Skimmer Necessary During Cycle?

[SteveOhh]

Just about done gathering all the necessary items to startup a 60 gallon THE RIGHT WAY!! 60-70 lbs of LS, 75+ lbs LR, 20L made into a DIY sump/fuge, SWCD on return, etc. etc........

Question .....Is a skimmer all that important while the tank is cycling? Gonna go with the ASM Mini in sump when I do buy one, but I shouldn't need one til I add fish, correct??? That'll be at least 4-6 weeks down the road......

Thanks in Advance,

Steve

Anybody seen The ASM Mini for less the $97 (pump included?)

http://www.globeaqua.com/asm.html

Or done business w/ the above mentioned comapny??

Thanks again!!

 

[NicoleC]

A skimmer while cycling will be a plus, but you can do without one. Just get good flow and keep the water quality up.

If you can add it now, though, you may prevent an unfortunate "oops" when you find out your skimmer fits in the sump, but you can't get over the sump and under the tank, or some other issue.

Dry run setup GOOD. Leak testing before you have livestock GOOD. Tearing the tank down again to fix hardware BAD.

The mini is probably a fine nano skimmer, but you need really something beefier for a 60g + sump.

 

[jameschho]

I ran a skimmer while cycling some fresh rocks. Unfortunately, the rocks were new and so was the skimmer.

My point being skimmers can take a little time to "break-in", I am not sure why this is but the first couple of days the skimmer didn't do squat and my tank full of rocks was pretty foul. The manual that came with the skimmer said that it would take 2 weeks to fully break in.

I did water changes daily until the ammonia wasn't off the charts anymore then let it cycle. During the next few weeks the skimmer really helped keep the cycle under control.

If you can, run the skimmer to break it in before you dump a bunch of stinky rocks in there.

 

[dattack]

I would either run a skimmer or at least do a water change before it stinks up the house. You really don't need that large of a dieoff in order to cycle a tank.

 

[SteveOhh]

The LR will be fully cured before being put into the tank. In cycling my other two tanks w/ LR bought from the same place, I never had any smell. In fact, the numbers (ammonia, nitrates, nitrites) never went above 10 on any of them. Using fully cured LR & LS, I had my numbers @ 0 within 2 weeks.

Just wondering if I can get by w/o the skimmer for the first two weeks. I'm in the process of moving into a new house & trying to setup the 60 gallon at the same time............the wife thinks getting the house "prepared" is more important..........boy is she wrong!!!! :lol:

Steve

 

[jdieck]

You are right, it is always better to use a skimmer but if you are not using one the best is to cure outside the aquarium in a tub so all die off and Nitrate stay out of your main. Remember to do frequent water changes, keeping Ammonia at bay (Target less than 0.5 peak during the cycle) will help more of the live stuff survive in your rock which after all is one of the advantages of live rock. Blast the rock with a turkey baster or a powerhead to keep its surface clean, maintain aereation and keep the debris in the tub. Also do not forget to look for bad hitchackers in the process..