Marco Rock Cycles

[Bloodasp]

Was going to say. The spike you got would probably have come from critters and insects that got into the rock during transportation, or the water itself. But the amount of bacteria they produced would not be enough to support any fish you put in there at this point. You leave it the way it is and it will never cycle. You really need to add live rock and wait, probably do what a lot of people do to speed it up a bit, get a shrimp from the grocery store and put it in your tank and let it decompose, and wait, much like most people here I am not a fan of using live fish to cycle a tank no matter how hardy they might be. Even with all live rock setup a seasoned reefer will wait for a few months before adding any livestock into their tanks. But just like I said if you only have marco rocks in your setup it will never cycle.

[Blom]

Ok ok doug... very feisty. Not once did I say anything about fish. I was just looking into why I have had a spike in Ammonia followed by Nitrites and Nitrates in the tank after a week. And I disagree about the dead rock being "dead", there would be quite a bit of "life" on it as it did not come in sterilized bags for shipping. No doubt nothing close to the live rock, but just in transport and through the people handling it. I guess that is obvious due to the test reading. All I was looking for was some past experience with the marco rock.

So far though I like the dry rock. Very easy to scape, fairly porous. You cant beat the price (and for a student that is a big deal when it comes to rock). It will of course be slower of a process before it turns into the filtration device that is needed, I was hoping seeding it with some sand from an established tank would help with this. We shall see.

[Blom]

I just read over my initial question and realized that I never really posed it, although I feel I got the answer. I guess my head is still trying to get back into school mode

I was more concerned that the tank had cycled and would stop the process of creating a larger bacteria colony because there was no further die off. The shrimp should take care of this I would assume. But am I correct in assuming that there needs to be a further source of ammonia for the colonies to continue to build? Im no Biology major so I just look at it as a "food" or "fuel" source for the bacteria, the colony will on continue to grow if there is food right?

[David Newiger]

Correct.

I am currently cycling a friends tank with 4 Gallons of blended squid. Slowly adding more and more each time the cycle is complete. We are up to 1c. without any significant rise in ammonia.

Now that's a tasty milk shake.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by David Newiger

I am currently cycling a friends tank with 4 Gallons of blended squid. Slowly adding more and more each time the cycle is complete. We are up to 1c. without any significant rise in ammonia.

How big is this tank?