How to cycle my biocube
- Thread starter abryant
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brandon429
what, exactly, are you doing in your avatar
Truly you get to customize that reefing call
There are threads that have perfect corals hardly ever changing the water
Mine in that size tank would be every week or two five gallons, but also expecting 1 rip clean perhaps in the summer time because uglies will be in swing by then or sooner
www.reef2reef.com
You don't have to run that now but that's how you catch up, as many times as needed in the life of the tank. You don't have to wait as long as they did before action; rip cleans are refreshing not harmful, they're just big work.
Rip cleaning will save your tank one day either preventatively or reactively, your choice.
There are threads that have perfect corals hardly ever changing the water
Mine in that size tank would be every week or two five gallons, but also expecting 1 rip clean perhaps in the summer time because uglies will be in swing by then or sooner
Algae Identification
Any opinions on what type of algae this is growing on my rocks and sand bed?
www.reef2reef.com
You don't have to run that now but that's how you catch up, as many times as needed in the life of the tank. You don't have to wait as long as they did before action; rip cleans are refreshing not harmful, they're just big work.
Rip cleaning will save your tank one day either preventatively or reactively, your choice.
Tired
2500 Club Member
Water changes are to remove excess nitrates/phosphates/organics, to replace calcium/etc that's present in your salt and used up by stony corals, and in emergencies to remove contaminants. You should do a water change as often as it takes to keep your nutrients at a reasonable level (5-10ppm nitrates and 0.03-0.5 phosphates being usually good levels) and your minerals up.
No way to tell how often that will be for your tank, and it'll change over time as you add livestock and things grow. You should probably expect to be doing water changes anywhere from every two weeks to every two months, and only testing will tell which.
No way to tell how often that will be for your tank, and it'll change over time as you add livestock and things grow. You should probably expect to be doing water changes anywhere from every two weeks to every two months, and only testing will tell which.
abryant
Active Member
Todays water testTruly you get to customize that reefing call
There are threads that have perfect corals hardly ever changing the water
Mine in that size tank would be every week or two five gallons, but also expecting 1 rip clean perhaps in the summer time because uglies will be in swing by then or sooner
Algae Identification
Any opinions on what type of algae this is growing on my rocks and sand bed?
You don't have to run that now but that's how you catch up, as many times as needed in the life of the tank. You don't have to wait as long as they did before action; rip cleans are refreshing not harmful, they're just big work.
Rip cleaning will save your tank one day either preventatively or reactively, your choice.
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brandon429
what, exactly, are you doing in your avatar
If it helps, no more testing is needed for cycling, it's done fully.
You are now into stocked active reefing, simply buy some starter corals.
Find any thread that started with dry rock, copy that they did to reef. No more cycle consideration needed
You are now into stocked active reefing, simply buy some starter corals.
Find any thread that started with dry rock, copy that they did to reef. No more cycle consideration needed
brandon429
what, exactly, are you doing in your avatar
A cycle doesn't undo, so we're past that phase fully. Whatever you want to reef with can be added now, skipping further disease preps is the risk to the fish but not the cycle
Crofty
Community Member
I 100% cycled my biocube 32 from 20lbs of caribsea arag-alive fiji pink sand only. Was planning to add in some bottled bac but got delayed in buying it and then noticed things seemed to be progressing on their own. All rock was completely dry 'live' rock.
Took about 3 weeks.
Added CUC at 4 weeks, then fish and corals a couple weeks later. At 4 months everything is still alive and well except for an emerald crab that got some fuzzies on it and died. Maybe that crash is still coming...
Edit: I should note that the rock was recycled from a prev tank, but had been sitting dry in my garage for 3 - 4 months. Maybe something live was still there.
Last edited:
brandon429
what, exactly, are you doing in your avatar
Crofty thank you for that relay, I value atypical cycling info so much
if wet pack sand has bacteria that's not astounding, it's astounding a guy who runs an aquarium dna company sampling bacteria told me it didn't and I believed it :)
if wet pack sand has bacteria that's not astounding, it's astounding a guy who runs an aquarium dna company sampling bacteria told me it didn't and I believed it :)
brandon429
what, exactly, are you doing in your avatar
its also possible he tested a bad batch. it would take lots of production effort and cost to keep bacteria out of a bag of sand and water
having some in there would be cheaper lol and explain all the skip cycles
having some in there would be cheaper lol and explain all the skip cycles
Crofty
Community Member
Probably he got a dead bag. Bacteria are tough, but usually the good ones you want, not as much. My work involves me with sterilized products and it's typical that only the undesirables are hardest to kill. Flash freeze thaw cycles alone can kill a lot of stuff.
I was skeptical that the bag I had shipped from Amazon would still have much activity left, but obviously it still did despite who knows what conditions it encountered during shipping.
What a cool process, cycling a tank, right?
brandon429
what, exactly, are you doing in your avatar
thats the classic uglies phase. check this out
www.reef2reef.com
you're heading where he's at, but the difference is, you can rip clean when it gets bad. he cant, he'll be chasing meds and barely ahead of tank loss for a long time but you can hit a reset button in two hours that will fix the worst your tank will ever look
as of now, just stick in a siphon hose and suck it out with a 3 gallon water change, always match temp and salinity to the old water
do not sit idly by and allow any takeover
next week you'll see green algae hairs attached to rocks (function of heavy feeding, fish waste, and uber bright light not needed so early on)
you would lift out the rock and set it on your counter (no, doesnt harm its cycling bac)
you would take a knife and scrape it off and then pour saltwater over the rock to rinse it down the drain, its now algae free, set it back in the tank. the anemone can just sit there a sec in the air as you scrape around it
you wouldnt take out the anemone rock for air work when the anemone is fully expanded underwater; that could tear it. wait till it's on a closed cycle to lift it out, when it happens to that rock
be assertive and your tank will never look ugly
you don't get to work less for about 22 months, it'll be busy not owning a wrecked nano.
this is the price of you not starting the tank with skip cycle coralline cured live rock vs dry rock. coralline rocks handle themselves better; coralline actually rejects algae attachment, white rock beckons it.
Cyanobacteria help
Hello all, I have cyano all over my sand bed. Not sure what is causing it as my parameters seem just fine. nitrates = 0 Phosphates = .04 Calcium =390 Alk = 10.3
www.reef2reef.com
you're heading where he's at, but the difference is, you can rip clean when it gets bad. he cant, he'll be chasing meds and barely ahead of tank loss for a long time but you can hit a reset button in two hours that will fix the worst your tank will ever look
as of now, just stick in a siphon hose and suck it out with a 3 gallon water change, always match temp and salinity to the old water
do not sit idly by and allow any takeover
next week you'll see green algae hairs attached to rocks (function of heavy feeding, fish waste, and uber bright light not needed so early on)
you would lift out the rock and set it on your counter (no, doesnt harm its cycling bac)
you would take a knife and scrape it off and then pour saltwater over the rock to rinse it down the drain, its now algae free, set it back in the tank. the anemone can just sit there a sec in the air as you scrape around it
you wouldnt take out the anemone rock for air work when the anemone is fully expanded underwater; that could tear it. wait till it's on a closed cycle to lift it out, when it happens to that rock
be assertive and your tank will never look ugly
you don't get to work less for about 22 months, it'll be busy not owning a wrecked nano.
this is the price of you not starting the tank with skip cycle coralline cured live rock vs dry rock. coralline rocks handle themselves better; coralline actually rejects algae attachment, white rock beckons it.
brandon429
what, exactly, are you doing in your avatar
no
now you just insert a siphon hose and in 2 mins water change, take up that algae off the top/the cyano/ ID does not matter.
when it gets really bad, you can run a rip clean. you can run a rip clean anytime you want to on a nano and it always reassembles completely clean and shiny. your goal is to try and reef, lower your light intensity for starters, so that you dont have to do the work to rip clean the tank.
that tank above is high lighting on white rocks and was not hand guided at all, see where it's at? advanced aging
yours is barely beginning, so just remove it now and be studying rip clean examples that cheat your system into a long lifespan if you can't luck into that any other way.
now you just insert a siphon hose and in 2 mins water change, take up that algae off the top/the cyano/ ID does not matter.
when it gets really bad, you can run a rip clean. you can run a rip clean anytime you want to on a nano and it always reassembles completely clean and shiny. your goal is to try and reef, lower your light intensity for starters, so that you dont have to do the work to rip clean the tank.
that tank above is high lighting on white rocks and was not hand guided at all, see where it's at? advanced aging
yours is barely beginning, so just remove it now and be studying rip clean examples that cheat your system into a long lifespan if you can't luck into that any other way.
divewsharks
Well-Known Member
Yes, You want to stay ahead of the ugly phases. Less work staying on top of versus letting them go, getting upset and then trying to go in and fix them after the fact.
Crofty
Community Member
Looks a whole lot like what I saw when I cycled my biocube. Even in the same spots.
I vacuumed it up and flipped on an inexpensive Amazon 9w UV light submerged in my pump sump (chamber 3). It was gone in a week or so. Haven't seen the same stuff on the sand since.
I discontinued using the UV light after 2 weeks. Don't know if the UV was really beneficial or not to help clear it up quick, could be it was a dumb thing to do, but the UV didn't seem to hurt anything either (other than giving my pump a slightly weathered sunbaked look on the plastic housing). If I ever decide to use UV again at some later date, I will likely go with a flowthrough design.
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