my live rock has arrived

[tims28gnano]

ok, so my 30lbs of live rock, fiji fancy branch, arrived yesterday for my JBJ 28G HQI nano. my ph is good and my salinity is good at 78.4 f. i am not running the filter box (carbon and such) and am not running the protein skimmer yet. i rinsed off the rock with tank water and put it in the tank last night. I went to bed dreaming about my future aquascape. tonight i am going to start placing my rock and then put in the 40 lbs of live sand.

while i was putting the water back in my tank after i put in the LR i noticed that the chamber in the filter with the power heads was emptying. i turned off the wavemaker and the chamber began filling. when that chamber was where i wanted it to be i added salt water from the bucket that i had just taken out to rinse the LR to the main tank and then tuned on the wavemaker again.

i will add some pictures here as soon as i can!

i am reading conflicting thoughts on water changes during the cycle.

what do you think?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

A major reason why we cycle live rock is to get rid of all the excess biological material on it. In many cases, the rock is covered with dead stuff when we get it, or at least stuff that will shortly be dead.

As such, I strongly advocate nutrient export during the curing process - either through water changes, skimming, or some other method.

 

[93292_FishGuy]

i reccomend a 5 gallon change every 4 to 5 days with ro di water and maybe scrubbing the rock a little in the old tank water and then rinse in fresh salt water and then back into the tank!

 

[eyesinthedrk]

i will start by saying this is totally my opinion, not science.....

i dont agree with water changes during a cycle, i do agree with scrubbing any dead stuff off the surface,

there are populations swings that occure in the rock at the beginning that can be stabilized quicker by doing water changes during the cycle

but i fear the loss of the organisms that consume the dieing bacteria after the peak of a population swing, ofcorse i was also willing to wait over 4 months from cycle to first fish to give everything a chance to get a foot hold and establish its self

 

[jenglish]

I run a skimmer during the cycle but I don't change water. I've heard the arguments for both sides but I think it really is not going to matter much one way or another. If you don't change during the cycle you will definately want to do a large one when nitrite bottoms out.

 

[beachbumva]

My current tank I ran actenic lights skimmer and all pumps,,dosed purple up every day and did 25 percent water changes during the spike which was a very short 4 days of water changes and never once scrubbed any rock, results are 5 weeks in cycled in less then a week rock 80-90 percent corraline covered purple with absolute loads of zoa some even already reproducing loads of feather dusters and such as well. Everyone does it different and you can read loads of different versions on this site alone. Can only tell you mine but in the past Ive done lights off and only changed water at the very end of the cycle and have never had this result before. Keep in mind before ive only bought the grey "precured" construction rubble they sell in most fish stores and this time it was ordered fresh

 

[beachbumva]

forgot I also ran carbon In my skimmer as well and keep in mind while I think I saved most life on the rock I also saved the bad Hitchikers with it, within first week my aptasia were thriving due to me dosing and ive removed alot of small crabs and 4 mantis shrimp mostly all in t he first week so this method has good and bad that go with it,,all choices to make