Cycle Question

[jramy123]

I appreciate all the input for sure. Im notnsure Brandon is basing his quote about rock on thenpic but I did say it was that reef rock that comes colored like Coraline. That is not real coraline. I stored my rock in fresh saltwater from lfs for xport and then it sat in those buckets for about 3 to 4 hours as I mixed the saltwater that would go in the tank. Not sure it matters but no heat or circulation while the buckets sat but wa indoors. Fact matter is I have seen numbers change over the week with spike mid week and now ammonia down and nitrite and Nitrate up. Im just letting it cook as not in hurry. I do wish I had just done dry rock and have learned my lesson lol.

 

[JosephM]

I’ll state that I ordered KP live rock and it was packaged and shipped to me damp, and put in tank all within 18 hrs. There was die off obviously so I am doing 1-2 20-30% water changes a day. I wait for ammonia to reach 1.5-2ppm (API) before water change. Sure the bacteria was kept wet so it survived but the die off and ammonia produced by it is not the usual amount of ammonia the bacteria is used to breaking down so they must find that balance again. I like to be on the safe side and wait until API is consistently showing 0.25ppm or less to consider any tank cycled. No reason to rush anything in this hobby especially with the cost of live stock. Those instant cycle tanks at shows are set up with very ‘high’ quality live rock that has been set up in a matured tank. And they’re ship completely submerged and heated. And quickly put into tank with filtration. Many do not have access to this and even the top live rock sellers such as TBS that ships completely submerged you might still have a mini cycle just because of temperature drop causing a little die off. Not saying rock from TBS hasnt completed instant cycles before but you can’t generalize live rock in accordance with instant cycles no matter how it looks.

 

[brandon429]

simply ask the pet store for rock origin




you can easily spot uncured rocks vs cured ones. Not anything bad comes from moving cured rocks home, five years of examples here

The microbiology of reef tank cycling.

You can skip your cycle. Ive been reefing online for twenty years and have never waited one second for a tank to cycle, because I buy rocks that are already cycled and move them home. Here's two: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/...

www.reef2reef.com

remember that live rock transfer isn’t bad, or with consequence, or nobody could ever attend a reef convention since 1998


heres a false read on a full reef, happy animals, we finally convinced him the test was wrong but as usual the crowd didn’t agree at the time. See his reported updates

High ammonia

I have a 26 gal bow front with about a 10 gal sump one clown fish a few snails (2 turbos and 3 nassarius) a Pom Pom Xenia and a hammer coral the tank has been running since March first fish in July coral in aug. I only feed a tiny pinch of micro pellets twice a day only enough that can be eaten...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac

THE GOLDEN EXAMPLE OF A SKIP CYCLE DAY 1 REEF https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/ read that entire thread before you read ours. that's the heart of skip cycling. Everything we do going forward in this thread reflects on that ability above, in the #1...

www.reef2reef.com

there are twenty more skip cycle reefs like Jramy’s tank where nothing is rushing, this is normal for rocks (and normal for false test readings like Jramys)

remember team that if moving live rocks among aquariums was bad, rushing, or negative in any way, nobody could ever move homes. Or upgrade tanks, or change sandbeds or go bare bottom. or move a reef upstairs

see how much practicality there is for live rock skip cycle transfers?



buyers are trained to have constant doubt about ammonia and bacteria, but sellers at a Macna never do. I’m determined that the readers in this thread gain some real world balance in the false consequence game, they’re coming for your cash twice over - once by selling you perfectly ready reef rock, and then a few more times over as you buy things to reverify it plus handle the constant .25 false reading. If you read the microbiology of cycling thread you’ll be able to visually cycle any reef having never used any test kits, that way misreads don’t take all your fun away. The microbiology thread above has thousands of dollars of other people’s money on the line for skip cycling, we can track the outcomes (and the constant false .25 readings)

why bother debating any of this/ waiting is never unsafe

because in work threads where people are forced to create new reefs or take them apart and have a safe start, we want to know where outliers exist in the equation.

Jramy's issue has bearing on hundreds of thousands of dollars of other people's money is why its worth getting to the bottom of

the symptoms reported here match all other reports of false stuck ammonia, and nothing stands out so far. Cycling follows a highly consistent path when certain group of rocks are used: dry and bottle bac, uncured, fully 100% cured


within the groups we've found no outliers. Also consider finding KP curing threads where seneye was ran, fully uncured mailed rocks get control of ammonia much faster than always stated using the kits that misread.

 

[jramy123]

Feel like this almost done. Maybe this weekend I'll check to see eif that ammonia is 0. But nitritr looks like 0 ph appears to have gone up and is between 8.4 and 8.8. Ammonia appears to be. 25 and Nitrate is really up around 80 to 160. Now what I been reading is that at this point or in few days I do a massive water change to lower that Nitrate. Is 5g enough for 20g cube?

 

[Garf]

Feel like this almost done. Maybe this weekend I'll check to see eif that ammonia is 0. But nitritr looks like 0 ph appears to have gone up and is between 8.4 and 8.8. Ammonia appears to be. 25 and Nitrate is really up around 80 to 160. Now what I been reading is that at this point or in few days I do a massive water change to lower that Nitrate. Is 5g enough for 20g cube?

Yep. Looks like your ready to reef
Change as much water as you can. You don’t really want to start with anything above 10ppm nitrates, so you’re gonna have to get rid of most of your water, either in one big lump, or two or three more modest water changes.

 

[jramy123]

Yep. Looks like your ready to reef
Change as much water as you can. You don’t really want to start with anything above 10ppm nitrates, so you’re gonna have to get rid of most of your water, either in one big lump, or two or three more modest water changes.

Ok i have 10g heating to 77 degrees for mixing. Woyld that be good and then do another 5 or 10g this weekend?

 

[Garf]

Ok i have 10g heating to 77 degrees for mixing. Woyld that be good and then do another 5 or 10g this weekend?

I can’t remember how big your tank is to be honest but do that change, let it circulate for a bit then test nitrate. You May find the figure you get is lower than would seem possible, such are the quality of hobby tests.
Most folks retire there ammonia and nitrite tests at this point.

 

[jramy123]

I can’t remember how big your tank is to be honest but do that change, let it circulate for a bit then test nitrate. You May find the figure you get is lower than would seem possible, such are the quality of hobby tests.
Most folks retire there ammonia and nitrite tests at this point.

Yeah the tank is 20g so that would be a 50% change. I am also getting cal, alk, mag, and phos red sea kits today( Had to wait till payday to get those) as well as one of those marinepure 8x8x4 bricks. If i add new media will that change anything negatively? I wouldnt think so but want to make sure.

 

[Garf]

Yeah the tank is 20g so that would be a 50% change. I am also getting cal, alk, mag, and phos red sea kits today( Had to wait till payday to get those) as well as one of those marinepure 8x8x4 bricks. If i add new media will that change anything negatively? I wouldnt think so but want to make sure.

Just more surface area, that’s all. Will not affect your tank at all yet, it will just mind it’s own business, gently maturing.