Tank Cycled With Live Rock in 10 Days... Now What?

atlantean

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Hi all,

My 20g tank has finished cycling fairly quickly using KP Aquatics live rock (in terms of 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite), but I'm a little confused on what its fine for me to start stocking and what I should wait on. I know BRS has a 4 month timeline without lights and coral, but they also seemed to make that recommendation with dry rock in mind. Which next step would you recommend?

1. Get CUC first and turn lights on so they don't starve.
2. Start stocking fish and keep lights off, maybe only getting a few snails in the meantime and continue letting bacterial colonies establish for a bit (is this as necessary with live rock?)
3. Stock fish and CUC with lights on and embrace the ugly stage

Lastly, is the four month waiting period primarily a concern related to SPS corals? At what point would you deem the system stable enough begin adding softies/LPS?

Thanks!
 

bsr2430

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First off Welcome!
Another one sucked in!
spongebob what should theatre call me GIF
 

bsr2430

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In ten days I don’t think your tank can be fully cycled. Just isn’t possible. As soon as you turn those lights on you’ll see what I mean, the algae growth should start!

I would personally start with a CUC and nothing more. My tank took almost a full year to stabilize.
With this being only a 20G tank, I can see this going off balance as soon as the lights come on.
 

AltitudeAquarium

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In my opinion there is a difference between "cycled" and "stable". In my aquarium with live rock, the tank was cycled in 24 hours. What does this mean... My rock had enough bacteria to handle converting ammonia to nitrite, to nitrate, and then to nitrogen gas. (The nitrogen cycle). When it is cycled, that allows to keep fish without killing them from ammonia. However, to manage swings in other parameters, to grow corals, it takes several months. During that time, I skipped hair algae uglies and diatoms because flow and proper balance of CUC. Now I'm in the process of managing cyanobacteria. This is a delicate balance. I'm not there yet.
 

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mindme

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Hi all,

My 20g tank has finished cycling fairly quickly using KP Aquatics live rock (in terms of 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite), but I'm a little confused on what its fine for me to start stocking and what I should wait on. I know BRS has a 4 month timeline without lights and coral, but they also seemed to make that recommendation with dry rock in mind. Which next step would you recommend?

1. Get CUC first and turn lights on so they don't starve.
2. Start stocking fish and keep lights off, maybe only getting a few snails in the meantime and continue letting bacterial colonies establish for a bit (is this as necessary with live rock?)
3. Stock fish and CUC with lights on and embrace the ugly stage

Lastly, is the four month waiting period primarily a concern related to SPS corals? At what point would you deem the system stable enough begin adding softies/LPS?

Thanks!

#3 IMO.

If you wait 4 months or whatever, you're probably going to have the same things happen, only you waited 4 months for them to happen.

I really don't know where all these arbitary time periods come from. Did they even say why you needed to wait 4 months? What is supposed to be happening in that time? What's it based on?

I'll give an example. You'll hear people say all the time - "You need to wait 6 months before adding a BTA". And it's total hogwash. I added a BTA to a 3 week old tank, 1 year later and it's still going strong. Because it has to do with stability, not some arbitrary time period. How was is stable enough for this after only a few weeks? Because it had a low bioload. It's a 29g tank with only the BTA and 2 clownfish. Regular water changes and a bioload that was easily handled = stability. I didn't have ugly stages...well until recently I started to get cyano, a full year after initial setup. Most likely because I started feeding the BTA more often. I increased the bioload, it's taking time to catch up. 1 year after setup.

Does that mean you can add a BTA to any tank after 3 weeks? No. See what most people do is they add a bunch of livestock, feed alot, and the bioload and such is not going to be stable. Which btw is fine for the majority of coral, but for the more delicate corals, stability is needed.

In fact, my 25g cube that was my old display tank was over a year old and I don't think a BTA would have thrived in it. I had too many fish in it, and the bioload was heavy so it wasn't all that stable. Yet according to those arbitrary timelines, the tank was "ready for a BTA". No, it wasn't.

I put softies and LPS in newer tanks all the time, no issues. As soon as the nitrogen cycle is complete, I start adding and I start adding fish, and in general just get things going through the stages before becoming stable.
 

Super Fly

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Hi all,

My 20g tank has finished cycling fairly quickly using KP Aquatics live rock (in terms of 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite), but I'm a little confused on what its fine for me to start stocking and what I should wait on. I know BRS has a 4 month timeline without lights and coral, but they also seemed to make that recommendation with dry rock in mind. Which next step would you recommend?

1. Get CUC first and turn lights on so they don't starve.
2. Start stocking fish and keep lights off, maybe only getting a few snails in the meantime and continue letting bacterial colonies establish for a bit (is this as necessary with live rock?)
3. Stock fish and CUC with lights on and embrace the ugly stage

Lastly, is the four month waiting period primarily a concern related to SPS corals? At what point would you deem the system stable enough begin adding softies/LPS?

Thanks!
#3... using LR directly from ocean allows quick cycle. Add livestock slowly to allow tank's beneficial bacteria to catch up to handle the bioload, i.e. in the pipes and equipment. I usually wait at least 2-3 weeks in between adding new livestock.
 

Super Fly

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oh in response to your last Q, tank will be ready for coral when it's been running stable for few months after livestock addition. Monitor PO4 & NO3 levels and when they are stable w/o nuisance algae, then tank is ready. I'd start with softies first to get feet wet.
 

attiland

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Hi all,

My 20g tank has finished cycling fairly quickly using KP Aquatics live rock (in terms of 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite), but I'm a little confused on what its fine for me to start stocking and what I should wait on. I know BRS has a 4 month timeline without lights and coral, but they also seemed to make that recommendation with dry rock in mind. Which next step would you recommend?

1. Get CUC first and turn lights on so they don't starve.
2. Start stocking fish and keep lights off, maybe only getting a few snails in the meantime and continue letting bacterial colonies establish for a bit (is this as necessary with live rock?)
3. Stock fish and CUC with lights on and embrace the ugly stage

Lastly, is the four month waiting period primarily a concern related to SPS corals? At what point would you deem the system stable enough begin adding softies/LPS?

Thanks!
Option 3 but no CUC yet. When you see algae piping up that is the time for CUC. Add fish instead and monitor phosphate and nitrate.
If you don’t have ATO it is time for that too.
 
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atlantean

atlantean

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Thanks for all the help! I turned the lights on today. My plan is to now add a very young pair of clownfish from Coral Reef TN on Wednesday, along with 3 Astreas. The rest of the CUC will come a week later.

I'm now thinking it would be best to not max out the fish bioload for the tank. That means probably adding a tailspot blenny and then leaving the extra "slot" open for a utilitarian fish should the need arise (god forbid an Aiptasia-eating filefish). Especially if my plan is to try and hold out on a skimmer.
 

GuppyHJD

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In ten days I don’t think your tank can be fully cycled. Just isn’t possible. As soon as you turn those lights on you’ll see what I mean, the algae growth should start!

I would personally start with a CUC and nothing more. My tank took almost a full year to stabilize.
With this being only a 20G tank, I can see this going off balance as soon as the lights come on.
Hello,
I see posts referring to "stabilize" - how can you tell the tank has stabilized? What should I be monitoring?
Thank you
 

laverda

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Tanks will cycle very quickly when using live rock. However there is a big difference between cycled (safe for fish to be added slowly. ) and stable or established.

Stable to me means your able to measure and maintain proper water parameters. That just takes time, experience and practice. This is when you need to learn about water chemistry and how it affects our tanks. The relationship between salinity, PH, Alk, CA magnesium, as well nutrient control. How do are you going to manage them? Once stable soft corals can be added slowly.

Established is much harder to define. Stable, past the various ugly phases, established pods and other criters, including CUC. This is takes 3-6 months in many cases. Longer with dry rock. Experienced hobbiest are able to cut the time because they have the experience to achieve stability quickly. This is a good time to be learning motr about the animals you are planning to keep.

Established is when more sensitive animals, anemones and corsls can be added safely. Again it is best to go slowly as adding a bunch of corals can change you stability.

Welcome to the hobby. Enjoy and good luck!
 

bobnicaragua

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You should be good to go for fish and cuc with lights on. I would add a test coral in a few weeks to a month. That's the advantage to live rock over dry.
 

monicalooze

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Hi all,

My 20g tank has finished cycling fairly quickly using KP Aquatics live rock (in terms of 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite), but I'm a little confused on what its fine for me to start stocking and what I should wait on. I know BRS has a 4 month timeline without lights and coral, but they also seemed to make that recommendation with dry rock in mind. Which next step would you recommend?

1. Get CUC first and turn lights on so they don't starve.
2. Start stocking fish and keep lights off, maybe only getting a few snails in the meantime and continue letting bacterial colonies establish for a bit (is this as necessary with live rock?)
3. Stock fish and CUC with lights on and embrace the ugly stage

Lastly, is the four month waiting period primarily a concern related to SPS corals? At what point would you deem the system stable enough begin adding softies/LPS?

Thanks!
Hi! I know this is a little old. Did anything strange happen with your cycle? I am cycling a 20g with KP aquatics rock right now, and the ammonia has been stuck at about .8 basically since the beginning. I did 30% water changes for the first 6 days, and then stopped to see what would happen. Nothing has moved. At least it hasn't gone up?

The water clouded significantly for the first two days but now it's so crystal clear it looks like I'm using ozone. Just curious about what pattern you noticed as you cycled?
 

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