Ed's 60g Cube Build from scratch

bshowe · Jan 25, 2015

ravenjred said:
I'm not sure what ghost feeding is. Do you mean just put some food in? I thought that the fish would produce the ammonia necessary to offset the bacteria in the One and only.

To my understanding ghost feeding is once you add bacteria to the tank you are then throwing in some food and training the bacteria to eat the food. I.e. they would eat the leftover food. While yes you can cycle a tank this way the only problem I see is then you don't have bacteria trained to eat the fish waste. That is why in my opinion I always cycle the tank with an inexpensive pair of clownfish. Plus the clownfish have a really think mucous coating that makes them more tolerable to non-ideal water parameters.

Just please don't be one of the people that think they can throw in a dead shrimp or fish and cycle the tank that way. Then you are training the bacteria to eat the fish!

P.S. How did you make the lining under your cabinet? It looks nice!

ravenjred · Jan 25, 2015

Hi. The lining in the stand is Best Step Anti-Fatigue Flooring Interlocking Mats from Home Depot. They were something like $16 for a 4 pack. I was looking for something to use that would eliminate any vibration and noise from the skimmer pump and the return pump. They work great for that purpose.

I was planning on using the clownfish along with Dr. Timm's One and Only. I spoke to someone who did this and he said it works great. Knowing that you have used these fish to cycle your tanks gives me more confidence. Thanks for the input.

Longnose Hawkfish · Jan 25, 2015

IMO fish should not be used to cycle a tank. Once you have some bacteria in the tank, ghost feeding will produce ammonia and the bacteria will use this. The purpose of cycling is to get your tank ready for the arrival of your fish/inverts. Putting fish in to cycle the tank defeats te whole point of cycling.

bshowe · Jan 25, 2015

Awesome to know about the lining! I will keep it in mind for the next build! I already have everything up and running where I can't change anything. (I can't pull the sump out without taking the tank off the stand.) I built a tray with 1/8" black acrylic and JB weld to seal it so it would catch any leaks. It has already been awesome when I spilled some being messy in my sump. Haha.

In terms of cycling and what you do it really is a matter of opinion. There are many ways to do things and it is what you feel comfortable doing. I used live sand this time and bought a pair of ocellaris clowns for about $18 and a cleaner shrimp just in case there was any ick. I did let the tank run for a few weeks without any fish only because I set it up before I left for a 2 week vacation. However, I came back and then put the fish in. (I also brought back all my corals in my luggage from the East Coast because it was the cheapest in terms of shipping and timing). I believe the ammonia and nitrite were even like .5ppm when I added them. Everything did fine and the tanked cycled fast with the addition of corals, fish, and bacteria I brought back.

I will say what makes the difference is I use TLC Start Smart Complete. This is the best bacteria my dad showed me that he used in the 40 years of his LFS. I also cycled my previous tank with the TLC, a handful of live gravel from my dad's store, and I was gutsy and did it with a pair of Black Ice Clownfish, which did perfectly fine through the cycle. I don't think the ammonia or nitrite ever went over 1ppm during the cycle. The key with adding fish in the cycle is wait 24 hours after you have the water in and temperature and salinity correct before you add the fish. Also make sure you get a healthy specimen that has been in a LFS for several weeks.

In the past my father used to sell damsels real cheap for $2-4 each to cycle tanks. However with the tank-bred clownfish, they are hardy and used to aquariums where they make good fish to cycle with. Plus clownfish are damsels and the cheap damsels end up becoming mean as can be where you can't put anything in your tank. Also clownfish used to be wild caught and had a high mortality rate transitioning into the aquarium until we started to tank-breed them. So they were not good for cycling 10-20 years ago.

I think as Longnose Hawkfish said and I would agree it is a matter opinion and there are a lot of them. Haha. Pick the method you feel most comfortable with doing and try it.

ravenjred · Feb 10, 2015

Hi all,
I finally got my tank running. I ran into some problems with the return pump, first not working correctly - it needed a new impeller, then it turned out it was too strong for my tank, so I purchased a smaller pump. Anyway, here are some pics of my first 2 fish, a pair of Ocellaris Clowns. I will keep posting as I add things to the tank. I know it will be a slow process. I have 2 Blue Green Chromis in a QT tank right now.