stonies long term and gear towards that.

[Loverotties]

Some take longer ,but usally stronger.