Some final questions for start- up/ cycling

Capoe126

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Hey all,

I have been gathering a pretty good pile of equipment for my WB 20 cube. I will be doing a proper build-thread in the near future. I have just gotten done with aquascape and I am finally ready to get the tank wet. I had some questions about filtration while cycling. I am using carib sea life rock, and plan on using live sand. I will be using a bottle bac as well. Tons of discussions on this that I have been reading through, but if anyone has suggestions please share! Thinking of microbacter7 as it has been praised by BRS.

I had some questions on filtration through the cycling process. I have all of the filtration components that come with the waterbox: filter sock, bio media, carbon, sponges.

In addition to this I have purchased an intank media basket for chamber 1 as an upgrade over the filter sock. In the basket i plan on running filter floss/ purgen and chemipure blue/ more filter floss. This combination was recommended to me by intank. Looking for opinions here as well (for long term filtration with the media basket)!

I watched some videos on cycling and they cautioned on over-filtering during the cycling process. Using the inventory I have how should I set up my filtration for tank set up and cycling process. Or am I missing anything? My first thought is to use the water box filter sock and sponges at the beginning since the sand will be putting lots of particulates in the water. Let them take the brunt of the tank cloudiness. Then move on to my media basket when things settle down and tank cycles. What about bio media balls (these are used for added surface area right? so that is good ) and carbon (this would compete with the bacteria so no good?)

Also: no lighting during cycling correct?

Thanks for your help! This tank is being used in my biology classroom/ environmental club and we have some very interested students in the build up process. I like to educate myself as thoroughly as possible to take the kids through all the steps and reasons behind the equipment and set up. This forum has been incredibly helpful.
 

xxkenny90xx

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I would stay away from chemical filtration during the cycle. Socks and floss and bio balls should be just fine. And I'd lean towards leaving the light off, it'll just grow algae
 

Azedenkae

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I will be using a bottle bac as well. Tons of discussions on this that I have been reading through, but if anyone has suggestions please share! Thinking of microbacter7 as it has been praised by BRS.
Yeah Microbacter7 should be fine. It says that it also removes ammonia and nitrite, so presumably also have the nitrifiers you'd need. Some people use Microbacter Start XLM first before Microbacter7 or similar, because they would be able to focus on establishing the nitrifiers first, but either/or.

Using the inventory I have how should I set up my filtration for tank set up and cycling process. Or am I missing anything? My first thought is to use the water box filter sock and sponges at the beginning since the sand will be putting lots of particulates in the water. Let them take the brunt of the tank cloudiness. Then move on to my media basket when things settle down and tank cycles. What about bio media balls (these are used for added surface area right? so that is good ) and carbon (this would compete with the bacteria so no good?)
Biomedia balls should definitely be left in, yeah. Your plan can work, yeah just removing particulate matter first (before cycling). Though personally, for the cycling process, I would leave pretty much everything out except for the biomedia. Especially chemical filtration, yeah.

Oh and light can be on or off, does not really matter that much in my opinion/with how I view cycling.
 
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