Odd question maybe

[Dez]

Some of you might have been following my tank build. I have rock that has been in essence "cooking" for 4 1/2 years. I started up a new tank and it's heated and salted.

1. Do I have to RE - "cycle" the tank - ie - add some dead shrimp or something to start the cycle?

2. If I seed the tank with about 5 lbs of really nice rock from my nano would that be enough?

Right now, technically there should be no cycle cause my rock has been in dark, heated, salted, and relatively high flowing water for 4 1/2 years.

3. When is it safe to start stocking?

Thanks so much. All of my tanks I've started with fully cured good live rock, so this is new territory for me.

[Werbo]

Dez - I just started a 120G with 100+ lbs of rock that was cooked for 3+ years at the right temperture and 2 MJ1200s for flow. After 2 months (when all the die off occured) I didn't even do a water change. My bad. After 3yrs cooking, I just put it the new set-up, with all new water and the left overs in the sump and everything has been good. Keep my Alk and Ca at slightly elevated levels in the new tank and the coraline came back with avengence almost immediately with just T5 actinics for 2 months. Finally got the halides going and added some SPS frags this month (thanks Aquattro) and so far so good.

If money was no object I'd buy a box of new live rock (cure it) and add it to the sump to re-populate the old rock. But the money tree isn't bearing fruit yet....

[Dez]

Dez - I just started a 120G with 100+ lbs of rock that was cooked for 3+ years at the right temperture and 2 MJ1200s for flow. After 2 months (when all the die off occured) I didn't even do a water change. My bad. After 3yrs cooking, I just put it the new set-up, with all new water and the left overs in the sump and everything has been good. Keep my Alk and Ca at slightly elevated levels in the new tank and the coraline came back with avengence almost immediately with just T5 actinics for 2 months. Finally got the halides going and added some SPS frags this month (thanks Aquattro) and so far so good.

If money was no object I'd buy a box of new live rock (cure it) and add it to the sump to re-populate the old rock. But the money tree isn't bearing fruit yet....

Did you add fish right away? How long did you wait before adding anything to your fresh set up with cooked rock? This is good info. Appreciate it.

[Werbo]

Dez
There was no rhyme or reasoning to the timing. Never tested for nitrates or phosphates except once at the LFS. Basically got the cooked rock in the system as soon as possible. For a month the rock was in the dark, with a Tunze 6080 until I got around to adding the T5 actinics. Then added some sand. After a couple weeks I added a few snails and another month later or so I bought some fish (3 yellow tangs - not really recommended as first fish ... but whatever). Then a couple weeks later I got around to hooking up the halides. An 1hr for a few days and then slowing increasing the duration. I was expecting an algae breakout when the halides were added but it never happened. I just took my time as the tank was growing coraline algae and I was more patient than tempted by the livestock the LFS had. Had what I think were a bad case of diatoms (stringy) but they are subsiding now.
Now I remember why I was so patient. My Euro-Reef I bought new in 2006 and never hooked up until March 2009 had a terrible noisy GEN-X pump and I had to wait over a month for the $300 Eheim pump upgrade to arrive.

[Delphinus]

Why not throw some Cycle into the tank? Or how about some of that Zeovit bacteria - they actually have a product used for seeding new tanks (as opposed to the little bottle of Zeobak or whatever it's called) - it comes in like a 1litre milk jug looking container. Then just start stocking conservatively, and see how it goes?

I can't seem to find any info online for it but it's something I noticed at an LFS once. I asked what it was and they told me it was for seeding new tanks. (It has nothing to do with the actual Zeovit system..) I thought it was a keen idea but am sort of confused why it isn't easy to find any online info about it. Maybe it's discontinued. I dunno, see if someone in your area sells Zeovit stuff (Lando???) and ask if they've heard of it maybe?

[Dez]

Thanks for your help guys. I'm actually going to marine aquaria right away where Lando works. I am noticing there is some sponge on my cooked live rock. If the sponge has been living/growing for 4 1/2 years in the dark, technically it's cured rock right? I just don't want to do any injustice to any livestock if I start adding livestock. I'm not in a huge rush, I mean, I've waited this long, another month or 2 isn't going to hurt. But it's always the family members that want to have an "instant" tank. My wife doesn't want to wait for frags to grow, my kids want fish NOW. But I'm patient. I will see how it goes. I'd like to tear down my nano right away, but I don't want to kill the emerald crab in there and the snails if I just add them into the tank right away. I guess I'll just go slow.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Des

[Myka]

All "cured" means is that there is no more die off on the rock causing ammonia or nitrite. After 4 1/2 years of no nutrients being added there isn't going to be a whole lot of life, but there will be enough there to seed a new population. Pods may not still be there however, but the nitrifying bacteria should still be intact inside the rock. You might want to find someone with some established chaeto that has a bunch of pods in it, and shake it in your tank to seed some pods.

Personally though, I would add a few cocktail shrimp, or squirt 15 mysis shrimp in there or something like that, leave it for 3 days, and test ammonia and nitrite. I wouldn't be concerned about adding it to a tank right now, but I would be a bit hesitant to add too many fish right away. I always add corals first anyway as they help to process fish waste, and put out only a small amount of waste which would be enough to kick start the rock back up. I think you will be surprised how quickly it purple's up.

[naesco]

Thanks for your help guys. I'm actually going to marine aquaria right away where Lando works. I am noticing there is some sponge on my cooked live rock. If the sponge has been living/growing for 4 1/2 years in the dark, technically it's cured rock right? I just don't want to do any injustice to any livestock if I start adding livestock. I'm not in a huge rush, I mean, I've waited this long, another month or 2 isn't going to hurt. But it's always the family members that want to have an "instant" tank. My wife doesn't want to wait for frags to grow, my kids want fish NOW. But I'm patient. I will see how it goes. I'd like to tear down my nano right away, but I don't want to kill the emerald crab in there and the snails if I just add them into the tank right away. I guess I'll just go slow.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Des

Go slow!