Question about cycling with corals?

[loyalrogue]

OK, I knew that title would get your attention.

The unusual question of the day is, would coral (specifically xenia) placed in a new tank add to the cycling process as it breaks down ("melts").

One one hand, you would logically assume that as an organic it would naturally create the same byproducts as any organic when it decomposes helping to jumpstart the nitrifying cycle, right?

On the otherhand, corals (especially soft like xenia) are composed mostly of water.
A much greater water to mass ratio than say, the typical shrimp used for a fishless cycle.
Also, soft corals are known for slowly shrinking in size ("melting") until they disappear completely instead of immediately dying and leaving behind a large mass that rots and decomposes into waste products over a period of time.

What effects, positive or negative, could this have on the cycling process, and how might that change with the addition of even more xenia?

Discuss.




In case you were wondering, this question arose as I began to setup some new tanks.
I've added several pieces of LR to each from my main tank to spread the bacterial love to the new sand and BR, most of which had xenia colonies attached.
Unfortunately, with my luck the damn stuff will survive and overrun the new tanks before their cycle is even finished... :lol:

 

[Young Frankenstein]

why not just throw a shrip ??

 

[Lifes A Beach]

My big project this weekend was to weed out just about all of the xenia from my tank. I know some people use it as a nitrate export so I'm going to be watching my corals very closely to see if there will be any changes in that respect. I've never had a problem with my xenia melting, in fact, they have been growing very nicely. But in a tank where the xenia would melt or die off, I would assume that would create a big problem with decomposing tissue and cause bad water quality.

 

[jeffbrig]

The only issue I see is that corals have chemical toxins that will be released into the water when they die. I'll give you an extreme example - use a dying sarcophyton leather coral to 'cycle' a tank, then try growing sps after the ammonia stabilizes. The toxins from the sarcophyton will still be present in the water, and are harmful to sps.

A nice, clean piece shrimp doesn't present the same problems.

 

[ReefWreak]

I would agree with Jeff's suggestion with the biochemical issues later down the road.

The Xenia will though create a big nitrate and/or phosphate spike, as I'm still fighting off algae from when my xenia melted in my 24g that was overrun with Xenia, and the algae just bloomed.

 

[Kogo]

if your using cured liverock, your xenia will likely live and thrive.

I never cycled any of my nano tanks, i just used cured liverock then added coral (mostly xenia). of course these were not fish oriented tanks.

 

[loyalrogue]

Thank you, Jeff.
That's just the kind of knowledge nugget I was hoping would come up in discussion.
Always good to know more about the toxic side of the critters that could end up in our tanks. (boxfish, zoas, nudis, etc.)

Luckily, I'm only talking about a few xenia that are attached to the LR I'm using to seed the new tanks.
I honestly don't think I could find a piece of LR (except the couple my anemones are attached to) in my big tank that are completely xenia-free.
I would certainly scrape the rocks beforehand if I was made aware of any possible toxic result from their dying other than the usual chemical imbalance that'll be corrected with the post cycle water change.

Unfortunately, as Kogo mentioned, it looks like they're all going to keep going strong.
24 hours later and they're all back to pink and pulsing.
Looks like I might end up scraping after all.

 

[ReefWreak]

Heh, John, if you really want to get rid of them, and are planning on cycling the rock anyway.... There's always a brute trash can, a powerhead, some waterchanges,.... and a fluke tab......

 

[loyalrogue]

Thanks Eric, I'll keep that in mind if I ever decide to de-xenia any of my large rockwork.
As for the little bit of rubble I've used to seed these tanks, I could scrape them clean in less time and with less effort.