Cycling without LR?

[jess128]

Hi everyone,

I've got some live rock on order and it should be coming in within the next 2 weeks. I've had my tank sitting around with base rock in it for about 2 months so by now I'm getting pretty impatient! Is there any point to putting some shrimp or frozen bloodworms or anything else in the tank to get a but of a cycle going? Would it help speed up the cycle when the LR is in there? Thanks guys!

-Jess

[Aquattro]

No, as soon as you add the rock, you're going to have to cycle everything for a couple of weeks. Fight the urge to rush things, you'll be glad down the road.

[Keen]

That depends on a few things. what are you using for base rock? are you using rock from the ocean? or are you using something like concrete formed rocks? the are a few things you can do to speed up your cycling. One is to get a friend to give you some of his water from a water change, because it is loaded with micro life. you can also ask someone you know for some of their sand from their tank, since that is the most important thing you need to get going. other than that, you could use a product called cycle, but dont over use that stuff for a sw tank, it could cause a huge algea bloom.

Hi everyone,

I've got some live rock on order and it should be coming in within the next 2 weeks. I've had my tank sitting around with base rock in it for about 2 months so by now I'm getting pretty impatient! Is there any point to putting some shrimp or frozen bloodworms or anything else in the tank to get a but of a cycle going? Would it help speed up the cycle when the LR is in there? Thanks guys!

-Jess

[Richer]

I would just wait it out if its only a couple of weeks. Back when I was cycling my tank, I only had baserock in there for the first month or so... so I tossed in a chunk of raw prawn in there to get the bacteria going. By the time the ammonia and nitrite levels were down to zero, I was ready to put LR in there. Its by all means not needed, but I wasn't sure if I was going to be putting LR in there anytime soon.

Just FYI, putting in used tank water will not do much in terms of giving your cycle a kick start. If doing so was true, every reefer would be giving newcomers used tank water whenever water changes came about and no one would need LR because the water would contain everything that we need in terms of biological filtration. In reality, nitrifying bactera mainly resign on the surfaces of your tank (ie. rock surfaces, glass, etc.). Thats why many reefers recommended a certain amount of LR per gallon of water to ensure that you will have enough surface area for biological filtration.
Getting a scoop of sand from an established tank wouldn't hurt, and is a pretty good idea to give your sandbed a kickstart. Ask around, I'm sure there are people around here who wouldn't mind giving you a small amount of sand.
I'm leary about using cycle... some people say it works, many other say it doesn't. I've never used it in SW tanks, but have experimented with it in FW tanks. In a nutshell, I did not see any significant difference in cycling times between the tank that used it, and the tank that didn't use it.

-Richer

[Aquattro]

That depends on a few things. what are you using for base rock? are you using rock from the ocean? or are you using something like concrete formed rocks?

The question is should Jess start adding nutrients to "pre-cycle" the tank before receiving the shipment of rock. The answer to this is no, unless the shipment of rock is a couple of pounds. Anything more than that, and the die off from the rock added will cause a whole new cycle and negate any effect the original "pre-cycle" had.
Wait for your rock, add it to the tank, and the die off from this will fuel the cycle. Once you no longer detect NH3/NO2, you can start adding (lightly) to the bio-load.

[Invigor]

I'm leary about using cycle... some people say it works, many other say it doesn't. I've never used it in SW tanks, but have experimented with it in FW tanks. In a nutshell, I did not see any significant difference in cycling times between the tank that used it, and the tank that didn't use it.


Cycle doesn't do a darn thing IMO. However, there's a product here by SERA called nitravec (i think that's what it is) and it worked quite well for me.

http://www.sera.de/English/autoframe.htm?url=http://www.sera.de/english/produkte/bio_nitrivec.htm

there it is.

I put it in when the ammonia started to climb out of control and in 3 days it was GONE as well as 0 NO2! I had no LR at this time either.

[jess128]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm getting the LR from blkwolfe and looks like it won't be here for a while. They're trying to get a truck together or something and he basically has no idea when the LR will be here. The rock will be brought back submerged in water though, so the die-off will be minimum.

The base rock is some stuff I got from Richer (thanks again) and I not really sure what it is! He can probably answer that question better than me. Some pieces are white and others are blue if that helps.

I've used that cycle stuff in FW tanks before and I don't think it does anything at all. I'd like to avoid adding things like that to this tank. Adding some sand from an established tank doesn't sound like a bad idea, I'll give that some thought. Thanks again for yuour help.

-Jess

[StirCrazy]

The question is should Jess start adding nutrients to "pre-cycle" the tank before receiving the shipment of rock. The answer to this is no, unless the shipment of rock is a couple of pounds. Anything more than that, and the die off from the rock added will cause a whole new cycle and negate any effect the original "pre-cycle" had.


Um, I pre-cycled my sand bed a month befor I added my rock.

Steve

[Skimmerking]

you could use a product called cycle, but dont over use that stuff for a sw tank, it could cause a huge algea bloom.

well thee is goes again.. People are saying that cycle is not worst a crap of salt. But that depends.

you say that it will cause large algae blooms?
How do you figure that out I used it on my 120 reef and had no problems what so ever.

used it on my 280 and had not problems with it either ,maybe its the RO WATER.

I used RO/ water too .

oh well

just a thought opinions will vary :neutral:

[Invigor]

asmodeus: i like your signature :biggrin: the part about "reading as much as you like" that is

[StirCrazy]

Cycle is a waist of money, just get a scoop of sand from a fellow reefer and it will have way way more of the proper kind of bacteria in it. for what its worth the amount of backteria in water is fairly insignificant, it is the sand and rock with its greatly larger surface area that realy have the major amount of backteria.

Steve