Cycling a tank with dryrock.
- Thread starter Kinetic
- Start date
Kinetic
Active member
so, is the consensus that I won't be able to get a fairly "sterile" system by using only dry / dead rock? I just want to avoid bubble algae / hair algae etc. as much as I can. Anything going into my tank in terms of livestock will be netted (fish) or fragged from my frag tank. No base pieces, rock pieces, etc. will make it into the display tank. But of course I'll always have a chance of getting a little bit in, but I'm going to try my best to avoid it. Or do you guys think it's just futile?
Starting out, yes, that's true. My experience is the opposite of yours, having set up dozens of tanks both ways. It would be interesting to run an experiment on this.<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10418161#post10418161 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GreshamH
I disagreee.
I've done both multiple times and each time the cured dead rock has had far less nuisance algae then then other, not to mention dry had ZERO pests.
If you cure both equally and under zero light you'll see what I'm saying
Anyway, good discussion points.
Kinetic
Active member
alright, well I'll try this:
30g bucket, powerhead, heater
10lbs of LR
Leave for 30 days (longer? or however long it takes to finish my tank)
No light at all
Top off water weekly.
Totally dead dry rock for the new display
BB no sand
Add pods and critters from ISFS
Add some chaeto that's well rinsed
Then seed with the 10lbs of rock in the fuge temporarily.
I'm sure I won't get any pest critters, since the LR I'm using has been with me for years, and was with another guy's tank for more than 5 years, and it's being cooked... I'm hoping I won't get any of the hair algae / bubble algae, but eventually i may get it, but hopefully this avoids it a little.
Every coral put into the tank I will first frag a piece from my frag tank, make sure no algae comes with it, and put it in the tank.
Fish will be netted from the QT. No anglers I guess =) for now...
30g bucket, powerhead, heater
10lbs of LR
Leave for 30 days (longer? or however long it takes to finish my tank)
No light at all
Top off water weekly.
Totally dead dry rock for the new display
BB no sand
Add pods and critters from ISFS
Add some chaeto that's well rinsed
Then seed with the 10lbs of rock in the fuge temporarily.
I'm sure I won't get any pest critters, since the LR I'm using has been with me for years, and was with another guy's tank for more than 5 years, and it's being cooked... I'm hoping I won't get any of the hair algae / bubble algae, but eventually i may get it, but hopefully this avoids it a little.
Every coral put into the tank I will first frag a piece from my frag tank, make sure no algae comes with it, and put it in the tank.
Fish will be netted from the QT. No anglers I guess =) for now...
But most fish are constantly picking away at the surfaces of the tanks they're in throughout the chain of custody. There is plenty of live "nuisance" algae that they eat right up until they're bagged at the retailer. Maybe I'm missing something though.<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10418179#post10418179 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GreshamH
After 3 - 6 weeks in the COC I highly doubt many algal spores will remain in said fishes fecesFish have very high metabolism and the turn over rate for them would purge any free floating algal spores in their bodies far before you got it.
Why just starting out? BTW I find the most nuisance of algae to be caulerpa and a few other macros. The micros are fairly easy to controll if you have proper filtration and water quality. You'll get NO macros on dead rock. No nudis. No invasive corals. No mantis. No crabs. No worms. No spiders. No, well you get the point. Live rock gets all those and more.
The source of the dry rock is also crucial. What is on the market today was not offerred even 5 years ago. What dry rock have you used in numerous tank set-ups? Texas holy rock? Florida mined dry reef? Lace?
The source of the dry rock is also crucial. What is on the market today was not offerred even 5 years ago. What dry rock have you used in numerous tank set-ups? Texas holy rock? Florida mined dry reef? Lace?
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10418393#post10418393 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kinetic
gresh just has super picky fish, they only eat the finest culinary creations
Gresh has 3 fish that fend for themselves. If they happen to get what I add for my coral they're stoked. I love my fuge :lol:
No herbivores (fish that is) in my tank.
Kinetic
Active member
Do you think with chaeto I could rinse it like a madman and only put in a couple strands at first (which would turn into a ball if I add it during cycling) to avoid it carrying nuisance algae?
Does it really make a difference in term of nuisance algae? I'm just curious. I got rock from ReeferRocks and MarcoRocks. I think reeferrocks is from the mined dry reef. It's really "glassy" feeling, sharp and everything, while the marco is a bit crumblier... like the rock we're used to.
I've had problems with mined sourced rock but very little with the sun baked dry live rock from Fiji and elsewhere.
You could quickly dip cheato in a dilute bleach solution to kill any algal spores on it. Dunno the duration or strenght though. None of the studies I have papers on are for cheato. Starting with a few strands would be the best way but not the quickest for sure. Starting with such small amount of bio mass you can expect a long journey.
The only thing I can see coming in with Cheato (in out tanks) would be micro algaes and your NEVER going to stop them from being in your tank. Most common is diatoms and they're a very good food source for numerous animals in our tanks.
You could quickly dip cheato in a dilute bleach solution to kill any algal spores on it. Dunno the duration or strenght though. None of the studies I have papers on are for cheato. Starting with a few strands would be the best way but not the quickest for sure. Starting with such small amount of bio mass you can expect a long journey.
The only thing I can see coming in with Cheato (in out tanks) would be micro algaes and your NEVER going to stop them from being in your tank. Most common is diatoms and they're a very good food source for numerous animals in our tanks.
That was why we did our 380g with 100% dry, dead rock. We started out with a bit of LS (but later added a bunch more LS that we got from a fellow reefer and couldn't pass up
).Some nuisance algae hitchiked into our tank on our frag bases and what not. But we are at least still pest free
Kinetic
Active member
awesome, thanks for the help guys =)
I'm not too worried about the micro algae, and I definitely agree it's going to appear in my tank regardless, though running BB, with a fine skimmer and some other good reef keeping I should be fine in that department. Plus I'm so good at cleaning algae off the glass now!! lol
So now... I need to put a tank up. Which one? No idea... depends on if gresh buys my current tank to show up steve weast
I'm not too worried about the micro algae, and I definitely agree it's going to appear in my tank regardless, though running BB, with a fine skimmer and some other good reef keeping I should be fine in that department. Plus I'm so good at cleaning algae off the glass now!! lol
So now... I need to put a tank up. Which one? No idea... depends on if gresh buys my current tank to show up steve weast
Kinetic
Active member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10418686#post10418686 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sparkss
Some nuisance algae hitchiked into our tank on our frag bases and what not. But we are at least still pest free
Yeah I think most of my nuisance algae I have now in my frag tank came from the base of mini colonies and frag disks. =(
I'm definitely going to take new frags or mini colonies, add them to my frag tank first, let it grow out until it's fraggable, and frag a piece into my display, gluing it directly to the rock.
