cycling my 220g

[sully08]

I just started up a 220 with 100lbs. of macro rock for a base and I added 60 lbs. of well cured live rock, about 8 years old from another tank. after about 18 days I have not seen a ammonia spike, nitrite or nitrate. Is it possible to bypass the cycle if the live rock had a sufficient enough bacteria culture. There was pretty much no die off from the rock. Do you think I could start to add a few fish?

[cathyg_99]

i moved rock from one tank to another and still had a huge spike in ammonia, you can speed up the ammonia by dropping in a few raw prawns in the tank, you can also start with any clean up crew...

how long has it been cycling?

[naesco]

I just started up a 220 with 100lbs. of macro rock for a base and I added 60 lbs. of well cured live rock, about 8 years old from another tank. after about 18 days I have not seen a ammonia spike, nitrite or nitrate. Is it possible to bypass the cycle if the live rock had a sufficient enough bacteria culture. There was pretty much no die off from the rock. Do you think I could start to add a few fish?

No do not add a fish until you verify your readings.
What are your readings? I would also take a sample of your tank water to your LFS to verify your readings in case your test kit is off.

[phi delt reefer]

you need something to start the cycle. Your live rock isnt going to have any die off if you just quickly moved it over to the new tank with matching salinity and temp. Dry rock has pretty much no organic matter. if you are intermixing the two rock you may not need to or even have a cycle. But i agree with Naesco - save yourself some grief and get the results double checked :D

[sully08]

i moved rock from one tank to another and still had a huge spike in ammonia, you can speed up the ammonia by dropping in a few raw prawns in the tank, you can also start with any clean up crew...

how long has it been cycling?
Its been running for about 19 days

[sully08]

you need something to start the cycle. Your live rock isnt going to have any die off if you just quickly moved it over to the new tank with matching salinity and temp. Dry rock has pretty much no organic matter. if you are intermixing the two rock you may not need to or even have a cycle. But i agree with Naesco - save yourself some grief and get the results double checked :D
Can you explain dry rock, is this the base rock or the well cured live rock with minimal life on it?

[Bblinks]

I would wait another week or so. It has already been 19 days, whats another week. test the water frequently to make sure it is cycling. When I moved my 72 to my 210, I used almost all the sand and live rock from the 72. Everything was transported within 12 hours plus 60 lb of store bought live sand. I waited 24 hours for the water to clear up then I moved all the live stock including coral and a few sps colonies into the new setup and never had a problem. During the first week or two I used stability from seachem http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/sc-stb0500/SeaChem+Stability+Water+Conditioner+-+500ml.html just to make sure I have enough bacteria to process all the waste and the cycle just continued on in the new tank without missing a beat.
The only difference is the extra 100 lbs of rock that you added, not too sure how its going to affect on the cycle.

[sully08]

I would wait another week or so. It has already been 19 days, whats another week. test the water frequently to make sure it is cycling. When I moved my 72 to my 210, I used almost all the sand and live rock from the 72. Everything was transported within 12 hours plus 60 lb of store bought live sand. I waited 24 hours for the water to clear up then I moved all the live stock including coral and a few sps colonies into the new setup and never had a problem. During the first week or two I used stability from seachem http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/sc-stb0500/SeaChem+Stability+Water+Conditioner+-+500ml.html just to make sure I have enough bacteria to process all the waste and the cycle just continued on in the new tank without missing a beat.
The only difference is the extra 100 lbs of rock that you added, not too sure how its going to affect on the cycle.
Since our tanks are the same size I am curious how much live rock you have. I have about 170lbs total, I don't want to add any more to my display tank, if they say is true about 1 lbs per gal I willmaybe have to put some in my 72 gal sump, what da ya think

[Bblinks]

I got about 150-170 pound of live rock. I really don't think you need anymore than that. It all depends on what you want to keep. Nowadays it seem less is more if you know what I mean. On my tank I do keep a very good water change schedule since day one, 5-10% every week. I can only count a hand full of time where I lefted it for 10 days. Also I have a heavy duty skimmer to export any or all excess nutrients.:wink:

I have a heavily stocked sps tank with 6 large tangs and 14-16 small-medium size fish and I never have any problem with my ammonia or nitrite. I started to run bio-pellets after 6 month into the setup and that took care of nirate and phosphate, but after a while the phosphate crept back up a bit, so now I am running rowaphos in conjunction with bio-pellet.

I don't dissagree with a pound of LR for every gallon of water. I think its just a generalization. It all boils down to your bioload and what kind of coral you would like to keep. Do you mind taking a picture of your setup and share it with us, i would love to check it out.

[sully08]

I got about 150-170 pound of live rock. I really don't think you need anymore than that. It all depends on what you want to keep. Nowadays it seem less is more if you know what I mean. On my tank I do keep a very good water change schedule since day one, 5-10% every week. I can only count a hand full of time where I lefted it for 10 days. Also I have a heavy duty skimmer to export any or all excess nutrients.:wink:

I have a heavily stocked sps tank with 6 large tangs and 14-16 small-medium size fish and I never have any problem with my ammonia or nitrite. I started to run bio-pellets after 6 month into the setup and that took care of nirate and phosphate, but after a while the phosphate crept back up a bit, so now I am running rowaphos in conjunction with bio-pellet.

I don't dissagree with a pound of LR for every gallon of water. I think its just a generalization. It all boils down to your bioload and what kind of coral you would like to keep. Do you mind taking a picture of your setup and share it with us, i would love to check it out.
I have to get a journal going of my journey. I did fresh water for about 30 yrs. and was getting a little board with it. Decided to bite the bullit (cost wise) and change over to salt. Lots of planning and blogging went on for about 4 months while I sold off all my fresh water stock and the decision had to be made weather to drill my tank or not. Drilling was the way to go and away I went. I believe that I had a little knowledge of salt systems, I had seen lots over the years. I know that I still have alot to learn and I am looking forward to it. I will try to round up a couple of pics. tonight and post them

[sully08]

No do not add a fish until you verify your readings.
What are your readings? I would also take a sample of your tank water to your LFS to verify your readings in case your test kit is off.
My readings are pretty much nil across the board (am.,nit,nitrate,phos.) I trust my readings more than the lfs around here, some 15 yr. old that does not know what he/she is doing. No affence to the 15 yr. olds of can-reef

[phi delt reefer]

Can you explain dry rock, is this the base rock or the well cured live rock with minimal life on it?

www.eco-reefer.com - Its rock from a pre-historic reef or something. looks like this;

http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af43/vinceispatel/001-4.jpg

[abcha0s]

I'd say your tank is fine to start adding fish. Just add them slowly. No more than one or two as first additions.

The thing about cycles is that it's all about 'balance'. Bacteria colonies will reproduce in accordance with the food supply. If food runs out, the populations will start to decline.

If there was minimal die off when you transfered the live rock, then the bacterial colonies will be somewhat stable. However, they won't stay stable for long. Adding a couple of fish will help to balance out the bacterial food supply.

The risk is an ammonia spike, but there would need to be a rapid increase in organic matter in the system. The ammonia will only be detectable if the breakdown of organics outpaces the rate at which the bacteria can consume it. This is when the bacteria really start to reproduce rapidly, but I don't think that it's relevant to your current situation.

- Brad