I am going to to RI Shore in August agin and I am going to do some collecting. I am going to use a 20 gal bio cube with sand collected from the ocean along with ocean water to cycle the tank with Macro algae, hermits and other small critters. I know it seems simplistic to think that everything will go smoothly but will that cycle the tank enough or should I use old water from my reef tank to start the cycle sooner? No sand base just the filter system for the Bio cube.
Local collecting
- Thread starter quonnie
- Start date
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
I would get the biocube up and running and cycled (at home) before bringing your critters home. As already mentioned, water alone is no good for cycling the aquarium. Get some rock and/or sand in the biocube ASAP to get the cycle going. Going to Block Island?
no charlestown on Ninegret pond, I snorkle the rocks in the ocean and the pond side as kids we would collect pipefish, needle fish muumychughs we called the baby cunners, all kinds of minnows, I might bring home a couple of bivalves, sponges tons of macro alage little crabs that kind of stuff. I plan on going back in sept/oct to go and collect tangs lionfish etc from the Gulf stream tha get blownin and sucked into the saltwater ponds.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
did you grow up around there?
What a great area.
What a great area.
I spent many summer days on Block Island back in the 70s. A colleague whom I worked with when I worked in NYC, the World Trade Center south tower, bought a home there just after WW2 at what later turned out to be a heck of a deal. She had five acres with a bass pond and a beautiful view of the ocean and the sound. She also had a grand nephew ,Jason, who was about 10 yrs old and needed someone to stay with him on the Island when his parents who also became friends with my wife and I ,couldn't. I got the house to use for me and my family in exchange for keeping Jason.. Jason liked to fish and I loved to fish.(tautog, bluefish and stripers in the surf with an occasional flounder or weakfish) So my wife and my two then little girls and I made several weekly stays over the course of several years. My job changed and we moved to another part of NY state and lost touch with Calla for a couple of years and then I heard that she had passed away . She was a very classy lady and I'm very grateful she shared her love of Block Island with us in this special way.
Right the water won't help the cycle at all. The bacteria that perform nitrification
( ammonia reduction) and denitrification are benthic they colonize the /surface of the rock and substrate primarily.
Right the water won't help the cycle at all. The bacteria that perform nitrification
( ammonia reduction) and denitrification are benthic they colonize the /surface of the rock and substrate primarily.
