New Tank Cycling Question

[rbergmandc]

Hey All..

so my 65 gallon tank has been up for about a week with 10 gallons of Nutri-Sea Water and the rest RO water..

I have 72 pounds of fully cured fiji LR.. 20 lbs live sand.. 40 lbs dead sand..

here's my question.. i've been testing the water and while my salinity is 1.026 (heard that nutriwater is SALTY)... none of my other parameters have changed..

Been told that with all that live sand and fully cured LR.. i might not have a cycle.. thoughts ?

I'd really love to put something in there.. one percula clown? or a cleanup crew.. can anyone answer if I will see spikes..

And.. what do you suggest for a cleanup crew.. how many.. and what ?

Much appreciated, you guys have been great at answering my questions..

RONNY

[schmnr]

I would add the clown anyways, wait and test frequently.

[Reeftanker3295]

Go to the grocery store or something and get pure ammonia (think its a cleaning product) and put a couple drops in then test your water and then test again and if the ammonia and nitrate levels have gone down alot or even gone to 0 then your cycled and you can slowly start adding things

[Reeftanker3295]

O and your salinity is great, only LFS' keep their water lower than like 1.025, everyone here keeps their water at 1.025 or 1.026 or even 1.028 sometimes because thats what the ocean measures at

[Loverotties]

Once you cycle it you usally get get a CUC at a LFS they can make a package for you.

[Mr.Peanut]

Originally Posted by schmnr

I would add the clown anyways, wait and test frequently.

I have to disagree with this.

If you want to cycle a tank there are other ways to do it. Cycling with a fish is cruel to the fish.

I would assume that you have been testing can you post some results?

reeftanker's suggestion is a good one. Make sure you use PURE ammonia. IF you really wanted too, this is gonna sound gross and I don't think I would do it but............... you could add a little urine to the tank to test if you cycle is done or not.

[Mr.Peanut]

And welcome to TRT!!!

[SoK]

i'm only five months in, take it from me.

don't cycle with fish.

DO NOT RUSH. Get used to watching your tank for a good 3 or 4 months with just 1 maybe 2 fish.... if you rush, you'll see the bad side of the hobby...

[Fat Tony]

You can use the ammonia, but my suggestion is a piece of uncooked frozen shrimp, works just as well and you don't have to worry about if the ammonia is actually pure.

[jenglish]

It's quite possible that you have enough bacteria in that rock that you won't see a spike in ammonia. I generally add the CUC before the fish. It's good to throw something in there like shrimp or just some fish food and see if you get a spike. If you don't you can add a CUC so there is something to watch in there (as long as you are sure there is not going to be an ammonia problem). Generally the slower you go the better it will be. I would look at adding any fish 2-4 weeks after your CUC seems to be doing good. Many places tell you 1 crab and 1 snail per gallon, you can get away with half that easily without seeing a difference in algae.

[Doug1]

I do believe that adding a clean up crew, ie, hermit crabs and snail, presupposes that your "cured" live rock will suffer some losses from transport, generally it's shipped in wet paper in boxes, and even when you buy it at the local fish store, they generally pick it up, drain most of the water off then wrap it in wet paper unless you ask that they bag it and throw water in it. Because of that you will have some die off, hopefully you have enough bacteria that the ammonia thats produced cycles so quickly you don't see any nasty spikes. However you will see a lot of crud that builds up on the rock as part of this process, the cleaner crew's job is to eat as much of it as possible BUTonly a small fraction of what they eat is actually processed for growth and such, a lot of it( at least 50% ) will be passed out as waste and remain in the tank unless you take aggressive measures to eliminate it. ie aggressive skimming and mechanical filtration after using a powerhead or turkey baster to blow the settled detritous off the rocks so the filter can trap it, then it needs frequent cleaning , other wise it's still sitting there rotting.
THis is one of the reasons I think that "cooking" live rock has become popular. By eliminating a lot of that right off the bat you eliminate organic buildup that leads to sequestered phosphates that will come back to haunt you as algae blooms later on.
Minimizing imports of phosphate laden foods and aggressive removal of organic wastes through a combination of methods right off the bat wiull go a long ways towards heading off hair algae issues later. Not to say you can't or shouldn't add a cleaner crew, I just feel that alot of the old recommendations of massive amounts , while generating revenue for the vendor, are really not addressing the bigger picture.
Personally I don't trust crabs, hermit or otherwise, they are oppotunistic feeders and if the can't scavenge enough of what they like they will attack snails as food and move into their shells.
The dozen or so species of snails mostly sold in the hobby have specific needs to thrive, so adding them as the tank matures will help cut losses from attrition. If they aren't finding the desired food they will die off.
Even using "cured" live rock and live sand, I would suggest a very light bioload for the first 6 months while the tank runs thru the various processes that occur beside the normal nitrogen cycle,

[waltercat]

Patience

Don't rush it, it is probably the worst thing you can do when setting up a tank. You'll have tons of issues down the line if you try to add things to your tank too soon.

You started with cured rock so you are cutting down on the cycling time by alot. However take your time with it. Here is what i would do.

Keep your lights off or on for only a few hours a day unless you want to add a bunch of macro algae to the tank, then keep them on for longer. Adding algae will speed up the filtration process. You can always remove the macro algae after a month or so if you don't want it.

I assume you have a skimmer, make sure that is running and make sure you have alot of flow. Blow your rocks off every day with a turkey baster or powerhead to keep things in the water column. Setting up a new tank is also a good way to see how well your flow is. Since the tank is relatively "dusty" you can spot the dead spots.

Do this for about a week and then add your clean up crew of snails and hermits. You need more snails than hermits and you definitely do not need 1 per gallon, that is total overkill. I have about 8 snails and 8 hermits in a 55G and they do a perfect job.

After 2 weeks (if your params are still stable) it is cool to add hearty corals like mushrooms, GSP, candy canes and leather corals.

Add fish no earlier than 4 weeks and acclimate them slowly. It's much better to be on the safe side with adding fish imo.