speed up the cycle?

[Capt_Cully]

I'm starting with dried reincarnated lifeless rock and dried sand. I've added live rock without die off. Therefore, no cycle to speak of.

With no ammonia or nitrites or nitrates, how do I get beneficial bacterial growth to blossom?

Add a fish or two?
feed the tank to get some DOCs in the collumn?
Do the dead shrimp trick for same effect (increase DOCs)?
be patient and wait for cycle that never occurs?

 

[primmer]

Live Sand

Live Sand

Cully,
Try the "Live Sand" they sell. Comes in a plastic 10-15 lb bag, most places will have it. Should have all the cooties you need. Wait a week, and plunk in a cheap fish to see how he does.

 

[Conesus_Kid]

I have added pure unscented ammonia to freshwater aquariums when starting up so I could add the entire fish load at once. Try a Google search to get an idea of the amount to dose and then track ammonia, nitrites, and then nitrates to monitor the cycle. Search "fishless cycling" on Google and you'll get an idea of the premise. I've done it successfully on three different freshwater tanks. I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't work for a reef tank.

 

[GMaquarium]

Add some nitrifying bacteria

 

[Capt_Cully]

So I guess I'm thinking out loud Scott. Why wouldn't adding fish pee on a small scale, 1-2 fish in 230 gal, accomplish the same thing? I'm certainly not adding corals any time in the near future.

GM, by what means, other than LR or live sand, would this be accomplished.

I mean, the ammonia cycle traditionally occurs from die off on rocks. With no die off, and a live culture of nitrobacter via cured live rock, I'm not expecting a cycle. But I would like to encourage proliferation of the innoculated bacteria. So, ammonia i.e. fish pee, would encourage this, No?

 

[GMaquarium]

GM, by what means, other than LR or live sand, would this be accomplished.

comes in a bottle.

obtaining ammonia is simple, what speeds the cycle is larger population of nitrifyers

 

[Capt_Cully]

Ok thanks.

Am I off base in my thinking otherwise? With no die off, no cycle? Good to go with a few small fish? Or in your opinion is that too much nitrogenous waste for not enough bacteria?

 

[Capt_Cully]

Ok thanks.

Am I off base in my thinking otherwise? With no die off, no cycle? Good to go with a few small fish? Or in your opinion is that too much nitrogenous waste for not enough bacteria?

 

[GMaquarium]

to play it safe i would cycle the tank with fish food and added bacteria. Unless you feed light and watch ammonia with new water ready for a water change. Small fish should be fine.

 

[Capt_Cully]

Ok, so if it wont dirty and smelly itself, I should dirty and smelly it. Oneradtek offered to use it as his own personal septic tank, so I've always got that to fall back on....

 

[GMaquarium]

I think since you are starting with dry materials you should spend some time building up the population of bacteria. How slow/fast you plan to stock the tank with fish?

 

[Sophie10]

I'm starting with dried reincarnated lifeless rock and dried sand. I've added live rock without die off. Therefore, no cycle to speak of.

With no ammonia or nitrites or nitrates, how do I get beneficial bacterial growth to blossom?

CC, Just let nature take it's course. The 'lifeless' rock will still yield some bacteria and decay, unless you have autoclaved it and kept it sterile! You've added live rock, it will (and has) colonize in no time. Good luck with the new tank!

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

didn't mama teach you

didn't mama teach you

patience is a virtue? :hmm5:

 

[Conesus_Kid]

You have bacteria on the live rock you added, correct? If so, you just need to feed them. You can use fish food or shrimp or ammonia. If you start adding small fish, you'll need to ramp up slowly, since they won't be adding much to the tank's bioload. In that scenario, you're adding ammonia a wee bit at a time and the bacteria population will increase slowly. If you hold off on fish and front-load the system with an ammonia source, the bacteria will ramp up quickly, but you don't want to subject fish to it. Also, is there any other life in the live rock (brittle stars, collinista snails) that a large ammonia spike might kill off? If that's the case, I would follow G's advice and go slow.

 

[Capt_Cully]

patience is a virtue? :hmm5:

I think 10 months of construction qualifies as patience :lol:

My concern is that just allowing the tank to sit idle wont get me anywhere. I'm certainly fine with waiting. I was looking to kick things into gear without a major event. It seems the consensus is, to get some DOCs going and let nature take its course.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

toss in a dead salmon and a handful of bristleworms :wave:

 

[Capt_Cully]

Scott, I searched the fishless cycle for the basics. Is unscented ammonia readily available or do you need to be a science teacher? Is this process any faster than the traditional 6-8 weeks?

 

[Conesus_Kid]

Grocery store cleaning aisle. The cheapest is usually the one you want. I've cycled FW tanks in as little as two weeks then added the entire fish load. I wouldn't be quite as heavy-handed in your situation for fear of killing off bristleworms, stars,etc. You can probably find rough calculations online for the amounts to add. I would keep the spike to 1 ppm or less.

 

[Capt_Cully]

Roger that.

 

[Capt_Cully]

Ok, ammonia dosing underway. Feeding the bacteria doesn't have the same crowd pleasing effect as feeding fish.