Aragonite Sand with Dry Rock

[Rjhamm2]

Well, I am an absolute noob in this sense of reefing.. I intend to have dumb questions. Please don't make me feel stupid, we all have a strong area of knowledge somewhere or other.

The tank was put up 4 days ago, I went with all dry rock, mainly budget reasoning. But I laid an inch of aragonite sand across the bottom. I've been doing a lot of research in all of this, but I can't tell what is fact and what is opinion anymore. Everyone knows everything XD

So what I'm wondering, is the dry rock and aragonite sand enough to begin the cycle? Of course the tank is filled with 76 degree saltwater (using purified bottled water)

I just have a taunting feeling that I'll be looking at white rocks and white sand in this tank a month from now. With no nitrate. Of course it's too early to test for anything more than ammonia right now.

Kindly share your knowledge Id love for this to be a successful hobby

 

[Quiet_Ivy]

Hi Rjhamm2

You're ahead of me in the saltwater noob race, my aquarium is waiting for someone to help me put it on its stand. Forget pumping iron, just buy an aquarium. *g*

I can answer this one- test for ammonia. You should see at least some after 4 days if there's enough organic material to start the cycle. If it's there, you're probably good. If not, chuck in a shrimp, add fish food etc.

Reefkeeping: ask 3 reefers get at least 5 opinions, all contradictory. Not to mention, if everything was really obvious there wouldn't be a huge discussion board like RC.

Ivy

 

[dkeller_nc]

Well, I am an absolute noob in this sense of reefing.. I intend to have dumb questions. Please don't make me feel stupid, we all have a strong area of knowledge somewhere or other.

We were all stupid in this hobby at one time or another. And that's the purpose of this section of the forum - stupid questions are encouraged, not disapproved of.

Yes, your tank set-up will be enough to start a cycle, no fancy bottled bacteria products needed. However, you do need to add some source of organic matter - many use a dead shrimp from the grocery store, although fish food will work as well.

 

[Rjhamm2]

Ok great! Thank you guys, I love getting straight forward answers like that
I have been adding some fish food everyday, so I feel better about this now. Haha but I'm sure I'll have more great questions the next few weeks!

 

[tmz]

Just monoitor ammonia along the way. It should rise from the decomposing food and then the ubiquitous ammonia oxidizing bacteria should take hold reducing it to nitrite and then it will move on to nitrate which will utimately be reduced to nitrogen gas which bubbles out of the tank.

 

[ChimolaFish]

Everyone so far is right, except if your dry rock is 100 percent clean. Most vendors, like BRS, have dirty dry rock (which is what I went with) in the sense that the rock still has some orgainc build up on the inside outside, whatever. However, it is possible to find rock and is very very clean and I would go with a bottle of bacteria and/or add some food like people have said. It will take more than a month to get coraline to grow though. My 90 was pure dry rock and dry sand and my cycle time was normal, but im just now getting coraline.

 

[Sk8r]

YOu will get better biodiversity (various small hitchhiking species) if you can buy a small live rock from someone who can swear he has not had ich in his tank and add it in. These are the various worms and bugs that tanks support. Also be aware you may need a GFO reactor (granulated ferrous oxide to uptake phosphate) the minute you start seeing green algae. Rock and sand both import a lot of phosphate, and dry rock has it all the way to the center, so it can be a trouble once it soaks out---which can be an extended time. I'm still needing it for mine many months in. It's not a big deal, but if you can get started early getting it out, it would be a good thing.