Is it safe now?

kenchen77

kenchen77

New member
Hi! Experts,

I had transferred live rock from a hobbyist who lives near by into my new tank of 4ft x 2ft x 2ft. About 200 pounds of live rock from his tank that he was dismantling, I transferred the rock submerged in salt water in 3 large 80 gallon plastic drums. Before i put the rocks in my display I shook each rock under water to get rid of anything that was loose. My tanks parameters for the past 5 days have been 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrate and 0 nitrite, PH stable at 8.4 and calcium levels of 440ppm. Is it safe to add livestock in the tank now?

Another question is that i have heard that new tanks get a diatom bloom in the first few weeks. Will this also happen in my tank as I put in live rock from another working tank. If it does bloom when does it normally occur and how do i minimise it?
 
That's a lot of rock.
I would say if you went right from one tank directly into your with the rock there's not going to be any cycle.

You most likely will get a diatom bloom.Most happen around the 2nd or 3rd week after setting up.The duration can last a week or two.
It's important not to use anything but ro/di water so you don't fuel the outbreak with silicates.
I'm no expert,just been through it a few times.
 
Ya your probably not going to get any die off that will cause a cycle since you already cured the rock. If you are just starting out a new tank, go to the grocery store and get a couple raw table shrimp, put them in a stocking or filter sock and throw them in the tank. In about a week you will have a nice supply of ammonia which will kick start your cycle.

During and after your cycle, you will probably be dealing with diatoms for a while! They are ugly as crap, but its just one of those things you have to deal with, with a new tank.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15390961#post15390961 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ryandlf
Ya your probably not going to get any die off that will cause a cycle since you already cured the rock. If you are just starting out a new tank, go to the grocery store and get a couple raw table shrimp, put them in a stocking or filter sock and throw them in the tank. In about a week you will have a nice supply of ammonia which will kick start your cycle.
Click to expand...

I have already put in shrimp and i did this 2 days before i added the live rock as it just had salt water mix and i was waiting for the hobbyist to come back into town.
 
You didn't need to do the shrimp thing.
Your rock would have been just fine going from one tank to another.
Only if the hobbyist tank was emty for a very long time.
No need to kick start anything.
Oh well.......
 
It depends on what the bioload was in the previous tank in comparison to what it will be in your tank soon, and if the live rock was all or most of the biological filter medium in the previous tank.

It looks like you did not destroy the existing nitrification.
 
I have no idea if this actually works but I read that if you pee in the tank you can start a cycle because your urine is amonia.

No I have never tried it, I just read it somewhere haha
 
I would say no it worries me your nitates are zero If you tank went throught a cycle you should have a few nitrates. Please don't pee in your tank That just sounds like a bad idea too me if you want to add ammonia its very cheap at walmart, but I would be patient. I know its hard I would just leave it for a month, and not touch it.
 
I use pee all the time, especially just a little at the earlest phase of the cycle.

The problem with pee is that the amount of ammonia per volume of pee is hard to quantify.
 
In a situation like this a booster cycle will likely be less than a month, especially in the summer when the temp is in the mid 80s F.

Actually, "is it now safe" may not be the issue. The question should be "is it ideal now".

If the nitrification capacity is low, it will still support the first fish or other livestock. The question is whether you will subject additional fish to mini-cycle if you do not boost the nitrification now.

When a tank is without livestock, it may be best to boost the nitrification capacity now. It depends on whether you are interested in keeping a lot of (large) fish or a reef tank with just a few small fish.
 
Last edited:
Shaginwagon thanks for the idea, I know it will work but then its gonna be tough for me to climb atop the display tank and pee into it :). Can you imagine the sight lol

Woodenreefer regarding the bio load in the previous tank he had one daisy coral, a bubble anemone and a couple of fish which he gave away the day before i took the live rock from him. The live rock was all the filteration he had in it. What does one mean by a booster cycle and mini cycle? And how do i boost the nitrates?
 
A "minicycle" has negative connotation. It means the introduction of valuable livestock (fish) slowly (one at a time) into a tank of limited (at the limiting) nitrification capacity. A small increase in ammonia is suggested to only harm the fish (all the fish now) slightly and hopefully all will struggle to survive the small ammonia increase, which in time will diminish and disappear as the nitrification filter catches up with more bacteria.

Booster cycle is, in view of the above, the introduction of a rather large surge of ammonia without livestock so that the nitrification capacity will increase before adding livestock. You have to add livestock within a certain length of time after that, say several weeks, before the nitification capacity decreases again.

It seems that the bioload of the previous tank was not high. It depends on what you want. If you want a reef tank with just a few small fish, the gradual mini-cycle method is less taxing on the brain of the aquarist, but always not the best even for a reef tank.

I prefer to always booster when I have the chance particularily in view that it is very easy and can be critical.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15397348#post15397348 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kenchen77
Shaginwagon thanks for the idea, I know it will work but then its gonna be tough for me to climb atop the display tank and pee into it :). Can you imagine the sight lol

Woodenreefer regarding the bio load in the previous tank he had one daisy coral, a bubble anemone and a couple of fish which he gave away the day before i took the live rock from him. The live rock was all the filteration he had in it. What does one mean by a booster cycle and mini cycle? And how do i boost the nitrates?
Click to expand...

Urinate in a cup and pour the stuff in.

I generally do not cycle in a tank, I cycle the filter material intended for the tank in a more convenient place and with far less water that fills the DT.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15397793#post15397793 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stingythingy45
You don't need to to create a cycle in this tank.
The LR is already enough for denitrification.
Click to expand...

I think you mean nitrification.

But how do you know that?

I want to put in a six-inch queen angel now. How can you be sure that the nitrification capacity is enough now?

If the previous tank had three such sized fish, then I would say yes. Some loss in nitrification capacity is bound to have happened, but if there were three such fish, I'd say that likely it would be enough for one even with some loss in nitrification capacity.

Otherwise, how would you know?
 
First of let me say I by no means am telling you that this will work 100% for you but I started a tank from cured live rock and dried sand. I added fish the first week and added coral 8 days after I had the tank set up. I got alot of flack for it and lots of people told me everything was gonna die. I added sps the 3rd week and I never lost a coral and I only lost 1 fish due to ick (i believe he had when I bought him). I used SeaChem Stability and I had a small cycle and everything stayed healthy and is still growing like crazy. I have had my tank up for over 3 months and all my params are now perfect and stabalized. Here is a link to the thread I posted of my tank at 5 and 7 weeks. I will be posting new picks of it today as well. I may have just been lucky but everyone has there opinion on how things should be done......

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1647969

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1656151
 
If there is not rush, I would wait a few weeks and see what kind of life he has in this rock, you would hate to start adding corals and fish and find out that you have some sort of pest that stresses your tank mates out. Like, if you haven't seen his tank with fish in it, but some recently died from ich, you might need that rock in your setup to go fallow for a bit before introducing livestock of your own to tainted water, just a thought...
 
Thanks for all the advice from you guys, i have just noticed that the diatom bloom has started in my tank. I was told the it normally starts at the 3rd week of the cycle. Could it be that my tank is cycling faster due to using cured live rock?

Isnt it true that if the diatom bloom starts that my cycle is over? My tank parameters at night were:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrates - 0
Nitrites - 0
Ph 8.8

Also today when i fixed my metal halides i saw the rock and substrate pearling with photosynthesis
 
It is very very easy to boost the nitrification capacity. For every 50 gals of water, place 1 medium (about 0.5 ounce moist) shrimp into a blender. Blend into a milk after a couple of minutes and then pour it in. This will be about 2ppm N ammonia.

To boost one pulse of ammonia should be enough. It may take as little as ten days for the nitrification capacity to be augmented 2x 4x

Do not just wait. It makes little sense to just wait without injecting a pulse of ammonia.
 
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