Cycle Clarification

[Dycofree]

Hey guys. Im in the beginning stages of setting up my 29 gallon reef tank and have two pieces of live rock in the tank currently (dry rock arriving tomorrow). I went with the shrimp method of cycling and have had it in there for 36 hours now. My test kit arrives on Tuesday, so for now ill just have to assume that its producing sufficient ammonia. My question is once I can complete my cycle and add inverts, will i need to continue dosing some form of ammonia? Will the inverts create sufficient ammonia on their own? It seems counterinutitve to add ammonia at a time when I will have inverts, but as this is my first reef tank,
I wanted to clarify with you guys. Any info you have on this will be great! Have a good one!

Edit: I also have a bottle of beneficial bacteria that is arriving on Wednesday to supplement my bacteria colony due to me only having a few pieces of live rock.

 

[tiggs]

You'll want to leave the shrimp in there for the time being. Once your test kit arrives, perform a test and look for the ammonia to spike. Once you get a high ammonia reading, you can remove the shrimp. In the following days, you want to keep testing and make sure the ammonia turns into nitrite (the ammonia will drop and the nitrites will rise), then finally the nitrite turns into nitrate (ammonia is gone, nitrite is gone, then only nitrates remain). You're still cycling until you have a zero reading on both ammonia and nitrite, with only nitrate remaining. You want to make sure the entire nitrogen cycle happens, so everything gets broken down. Also, once the shrimp is removed, you shouldn't add any additional ammonia manually.

Once the cycle is complete, you're good to add your CUC. The bacteria-in-a-bottle can also be added at any time. All that's doing is jumpstarting the beneficial bacteria to help with the natural nitrogen cycle. Good luck and welcome!

 

[DLHDesign]

Great question!

Brief answer: no.

Because you have live rock, you will generate enough ammonia from the normal life/death cycle of the bacteria and other such on the rock to last until you have fish in the tank (and are adding food). One piece of shrimp will also continue to decompose well past the point where you can visually see it, so that will also continue to contribute to the "food" for your growing bacteria colony.
If - for some reason - your cycle "stalls", you may need to add something into the tank to kick-start it again, but this is not something that is common.

The "slow and steady" option is to test your ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels now. Then leave the tank alone for a full week. Then measure again. Then wait another week and re-test. That will give you an idea of where your tank is at in terms of the cycle and how long it will take to "complete" (it won't really "complete"; it will just take a few years of stable operation until it reaches some level of equality).
If you really feel the need to move faster (and I don't usually recommend this because this hobby is all about learning to slow down; which is very hard at the start <grin>), then check out this post which has within it a very good layout of a more hands-on approach. Either way, @Brew12's post speaks to the question around the durability of bacteria in our tank (and why you don't need to add more ammonia once you've established your initial bacteria colony).

 

[Jinko]

Curious why you are adding inverts first they aren't as robust as fish, you would be better off with a smallish fish or two imo.

But as others have mentioned you want ammonia and nitrite to be gone before adding anything really as these are both toxic.

 

[Dycofree]

Thanks for the replies! I have been told my friends with saltwater tanks (albeit new ones) that adding inverts first is the way to go. I havent done much of my own research yet on this, but they have always added 2-3 snail before any fish. Any input on this would be great!

 

[DLHDesign]

I'd highly suggest reading through this post. It's a great overall guide that will answer a lot of your questions (and give you many more).

 

[Dycofree]

What would you guys recommend as far as powerheads? I have a Sun Sun 525 gph running right now, and am considering adding either a Koralia 425 gph or a Koralia 525 gph. Thoughts?

 

[DLHDesign]

For cycling purposes, you've got what you need. I would suggest getting the aqua-scape setup how you want it and then seeing where you are at; sometimes it's better to have several smaller pumps rather than fewer larger ones.