Frag Tank Cycle

[9975]

I see many posts about fishless cycles where bottle bac is poured in and go but not frag tanks. I have an 80 gallon with about 50 lbs of dry rock set up for just coral that I just put a bottle of biospira and some ammonia chloride in per their instructions.

Do I need to do anything else and can I let it sit until I get coral around xmas? I won't have any fish in there with the lovely droppings to feed any bacteria constantly.

Thanks for your help and time.

 

[lapin]

I would test it to see if it produces ammonia ect. Dry rock might have some nutrients in it. Avoid light as you don’t want to green your tank.

 

[EnterName]

If I understand you correctly, you are planning to directly stock the frag tank after cycling it, without sitting out the ugly phase (or at least diatom phase). I know that many people do this and it is absolutely possible, but in case you have not done this before, be aware that diatoms and green hair algae can be annoying to deal with, hurt your frags, and mess with parameters while your frags require stability.

I have though about what I would need for a frag tank, and came up with a few things you didn't mention but still might want to consider (if you haven't already):

• You already have chosen a decent nitrogen source (ammonia chloride), but you don't have a phosphate source. Phosphate might become a limiting factor depending on how much phosphate is in BIO-Spira itself, and how much the rocks will adsorb. You can try "ghost feeding" frozen food, which contains quite some phosphate, or you create your own stock solution. There is a nice little tutorial on R2R. If you don't have access to the mentioned chemicals look for a comment from me, where I have listed 3 chemicals in their different hydrate forms. I'm sure you will be able to get one of them with reasonable purity.
• Bacteria growth can deplete oxygen levels very fast making oxygen another limiting factor. It would help significantly if you keep a skimmer running or at least connect air pumps. The surface movement of some wave-makers won't have the same effect.
• Before adding frags I would get an ICP-MS analysis so you can "refill" trace elements that might have been depleted over time. Iron and manganese might be candidates that need dosing.

 

[Dan_P]

I see many posts about fishless cycles where bottle bac is poured in and go but not frag tanks. I have an 80 gallon with about 50 lbs of dry rock set up for just coral that I just put a bottle of biospira and some ammonia chloride in per their instructions.

Do I need to do anything else and can I let it sit until I get coral around xmas? I won't have any fish in there with the lovely droppings to feed any bacteria constantly.

Thanks for your help and time.

Do you even need to cycle a frag tank? What is going to produce ammonia? Won’t coral just consume the ammonia?

 

[9975]

Do you even need to cycle a frag tank? What is going to produce ammonia? Won’t coral just consume the ammonia?

I guess that's also the question. There are two sides of the crowd. One will say go the slow route that takes six years until everything is 7000% stable and you're good to go (yes, many exaggerations). Then the other will say frag tanks don't need cycled or throw some bottle bacteria in and run with it.

The fishless cycle has many threads of success on R2R but for coral tanks with dry rock only, it's much more difficult to find a substantial amount of evidence saying quicker cycles are okay if you do x and x and x besides bottle bacterial.

As a side note, I have an almost 6-year old 350-gallon fish only that I slow rolled the cycle just fine. I got a good deal on a used tank with all of the equipment and just finished getting everything cleaned/setup to my liking. I'd like to get some of the easier/intermediate coral during xmas deals.

 

[Dan_P]

I guess that's also the question. There are two sides of the crowd. One will say go the slow route that takes six years until everything is 7000% stable and you're good to go (yes, many exaggerations). Then the other will say frag tanks don't need cycled or throw some bottle bacteria in and run with it.

The fishless cycle has many threads of success on R2R but for coral tanks with dry rock only, it's much more difficult to find a substantial amount of evidence saying quicker cycles are okay if you do x and x and x besides bottle bacterial.

As a side note, I have an almost 6-year old 350-gallon fish only that I slow rolled the cycle just fine. I got a good deal on a used tank with all of the equipment and just finished getting everything cleaned/setup to my liking. I'd like to get some of the easier/intermediate coral during xmas deals.

Do bacteria need to be present in a frag tank? Would coral frags be unhappy in water with a low bacteria count?