Cycling dead rock

raeshness · Sep 7, 2021

After spending a lot of time reading about this wonderful hobby, today i finally took my first step to become a reefer!
This being my first experience in the hobby, I created an account on R2R to make sure I do it the right way!
My situation is kind of like this: My tank wont arrive until mid October, but I already some dead rock already.
What I learned up to now is, that it is a good idea to start "cycling" this rock now, so i can put the rocks inside the tank once the necessary bacteria are populated within the rocks. That is where I wanted to check with reefers that are more experienced than myself. Theres a couple of things I'm not 100% sure about, and i would love if some of you could point towards the direction. I got a brute trash can that i filled with rodi water and mixed the necessary amount of tropic marin salt into it, put a powerhead and a heater in it. I ordered Dr Tim's one and only, and I'm hopeful that it will arrive by the end of this week (I'm not from the US and it's kinda hard to get it in Europe).
My plan of action looks kinda like this: Put the rock in brute trash can with the powerhead and the heater, follow the Instructions on the Bottle, and let it run its course while checking ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Is this the proper method of going about it? Is it necessary to change the water during cycling?
Thank you so much in advance, and sorry if im asking for obvious answers, i just dont want to mess up right from the start

vetteguy53081 · Sep 7, 2021

Firstly welcome and you’re on track
Once the rock is in the tank, add 1.5ml of liquid bacteria per 10 gallons daily for 2 weeks and monitor your water quality for indications of a completed cycle

brandon429 · Sep 7, 2021

An easy way, using updated cycling science:

do your setup above

add in two large pinches of very ground up flake feed

And the Dr Tims

it will be cycled rock in under two weeks and what your test kit reads don’t matter for any parameter the wait time mattered above all.
The longer it sits it will be fine. Whether you add feed after two weeks or not, it cannot starve once set in. Reef cycles can’t fail or stall, what you read about stalls is old cycling science.

at two weeks, you can move the rocks into a display and they’d fully carry fish bioload, they’re cycled and no proofing or testing will be needed.

use this time to devise a disease prevention approach for the fish you’ll add, fish disease is the killer the cycle is fine without testing because thousands of other reefs have already tested and proofed the details that make up new cycling science. Per Dr Reefs already known deposition times thread, bottle bac and fish food and two weeks is cycled. we are merely copying the known arrangement into your tank and charting the wait portion. If you want to see other reefs using new cycling science I have several large threads handy to see how cycles turned out.

study every sticky thread from the fish disease forum as your rocks sit taking on bacteria in the brutes

perhaps the most impactful aspect of new cycling science vs old is how we mitigate expected fish losses up front. Old cycling science never mentioned it, and instead has you focus on stalls using test kits nearly certain to show stalls even in two year old running reef tanks. Old cycling science has no commentary regarding test misreads, it accepts all measured params as accurate and it’s designed to loop you back into purchasing more bottle bac. Above, we added one bottle once and did not look back in hesitation.

Alex Cataldo · Sep 7, 2021

raeshness said:
After spending a lot of time reading about this wonderful hobby, today i finally took my first step to become a reefer!
This being my first experience in the hobby, I created an account on R2R to make sure I do it the right way!
My situation is kind of like this: My tank wont arrive until mid October, but I already some dead rock already.
What I learned up to now is, that it is a good idea to start "cycling" this rock now, so i can put the rocks inside the tank once the necessary bacteria are populated within the rocks. That is where I wanted to check with reefers that are more experienced than myself. Theres a couple of things I'm not 100% sure about, and i would love if some of you could point towards the direction. I got a brute trash can that i filled with rodi water and mixed the necessary amount of tropic marin salt into it, put a powerhead and a heater in it. I ordered Dr Tim's one and only, and I'm hopeful that it will arrive by the end of this week (I'm not from the US and it's kinda hard to get it in Europe).
My plan of action looks kinda like this: Put the rock in brute trash can with the powerhead and the heater, follow the Instructions on the Bottle, and let it run its course while checking ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Is this the proper method of going about it? Is it necessary to change the water during cycling?
Thank you so much in advance, and sorry if im asking for obvious answers, i just dont want to mess up right from the start

The method you have aquired is spot on, but make sure to change the water frequently if it starts to get too nasty. It won’t hurt the bacteria population since it’s on the rock. Make sure to keep the container closed to limit evap that could dry out the rock. But you should be set.

brandon429 · Sep 7, 2021

Agreed Alex good call.

brandon429 · Sep 7, 2021

Fish disease from meeting cycle needs but not meeting disease prep needs from the fish disease forum

Lost 3 fish in 2 weeks...What other Parameters are key?

Hi all, My 38 gallon breeder has been up and running since late February. In the past 2 weeks, I've lost 3 out of my 5 fish. I've had all 3 for at the least 1 month and more. All were looking healthy and eating hardy, with no markings on the body or fins: 1) Tailspot Blenny that...

www.reef2reef.com

applying the stickies from the fish disease form increases fish retention astronomically compared to no prep.

the fish food trick above supplies both carbon and eventual ammonia to the cycle. It is completely not required to dose and maintain certain levels of liquid ammonia, that’s old cycling science because the inference is that if you don’t, water bacteria can’t exist ( then you buy more bottle bac to fix the mistake, old cycle science is about doubt and re purchase and no specific start date. Our specific start date is day fourteen after mixture )