Skipping a cycle

[Myna]

Hi all,

I just wanted to share with you all how I was able to setup a new tank and have an instant establishment of the bacterial filtration for the nitrification cycle. Just some information for anyone looking to speed up the initial setup as far as cycling goes, this is not about maturing the tank which can only be done with time. Also, for the experts out there, let me know what you think!

So I started my 55g by filling it with Imagitarium Pacific Ocean Water. On the box, it says there's bacteria in it as well but who really knows! I then added 120lbs of live aragonite sand, which is also supposed to have bacterial establishment. After the sand storm ended, I added 30lbs of dry reef rock and 30lbs of fully cured live rock from LFS. I waited for a few days and then head out to the LFS to buy the Dr.Tims One & Only with Ammonia. When I asked them, the guy was insistent and said it's better to add the bottle of Dr. Tims and in 24hrs put 5 small fish in. I was a bit apprehensive but I ended up doing that. I put in 2 clowns, 2 bangai cardinals, and one green chromis.

That was a few weeks ago. I test the water everyday. My readings are always 0 for ammonia and Nitrite and Nitrate. The pH stays at 8.2, temp at 78-79f and SG at 1.024. I was so confused because this is my first attempt at saltwater tanks and the API kits can be tricky sometimes. And I was mentally prepared for the spikes that come in the cycle. I took a sample to my LFS and they came back with the same readings, except for that Nitrate was at 5.0!! Ammonia and nitrite at 0, never registered at all with a bioload and it's a new tank!!! I guess you can look at it as I didn't have an instant cycle but I skipped a cycled by adding the live cured rock, live sand, "live" wAter and Dr. Tims One & Only. I'm not sure which addition made the biggest difference in the establishment of bacteria. I ended up adding a small clean up crew after a diatom then hair algae bloom started and they as well as the fish have been doing great!

Isn't that just crazy?!?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mcgyvr]

Isn't that just crazy?!?

Sounds pretty normal to me..

Many of us "experts" always "err on the side of caution" and never really recommend or suggest that its certainly possible to have a nearly instant cycle...
Kind of like how its foolish to say something is "idiot proof" The idiots are always outsmarting us..

But yes when starting with cured live rock straight from a local source, bacteria in a bottle, sufficient fresh live sand,etc... its certainly possible to have an instant/no cycle..

Sounds like you were sufficiently educated/prepared in the first place so thats good too..

 

[squeakymcmurdo]

I've had a similar experience, except I have not purchased live rock. Instant Ocean salt and Caribsea Ocean Direct live sand. The live sand had a handful of marble size or bigger live rock. My tank has been up for 2 weeks and nothing changed so I added 5 blue legged hermit crabs when I had the opportunity to visit a fish store in a different state over the weekend.

 

[Myna]

Sounds pretty normal to me..

Many of us "experts" always "err on the side of caution" and never really recommend or suggest that its certainly possible to have a nearly instant cycle...
Kind of like how its foolish to say something is "idiot proof" The idiots are always outsmarting us..

But yes when starting with cured live rock straight from a local source, bacteria in a bottle, sufficient fresh live sand,etc... its certainly possible to have an instant/no cycle..

Sounds like you were sufficiently educated/prepared in the first place so thats good too..

Thanks! I did a lot of reading before I got into it and really was going to do a fish-less cycle. But the LFS was very convincing and I guess rightfully so. But I was so nervous everyday about ammonia and nitrite that I checked twice a day for a few days!

I guess my point of the post was that there are so many variables when it comes to this that as a newcomer, you don't expect. I know I wasn't expecting that or really understood what was going on. And I really thought my tank was just not cycling. I mean, you do the research and expect ammonia spikes, then possibly nitrite spikes and then finally Nitrate. But depending on what you use in your setup, that may not necessarily happen.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mcgyvr]

I've had a similar experience, except I have not purchased live rock. Instant Ocean salt and Caribsea Ocean Direct live sand. The live sand had a handful of marble size or bigger live rock. My tank has been up for 2 weeks and nothing changed so I added 5 blue legged hermit crabs when I had the opportunity to visit a fish store in a different state over the weekend.

From my experience that type of "live sand" is rarely populated with enough beneficial bacteria to avoid a cycle.. Its possible that you got a very "fresh" bag though..
I'd feel safer if you had multiple sources of bacteria like fresh cured live rock plus bottled bacteria plus good live sand..

Now its also possible that while you aren't showing any ammonia if you were to add a source of ammonia up to say 2 ppm that it would take too long to process that.. So basically a small bioload like a few crabs just isn't sufficient to cause ammonia toxicity issues but if you had more then you could/would have a potential problem..

 

[squeakymcmurdo]

Oh I know I got lucky with the freshness. There is a tiny snail that had to have come with it and some of the pieces of rubble have turned pink which I assume is coralline. The live was cheaper than dry aragonite to ship. I did use Stress Zyme and Seachem Prime.

 

[ReeferNoob4ever]

I used 50% water from my already cycled tank along with the filter media and put in wet live rock and plain sand. I put an anemone in 5 days later. Now that's crazy! It's been 3 months now and the anemone and clownfish are growing just fine. I have birds nest, hammer, toadstool, mushrooms, and a feather duster in there, as well as, 1 red leg hermit, 2 snails and a ton of pods!

<a href="http://s1377.photobucket.com/user/iandrackert/media/20170619_192428_zpsalrtaf8u.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1377.photobucket.com/albums/ah44/iandrackert/20170619_192428_zpsalrtaf8u.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20170619_192428_zpsalrtaf8u.jpg"/></a>

 

[mcgyvr]

I used 50% water from my already cycled tank along with the filter media and put in wet live rock and plain sand.

Note: The actual water itself has far less bacteria vs the actual rock/sand surfaces..

Most of the bacteria is not "free floating" in the water but instead inhabits surfaces hence why having "porous" rock or very fine sand can be really beneficial as you vastly increase surface area thus giving the bacteria more surface area to colonize..

 

[ReeferNoob4ever]

Then it was most likely from the filter media.

 

[mcgyvr]

Then it was most likely from the filter media.

you also said wet live rock so I'd bank on those 2 being the big contributors of bacteria..

 

[Myna]

I used 50% water from my already cycled tank along with the filter media and put in wet live rock and plain sand. I put an anemone in 5 days later. Now that's crazy! It's been 3 months now and the anemone and clownfish are growing just fine. I have birds nest, hammer, toadstool, mushrooms, and a feather duster in there, as well as, 1 red leg hermit, 2 snails and a ton of pods!

<a href="http://s1377.photobucket.com/user/iandrackert/media/20170619_192428_zpsalrtaf8u.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1377.photobucket.com/albums/ah44/iandrackert/20170619_192428_zpsalrtaf8u.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20170619_192428_zpsalrtaf8u.jpg"/></a>

Wow! That's great! I like your tank. It's good to know that there's ways around getting to what you want without harming or jeopardizing the outcome. That filter media and live rock from your other tank probably helped you out a lot. When I was initially putting my tank together, I was actually tempted to ask my LFS for a used filter pad but was kinda skeptical.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[brianbrainstein]

That sounds about right. My 220 gallon did not go through a cycle (I never detected ammonia or nitrites testing every day). The tank has been up about 7 months now. I attribute this to adding 200 lbs of live rock from an established system and another 100 lbs of dry rock to seed. Whether the live sand had anything to do with this I cannot say.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk