Absolute best way to cycle?

Frootstick

Frootstick

New member
Hey guys
I'm in process of getting a new tank, and was wondering the best way and process to cycle the tank correctly. So pretty much what do do from an empty tank, right up to a cycle finishing. I want to do this tank 100% correct way.
I was also looking at live rock that Ive bought in the past, it always seems to come with crabs and other bad pests. Is there a way to eliminate this also?

Thanks guys
 
setup tank, add base rock (75% of desired rock) fill with water, add salt, get salinity right, temp right. go buy some LIVE ROCK (remaining 25%) add too tank and wait for small ammonia spike, followed by small nitrite spike. Once Ammonia and Nitrite are zero, do a water change and add fish and corals.
 
^. This.
I consider myself an 'activist' re cycle---because I add about one flake a day of marine fishfood for every 10 gallons of tank. That's fully enough to feed any live critter that's snoozing away in the crevices of the one live rock. I keep the temperature at 79, the salinity at a constant 1.025, (ATO), and that's IT. I do look over the one live rock before use, and will watch for the appearance of anything obnoxious.
I don't pour in purple potions. (My one live rock and a good marine salt mix are all I need.)
I don't pour in bacteria potions. (My one live rock does it.)
I don't pour in ammonia. I don't measure, dose, fuss, or mess with it. I just turn on the systems, except the skimmer, and otherwise let it alone, lights on timer, heater going, pump going. GFO would be ok at this point, especially if I've used any dry rock.
I start testing daily with a simple test strip in about the second week. I'm not surprised if cycle happens anytime between the second week and the fourth.
Once I see ammonia, I continue the daily fishfood flakes until there is no ammonia. That means the tank ate them, and the ammonia got taken out. Cycled.

At that point I add a portion of the cleanup crew.
 
Add your rock and sand add your salt water...

Now you have a choice on how you supply ammonia.
- Add a small of shrimp or fish food to the tank
- Add ammonia chloride to the tank

Monitor Ammonia daily, once 2ppm is reached remove ammonia source. With Ammonia Chloride this is done in about 5 minutes.

Monitor Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate daily.

When Ammonia and Nitrite are at Zero you have a choice again.
- Call it good enough: Water change and add a CUC only.
- Spike the tank with Ammonia Chloride to 2ppm, and measure
- If your tank can process 2ppm in one day you are good to go
- Water change and add a CUC

Ammonia chloride is the way i did it, and like SK8R said you don't need to add any magic potions, all you're doing is growing bacteria
 
People will have lots of opinions about this subject. Most all will work with some just being faster than others.

If you can afford it buy "cured" live rock from Premium Aquatics or Tampa Bay Saltwater. You will probably get a few bad hitchhikers but will also get a lot of cool stuff too. You will cycle the tank in about 3-4 days. I've done it 3 times with 3 different tanks. It works. It is expensive and cycling with dry rock and seeding will yield similar results in 6-9 months but I have found minimum algae blooms using all cured rock. Just my experience.
 
I don't know that there is a "best way" except I'd say not to use a live fish. You'll read a dozen ways to start a tank. live rock, sand, etc. I can tell you that I've done it both ways. And I can tell you that when I used 100% live rock and sand, my parameters were a nightmare for a long time. They settled at about 3 mo. With my newest tank I bought dry rock and sand. I cured the rock for a couple months and put into tank. Then added my shallow sand bed. I did rinse the sand. I had a filter sock, heater and skimmer set up and that's it. I added a bottle of bio spira. I didn't initially test the water for about a week because I figures why bother...it was going to be all over the place. But when I did at a week. All parameters were perfect. I added a table shrimp and fish food to see if I could get a spike....no ammonia, no nitrites, and nitrates were at about 5ppm. Its stayed that way now for several weeks (I wanted to make sure). So Im ready to add fish as soon as my lights are up. So there are several options for you.
 
Not sure how to define best, I'm sure there are many ways depending on your situation and experience level, but the way I do it has been a fairly fast and care free way.
Dry sand w/ a scoop of live from a trusted and established tank, and my opinion the more established LR the better.
I like to make pillars in advance, so I use a piece of ply as a template and play around w/ rocks I keep in sw, get a formation I like and get it back in water.
All my pillars are sitting in brute cans at this moment in fact.
I don't like the idea of adding water and then dumping in salt as mentioned, in fact I think you should mix sw at least a day ahead so it can stabilize and mix well, plus if you add just water any rock that may have had life will most likely no longer contain that life.
This has worked well for me many times.
 
olliedog said:
setup tank, add base rock (75% of desired rock) fill with water, add salt, get salinity right, temp right. Go buy some live rock (remaining 25%) add too tank and wait for small ammonia spike, followed by small nitrite spike. Once ammonia and nitrite are zero, do a water change and add fish and corals.
Click to expand...
+1
 
Holy Moly! I just looked at DFS and if you do the Dr. Tim's reef start recipe you spend like $30 to cycle your tank. I vote shrimp or flakes, It's only been a few months and I barely remember what I did, lol. It's pretty rare that any of the methods don't end up with a cycled tank after a few weeks, might as well go cheap and spend your $30 on some frags
 
Thanks for the hints and tips. I'll read through then all later today. I really want to do this tank as best and proper as I can. It's going to be my pride and joy, so I'm going to take my time and do everything properly!
 
Honestly IMO the best way to cycle a tank is to buy 100% live rock. It is more expensive but it gets the job done much faster and with far less hassle. I added CUC within 1 week of putting rock in my tank, followed by 2x clownfish a week later. Never saw any ammonia or nitrite.
 
Yeah I'm getting a lot of mixed info. I think I'll end up going with 80% base rock and 20% live rock. That seems to be the most common I think
 
Live rock vs. dry rock doesn't have much to do with it...Live rock uses die off and existing bacteria to get the cycle going, it may be quicker but you're stuck with the rock you buy and scaping it hopeing it doesn't look like crap when you're done.

Seeding dry rock with a couple of pieces of live rock allows you to scape the rock how you like it.

The cycle is the dumbest thing you'll ever do, it's all the same...spike ammonia and wait... Conversion takes place you end up with nitrate only...you're done.

I like to spike it again, to test it but you don't have too.

you can use shrimp, fish food...ammonia chloride...yada yada...it's all the same. Some are quicker, some cheaper, but the cost isn't high and the saved time isn't either.

There are a lot of ways to do it, one thing you haven't mentioned is your test kit...do you have one? what kind is it? I'd recommend Slafert or Red Sea...for accurate measures you can trust.
 
So serious question. Is there a way to cycle my tank without adding any live rock?
The reason I ask is because in my last tank I had a heap of terrible hitch hikers. And wouldn't mind avoiding this again.
 
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