How long does a cycled tank last ?

[ansig]

Hi all
very excited to start this new adventure and I have spent many hours reading posts about cycling …. I have just cycled 13.5 Evo with Dr Tim’s and ammonia (live sand and life rock) and my Ammonia is now 0 after 14 days and still have nitrates at 40 (Nyos)

I have just been told my 2 clownfish are some weeks away …. My question is can I just leave tank sitting there for 3-4 weeks with filter running and no lights on and then when fish arrive I can do water change do tests and add new fish?

Or should I start adding coral and CUC since I am now in a holding pattern ?

Many thanks in advance for the advice

 

[Billdogg]

You can leave it fallow for as long as you like, but you will need to continue feeding it something to keep the population of denitrifying bacteria happy. You could add a small CUC if you would like to, but remember to feed them as well. As for corals - I would suggest you hold off on those until the tank is better established. Corals are very sensitive to water quality changes, and adding them before you have any real bioload will subject them to the parameter swings that are going to occur when you add your fish.

HTH!

 

[brandon429]

We routinely cycle reefs fully without feeding a single thing, a natural cycle. No feed is required at all to keep a cycle set, since no feed is required to cycle one:

Bacteria in a bottle, Myth or Fact

Did the online calc indicate to use one mil in the tank for your gallonage

www.reef2reef.com

read MStevens posts there, no cycle can be starved

 

[brandon429]

So if you did not feed a cycled reef tank for 20 years, its exactly as cycled as if you did.

 

[Aqua Man]

very excited to start this new adventure

Hello and welcome to the adventure!!

If it was my tank, I would add a snail or 2 now and maybe 1 hermit. Hermit to scavenge the diatoms in the sand. Snails for glass and rock cleaning.

 

[Azedenkae]

Hi all
very excited to start this new adventure and I have spent many hours reading posts about cycling …. I have just cycled 13.5 Evo with Dr Tim’s and ammonia (live sand and life rock) and my Ammonia is now 0 after 14 days and still have nitrates at 40 (Nyos)

I have just been told my 2 clownfish are some weeks away …. My question is can I just leave tank sitting there for 3-4 weeks with filter running and no lights on and then when fish arrive I can do water change do tests and add new fish?

Or should I start adding coral and CUC since I am now in a holding pattern ?

Many thanks in advance for the advice

Hey there.

Yes you can just leave your tank empty. Nitrifiers last for a long time ammonia-starved. If you want to be sure, you can dose ammonia every week or so just to keep things going in case the nitrifiers start to go 'dormant'. No need to ghost feed or anything like that, the nitrifiers just need ammonia.

 

[brandon429]

It’s amazing in the cycle link above given only sixty days wait, ammonia starved nitrifiers immediately oxidized ammonia.

they are not starved, update that info. They built cycling mass free of charge because trace feed, spread out among bac spread out on hydrated surface area, is amplified in that context

check on top of your baseboards in the garage for reasons cycles get fed always


reef tanks are like garage baseboards, they remain uncleaned by and large and are sinks for feed


100% of your homes dirt and gnats and skin cells and carbon-heavy rafts that get into the reef stay in the reef. They become part of your organics reserves and ongoing detritus feed later.