Best way to cycle my new tank?

[Max Rackstraw]

So I've set up my red sea desktop pennisula (90litres incl rear filtration chambers).

Currently we have a peice of live rock in there giving it a source of bacteria. However to start the cycle i am pondering a few options.

I could purchase some tiny fish like a chromis and have them begin the cycle with some ATM colony that i have.

Or i could do the same thing with two medium size clowns that my LFS has been keeping for me from my old tank. I would rather not buy any new fish just to cycle... However these clowns are a pair and therefore i dont want to separate them. Does this mean that the bioload of these two clowns would be too large for cycling the tank?

Anyway whats everyones opinion? I want to make sure these fish are not at risk here.

 

[Garf]

So I've set up my red sea desktop pennisula (90litres incl rear filtration chambers).

Currently we have a peice of live rock in there giving it a source of bacteria. However to start the cycle i am pondering a few options.

I could purchase some tiny fish like a chromis and have them begin the cycle with some ATM colony that i have.

Or i could do the same thing with two medium size clowns that my LFS has been keeping for me from my old tank. I would rather not buy any new fish just to cycle... However these clowns are a pair and therefore i dont want to separate them. Does this mean that the bioload of these two clowns would be too large for cycling the tank?

Anyway whats everyones opinion? I want to make sure these fish are not at risk here.

Depending on how “live” the rock is, and it’s size, you may not need to run a conventional cycle. Put a picture of the tank up.

 

[Max Rackstraw]

As you can see the majority of the rock is that standard dry rock but there is one peice of live rock from my LFS that has been in one of their sumps i believe for quite a long time. Its covered in tons of tubeworms/fanworms ect. Theres even a baby feather duster on it.

I didn't think that would be quite enough to do one of those fast cycles. I more so bought it just to speed things up a bit rather than wait 4 months for a full dry rock setup to mature haha

 

[Max Rackstraw]

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

If you're asking for the best way, I can only comment that using fish to cycle the tank is the Worst way. There is nothing wrong with being patient and letting the tank cycle before adding your fish,

 

[brandon429]

This is a skip cycle it’s already done

reason why

that much live rock runs any degree of bioload the tank will ever see and the uncycled surfaces don’t matter.

 

[Just John]

There is nothing wrong with using bottled bacteria to skip cycling if you are concerned about it.

 

[brandon429]

If you only had that one live rock it would carry the fish you want


the problem with your plan is it skips all disease control

all planning now shifts from cycling, no testing needed it’s done, to the fish disease forum stickies.

 

[brandon429]

The cycle is already done and doing anything cycle related further can’t make the tank safer for fish, only preps from the disease forum can do that

see this breakdown:

tests for nitrate nitrite and ammonia= can’t help any, the cycle is already done, can’t make disease risk any less. If you test anyway with the cheap kits on hand you get light ghost misreads and you’ll doubt the truth, focus more on redundant cycling and forget about disease preps, fish added will infect your entire system with uronema


reads the stickies in the disease forum and implements them (quarantine and fallow) = can help, can make the tank safer for fish


adds bottle bac meant for cycling= the cycle is already done that can’t make the tank safer for fish

see the pattern? Even my longtime reader friends are thinking: dude can’t you see six uncycled rocks in the system?

misses this point: let’s say we take one of those uncycled rocks and lift it out, and we set it in another reef here already cycled

would that uncycle the reef? No, because the live portions aren’t reduced. This cycle is done, the uncycled portions don’t matter. That one rock could carry two clownfish and sixteen frags. Live rock with tube worms attached has that much surface area, it’s that powerful, plus it’s located in the center mass of the waste production zone. If it was tucked away in a sump it would be inefficient, but that’s center mass ready to rock and roll.

Im not sitting here thinking the dry surfaces are cycled, but that they don’t matter, normal bioload added is handled by the live rock immediately. Once you begin testing ignoring the skip cycle process you begin centering on misreads from the api kits and that skews your entire fish prep requirements resulting in you adding unprepped fish when those readings seem subjectively ‘ready’ later on, and your fish die anyway.

listening to updated cycling science gives your fish the best chance. In about fifteen days wait, nothing added extra, the other surfaces have the bacteria from the live rock and even then your tank isn’t safer for fish. It’s safe for fish when you read and implement the prep stickies from the disease forum

 

[Max Rackstraw]

Right well if thats enough live rock to have essentially cycled the tank for the small bioload to begin with. Im alright to add my two clowns? (They have been in my old tank for about a year plus now been in my LFS holding tank for about 6 months. Ive delt with basically every fish disease at some point or another and i believe these fish are perfectly healthy and clean but without a perfect quarantine system on copper... I know i cant guarantee this.)

 

[brandon429]

Consider reefing a few months bringing up the frags, enjoying the reef and it’s skip cycle doneness and then when you’ve added enough living things other than fish to enjoy a mostly built setup, you’d then fallow the entire thing at once.

 

[brandon429]

We posted at the same time


thats neat you have clowns in holding. The issue is you’re about to stock lots of things in the tank after adding them and each wet item is a new disease vector. I didn’t realize you had reefed prior

if you want to add a zip of bottle bac for boost then add the clowns they’ll be fine, it’s just that’s a lot of open scape, you are going to buy like 20+ new items to stock out the tank and it’s a lot of disease vectoring for some clowns that are fallowed pretty well right now. Clowns are tough among nonprep fish, chromis aren’t that’s for sure.

most nano reefs with two clowns aren’t getting those structured disease preps and still do ok, but losses are starting to add up in the posts for sure. Disease is really rampant nowadays

 

[Max Rackstraw]

Yeah gonna sort a clean up crew out for it when the clowns go in. Ideally theyd be in for a while before the clowns but i have a long journey to the LFS and it probably costs like £20 in fuel alone to get there... So one trip is what it'll be.

What i didn't know is you would recommend adding a couple frags at the beggining? I always thought you wait a while to add coral especially SPS.

 

[brandon429]

fish in first is indeed how most are trained but it’s a disease risk when you spend ten upcoming weeks adding one by one new disease vectors that skip preps, every coral added or new wet thing from a pet store starts to bring in more disease check out this thread for a quick read on the order of ops:

Has anyone done coral/inverts only and no fish at first?

Fish seem to be the main cause of disruption in a display tank, given the current circumstances in the hobby with pests (ich, velvet, parasites, etc.). I have been in this hobby for 18 years, and the amount of pests that are showing up lately is much more (could also be the fact that we have...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

If you have a quality reef light and the right feed, some candy coral frags and common lps would do just fine

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Send in the clowns! They will be just fine. You can get an ammonia badge just for piece of mind.

 

[Max Rackstraw]

Haha send em in! I do feel like its good to have a source of gill ammonia in the tank at this stage. Im affraid of leaving the live rock without any nutrients in a sterile environment for too long.

This tank will be sps dominant so what sps frags to people tend to have luck with in maturing tanks? (If any) i was thinking green slimer but not so sure, they just tend to be iffy in new tanks.

 

[brandon429]

Why not just take out the dry rocks and pack it in with all live rock
so theres lots of inherent feed in the micro food chain for sps

Nano Build - Octo High End SPS Skip Cycle Build....

Hey Everyone! Im going to start my build thread in hopes I get some pointers and help along the way. My last reef tank was in 2011. I had a 54 gallon corner tank and a 120 gallon reef tank. I loved it! However I was promoted and moved my family from NC to CA. Had to sell it all. We are...

www.reef2reef.com

that’s a day one sps reef with all live rock skip cycling

 

[Max Rackstraw]

Why not just take out the dry rocks and pack it in with all live rock
so theres lots of inherent feed in the micro food chain for sps

Nano Build - Octo High End SPS Skip Cycle Build....

Hey Everyone! Im going to start my build thread in hopes I get some pointers and help along the way. My last reef tank was in 2011. I had a 54 gallon corner tank and a 120 gallon reef tank. I loved it! However I was promoted and moved my family from NC to CA. Had to sell it all. We are...

www.reef2reef.com

that’s a day one sps reef with all live rock skip cycling

Live rock is expensive, that one peice cost as much as the rest of the dry rock. Plus im happy with my aquascape now, but i do see your point and that is how it used to be according to my father... The time when every tank was packed with real ocean live rock... It would be nice... Perhaps I'll get at least one more peice

 

[Crustaceon]

Do I dare comment?