Being a sw rookie, I thought maybe we could compare notes on the idea of cycling. I have several years experience with Africans, and to put it bluntly, found cycling to be the most overblown idea in all of fw fishkeeping.
Before you get me wrong, of course a tank absolutely has to cycle. But I was fortunate enough to get great deals on wc featherfins and xenotilapia - fussy and demanding fish both. When I started a 125 gallon tank, I would add 75 gallons or so of "dirty" water from a cycled tank, take a few dirty filter pads and swish them around, add some of the sand from the bottom of a couple of tanks, and presto, instant cycle. To be safe, I added a product called Nitrex which was supposed to colonize bacteria in record time. But I would put in wc featherfins worth a small fortune and never an issue.
I worried a lot, and had others express concern to, that though I have cured LR, my tank would have to cycle still. Now the part of me that still thinks with the fw side of my brain reasons that this rock has been sitting in a curing tank for a month, getting bathed in bacteria from the central system at Fishys. Somehow some of the bacteria must have settled in it. I also added 30 pounds of live sand, which should also boast bacteria. I also have a sock that all of my water washes through that is just dirty enough to think it, too, has some bacteria.
Les today told me he didn' think I would have a roblem because my rock was really cured well and in his store for an extended time. Seems to me that well cured LR that is resided in a system saturated with bacteria, and live sand from the same system, that as long as you don't put too big a strain on the tank by putting in too many fish or feeding heavily, maybe cycling isn't so spooky in the salt either.... A small amouont of produced ammonia could possibly be handled well enough by what bacteria is living in my LR, no?
That said, I'm not confident and am scared for my little foxface, but after 36 hours, my water still has ammonia at 0. So is the fw side of my brain just being stubborn or might there be something to how I am thinking?
Before you get me wrong, of course a tank absolutely has to cycle. But I was fortunate enough to get great deals on wc featherfins and xenotilapia - fussy and demanding fish both. When I started a 125 gallon tank, I would add 75 gallons or so of "dirty" water from a cycled tank, take a few dirty filter pads and swish them around, add some of the sand from the bottom of a couple of tanks, and presto, instant cycle. To be safe, I added a product called Nitrex which was supposed to colonize bacteria in record time. But I would put in wc featherfins worth a small fortune and never an issue.
I worried a lot, and had others express concern to, that though I have cured LR, my tank would have to cycle still. Now the part of me that still thinks with the fw side of my brain reasons that this rock has been sitting in a curing tank for a month, getting bathed in bacteria from the central system at Fishys. Somehow some of the bacteria must have settled in it. I also added 30 pounds of live sand, which should also boast bacteria. I also have a sock that all of my water washes through that is just dirty enough to think it, too, has some bacteria.
Les today told me he didn' think I would have a roblem because my rock was really cured well and in his store for an extended time. Seems to me that well cured LR that is resided in a system saturated with bacteria, and live sand from the same system, that as long as you don't put too big a strain on the tank by putting in too many fish or feeding heavily, maybe cycling isn't so spooky in the salt either.... A small amouont of produced ammonia could possibly be handled well enough by what bacteria is living in my LR, no?
That said, I'm not confident and am scared for my little foxface, but after 36 hours, my water still has ammonia at 0. So is the fw side of my brain just being stubborn or might there be something to how I am thinking?
) Les got the rock on 7/12 and I took it on 8/17.
Thx for the help
