Cycling First Tank With Dry Rock

[illmatik]

Getting my first tank set up, a 29G JBL Nano Cube I bought second hand locally. It came with the dead rock and sand that the previous owner had in the tank.

My plan was to cycle the sand, rock and water in the tank. My only concern is will this stink up my whole house? I ordered some DrTim's nitryfing bacteria to hopefully aide this process, but I won't hear the end of it from the wife if the whole house stinks from the curing

 

[nuttyd]

It can. Just put a cover over the tank. Seran wrap if no glass tops. Keeps smell in. Usually wont smell for long unless a lot of stuff died on the rock thats stil there.

 

[Quiet_Ivy]

Getting my first tank set up, a 29G JBL Nano Cube I bought second hand locally. It came with the dead rock and sand that the previous owner had in the tank.

My plan was to cycle the sand, rock and water in the tank. My only concern is will this stink up my whole house? I ordered some DrTim's nitryfing bacteria to hopefully aide this process, but I won't hear the end of it from the wife if the whole house stinks from the curing

Is it one of the new led ones?
I would never reuse sand. Seriously, it's absolutely full of guck, it's impossible to clean, and sand is not that expensive if you buy bulk.

The rocks might get stinky depending. Are they covered in dead algae or unidentifiable gunk? You can fill a rubbermaid tub with tapwater and swish them around enthusiastically. A new scrub brush will get algae off. Wouldn't do this in the bath tub or sink as you'll be amazed at the amount of sand, gravel and yuck that comes off.

After cleaning you may want to soak them overnight (tapwater's ok again) and then test the water for phosphates. If you get a ridiculously high number you may want to treat them outside the tank before cycling.

hth
Ivy

 

[azcrazy]

Make sure you don't use fish like i did, as I was told before raw shrimp from super market will do the trick

 

[nuxx]

Dump a few bottles of Instant Ocean BioSpira in there

 

[mcozad829]

Getting my first tank set up, a 29G JBL Nano Cube I bought second hand locally. It came with the dead rock and sand that the previous owner had in the tank.

My plan was to cycle the sand, rock and water in the tank. My only concern is will this stink up my whole house? I ordered some DrTim's nitryfing bacteria to hopefully aide this process, but I won't hear the end of it from the wife if the whole house stinks from the curing

How funky smelling it gets depends on how much dead stuff there is on and in the rock that needs to rot off. The cycling of a tank with clean dry rock doesn't stink by itself, its the decaying life forms on rock that has been previously used that does.

 

[illmatik]

Gotcha.

If that's the case, I may be inclined to just buy some actual dead rock instead of re-using the previous tank owner's rock which definitely has a ton of dead corals and whatnot on it. I would like to cycle my rock and tank together without making my house smell like rotten eggs

 

[mcozad829]

Gotcha.

If that's the case, I may be inclined to just buy some actual dead rock instead of re-using the previous tank owner's rock which definitely has a ton of dead corals and whatnot on it. I would like to cycle my rock and tank together without making my house smell like rotten eggs

Sound smart to me, then id look for dry rock from a place like BRS and add some bottled bacteria like bio-spira or dr tims to kick start the cycle and your off to the races.

 

[Sk8r]

I cycle with dry flake fish food, just 1 flake per 10 gallons per day, and it doesn't smell. There's no need to turn a tank into a toxic soup. It doesn't save time. Bacteria will grow at the rate they can.