Real Reef Rock in new aquarium

[DubleD]

Hello everyone!!
Last week i start to cycle my 125g (100x27x27) tank. I decided to use 70 lbs live sand, and about 92lbs "Real Reef Rock". I add one day Brightwell Microbact7 and next day Seachem Stability. I start without useing light and without any media. I use only feeding pump, two Tunze 6095, and the Skimmer Deltec 2060.
5 days after i get all important water parameter 0 (amonia,nitrite,nitrate, phosphate). I decide to add a shrimp (2,5inch one) but three days after, same, 0 all parameters....in same time i stop the skimmer and add one more Tunze 6095.In day 6 i stop adding bacteria also.
The water its nice and clear, no smell.
That was a small history of what i have done and i can tell you that i reed also alot but i did not find soo many information about how to cycle a tank with this Real Reef Rock (it's a US product)
Actualy as much as i reed i start to be confuse and honestly not soo happy with my decision regarding the rock i have use.
I feel shame to ask now, 10 days after i start my tank but this is my main question:
What kind of rocks is this?? Live or dead? Cured or not??
What i have done untill now its wrong??
If yes what can i do to fix and cycle my tank??

 

[Daddyrawg]

Hello everyone!!
Last week i start to cycle my 125g (100x27x27) tank. I decided to use 70 lbs live sand, and about 92lbs "Real Reef Rock". I add one day Brightwell Microbact7 and next day Seachem Stability. I start without useing light and without any media. I use only feeding pump, two Tunze 6095, and the Skimmer Deltec 2060.
5 days after i get all important water parameter 0 (amonia,nitrite,nitrate, phosphate). I decide to add a shrimp (2,5inch one) but three days after, same, 0 all parameters....in same time i stop the skimmer and add one more Tunze 6095.In day 6 i stop adding bacteria also.
The water its nice and clear, no smell.
That was a small history of what i have done and i can tell you that i reed also alot but i did not find soo many information about how to cycle a tank with this Real Reef Rock (it's a US product)
Actualy as much as i reed i start to be confuse and honestly not soo happy with my decision regarding the rock i have use.
I feel shame to ask now, 10 days after i start my tank but this is my main question:
What kind of rocks is this?? Live or dead? Cured or not??
What i have done untill now its wrong??
If yes what can i do to fix and cycle my tank??

i bought same rock and thought it was LR, but a different LFS told me its not LR. BUT good thing i had bought plenty of LR to make up for the fact that bacteria needs the surface area to sees on. he said that Rock is just for show..i was ****ed also lol

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[DubleD]

i bought same rock and thought it was LR, but a different LFS told me its not LR. BUT good thing i had bought plenty of LR to make up for the fact that bacteria needs the surface area to sees on. he said that Rock is just for show..i was ****ed also lol

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Thanks, that's bad because was advertise like live rocks and i bought like this...i don't have any live rocks, only this once...

This is thrue?? Show rocks???

 

[ryeguyy84]

I have the same rocks and they are not the best but they've been working for me. They are very dense and not that pourous so as live rock there's not a lot of surface area.

I eventually added a marinepure block to the sump and all is well

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[mcgyvr]

"Live" simply means its been in water/is wet and has bacteria growing/living on it...If its allowed to dry out its not live as the bacteria has died...At that point its dry/dead rock...

Curing is the process of allowing dead/dying organic matter/bacteria to be consumed/removed by living bacteria.. Curing is typically something you do when you want to put rock into an established system and dont want an ammonia spike because of it or just dont want all that dead stuff decomposing in your tank

The more porous a rock is the more surface area it typically has thus is can sustain more bacteria on it/in it

Thats it...simple stuff people often just dont understand/learn

 

[DubleD]

"Live" simply means its been in water/is wet and has bacteria growing/living on it...If its allowed to dry out its not live as the bacteria has died...At that point its dry/dead rock...

Curing is the process of allowing dead/dying organic matter/bacteria to be consumed/removed by living bacteria.. Curing is typically something you do when you want to put rock into an established system and dont want an ammonia spike because of it or just dont want all that dead stuff decomposing in your tank

The more porous a rock is the more surface area it typically has thus is can sustain more bacteria on it/in it

Thats it...simple stuff people often just dont understand/learn

I beleive that....the problem is that when i bought i beleive the seller who told me that this bacteria will be alive in two weeks and the rocks its enough porous. He told me that i can start to add fish in two weeks and that i didn't believe but i was hoping for one mouth. After i bought i see that they are not porous at all and the tank don't start the cycle routine ... what to do now?? i have payed 500 euro for this rocks.
I just waist my time waiting for the tank to be cycled??

 

[DubleD]

I have the same rocks and they are not the best but they've been working for me. They are very dense and not that pourous so as live rock there's not a lot of surface area.

I eventually added a marinepure block to the sump and all is well

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I don't find marinepure block but i order 4 liter Seachem Matrix and one Brickwell Bio Brick...how often you change your marinpure block?

 

[ryeguyy84]

I don't find marinepure block but i order 4 liter Seachem Matrix and one Brickwell Bio Brick...how often you change your marinpure block?

I don't change the block. Every couple water changes I swish the block in old tank water to clean the gunk out

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[mcgyvr]

I beleive that....the problem is that when i bought i beleive the seller who told me that this bacteria will be alive in two weeks and the rocks its enough porous. He told me that i can start to add fish in two weeks and that i didn't believe but i was hoping for one mouth. After i bought i see that they are not porous at all and the tank don't start the cycle routine ... what to do now?? i have payed 500 euro for this rocks.
I just waist my time waiting for the tank to be cycled??

um... no..
You added bottled bacteria.
When you do that you are basically adding a bunch of bacteria all at one time and those products can allow you to skip the typical ammonia cycle where you see an increase in ammonia then nitrites,etc.... Many times the cycle is much shorter when doing so..
With bottled bacterial products the normal peaks may not even happen..

That doesn't mean your tank is not cycled.. It just means it may have sufficient bacteria already so you don't see the peaks as the bacteria is already processing ammonia quickly..

You can test your tanks bacterial state at anytime by dosing the tank with ammonia up to 1ppm or so and then check parameters again in 24 hours.. If that ammonia is now back to zero and nitrites are at zero then the tank is sufficiently cycled..

 

[ryeguyy84]

You can test your tanks bacterial state at anytime by dosing the tank with ammonia up to 1ppm or so and then check parameters again in 24 hours.. If that ammonia is now back to zero and nitrites are at zero then the tank is sufficiently cycled..

Just wanted to add to mcgyvrs post... Do this before you add fish.

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[DubleD]

Just wanted to add to mcgyvrs post... Do this before you add fish.

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sorry but i dont understand, what to do?

 

[ryeguyy84]

You can add ammonia to 1ppm and test it to see how quickly it goes away. That will test to see if your tank is cycled. But don't do that with fish in the tank. They don't like ammonia

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[sixty_reefer]

Hi mate I see you have wasted your money in the bacteria bottle, maybe is best to do some more reading in how to cycle an aquarium using live cultured bacteria.

Real reef rock is just as good as any other rock, in mine I used ceramic rock more porous than pukani. It's dead wend you buy it (no bacteria living in it)

Metood is:

Do your aquascaping
Fill tank
24 to 48 hours later wend all is settled you can choose by natural cycle or bacteria cycle

Wend you opt to go with bacteria cycle you add the bacteria and your first fish to create amônia without a source of amônia the bacteria in the tank will just die off.


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[mcgyvr]

Wend you opt to go with bacteria cycle you add the bacteria and your first fish to create amônia without a source of amônia the bacteria in the tank will just die off.

Studies have shown that bacteria can live for a year or more without any additional food source.. Same reason that the bottled bacterial products have shelf lifes of a year or more..

Its also kind of frowned upon now to purposefully expose an animal to toxic ammonia and many would just suggest a dead shrimp and letting it decompose or ghost feeding by simply sprinkling some flake or pellet or whatever food into the tank for a few days/week or so..

 

[sixty_reefer]

Studies have shown that bacteria can live for a year or more without any additional food source.. Same reason that the bottled bacterial products have shelf lifes of a year or more..



Its also kind of frowned upon now to purposefully expose an animal to toxic ammonia and many would just suggest a dead shrimp and letting it decompose or ghost feeding by simply sprinkling some flake or pellet or whatever food into the tank for a few days/week or so..

You right there mate, the bags of live sand are a good example of it. But am talking about the bacteria in the bottle designed to cycle new aquariums am not familiar with the brand he's using but am pretty sure that it says somewhere in there to add a source of amônia to the tank. I don't know if you ever used yourself the product but this prevents the amônia nitrates spike to happen to you tank therefore safe to had life to the tank. But in case some ppl not confident to do so you can use amônia in a bottle to do so.

All am saying is at the moment he might think the tank is cycled but as soon as he put the fish in there all is going to go bad unless he adds more bacteria to the tank.

What you mentioned with the shrimp or ghost feeding is what I would call the natural cycling method that normally takes up to 30 days to happen


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[DubleD]

I ad a 2,5 inch shrimmp in the water few days after i start the tank. I was afraid to add more because i didn't know when and how much will rise amonia. Now i start to add small amount of food daily but same. Amonia, nitrite, mitrate show 0. I will like alot to use pure ammonia but here its impossible to buy due restriction. I succeed to order some ammonia chloride from ebay, somebody advice me to use this...That i hope to don't kill existing bacteria

 

[DubleD]

Fish i don't like to add before im sure that the tank it's cycled, i beleive will help but i don't feel good to do that
Thanks a lot for all your answers.
Waiting for other opinions also

 

[DubleD]

I come with an update! Nitrate its not 0, very low level , i belive 0.2-0.5 but not 0. I use salifer test and if i watch from top show 0 but from side with 10 time color magnification show 2 or 5 but i need to devide by 10 then 2-5 become 0.2-0.5.
I belive that's nice, look that the cycle it's started .

 

[mcgyvr]

measurable nitrate does NOT mean the cycle has started..
If anything is the opposite and likely means that your cycle has already occurred..

Nitrate is the last step in the nitrification process and its also one chemical that will be around/measurable long after the cycle is over..
The bacteria quickly breaks down ammonia into nitrite and finally into nitrate..

Its very likely that the cycle has either come and gone or there is sufficient bacteria already that you simply will not see the typical stages and will not measure an ammonia or nitrites..
But I also feel like a language barrier is preventing you from understanding much of what has been said here too...

 

[DubleD]

measurable nitrate does NOT mean the cycle has started..
If anything is the opposite and likely means that your cycle has already occurred..

Nitrate is the last step in the nitrification process and its also one chemical that will be around/measurable long after the cycle is over..
The bacteria quickly breaks down ammonia into nitrite and finally into nitrate..

Its very likely that the cycle has either come and gone or there is sufficient bacteria already that you simply will not see the typical stages and will not measure an ammonia or nitrites..
But I also feel like a language barrier is preventing you from understanding much of what has been said here too...

I feel language can be a barrier for me but in same time I feel that I understand and follow the information I get here. That's my opinion also, the presence of nitrate come from nitrification cycle and now in finally I see a start. I'm sure it's a lot to wait until all cycles process it's ready but I just wonder and ask if it's a good start in your opinion.
Thanks