Cycle time for fish only. No live rock or sand.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by paddyob

Yea . But I assume bacteria is still absent? Then in comes starter bacteria ?

Bacteria will start to feed on the ammo and multiply, but not fast enough in my mind

Things like the DRs mentioned earlier, or Seachem Stability, add bacteria to start processing the ammonia faster than if you let it happen naturally

If you're able to wait before you add the clowns to the tank, you could cycle the tank empty with something like fish food or an uncooked shrimp
This will kick-start the ammo. And again, if you have time, you can fully cycle a tank this way, then add the clowns when the nitrites are gone and the nitrates are low

[paddyob]

Im definitely using something like stability.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by paddyob

Im definitely using something like stability.

That's what I prefer to use, and an Ammo Alert badge, and I also keep Am Guard in the cabinet

[Myka]

No need for bacteria, they will colonize ok on their own. Just use a SeaChem Ammonia Alert badge and AmQuel. This is a quarantine tank?

[paddyob]

Originally Posted by Myka

No need for bacteria, they will colonize ok on their own. Just use a SeaChem Ammonia Alert badge and AmQuel. This is a quarantine tank?

No. Holding my clown pairs. Just not sure how long a tank without Rock and sand takes to cycle.

[daplatapus]

I know no mention was made of doing this but in case someone reads this and doesn't know: If you use Amquel just be absolutely sure not to try and treat anything with copper in there. I found out the hard way, everything dies

[paddyob]

Originally Posted by daplatapus

I know no mention was made of doing this but in case someone reads this and doesn't know: If you use Amquel just be absolutely sure not to try and treat anything with copper in there. I found out the hard way, everything dies

It's not a QT. No treatment will be done in these tanks.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by paddyob

No. Holding my clown pairs. Just not sure how long a tank without Rock and sand takes to cycle.

If there is no rock or sand you will have to dose an ammonia detoxifier daily in order to process the ammonia that the fish produce. A setup of that fashion is essentially a quarantine setup as it will not support enough nitrifying bacteria to support the fish waste which means is will never "cycle". This makes your question a moot point. If you add a layer of sand to the tank then you can slowly back off the ammonia detoxifier with the system supporting itself around the 2 week mark, so in that case you could say the cycle would take about 2 weeks. I've setup many fish in this fashion, using an ammonia detoxifier with a SeaChem Ammonia Alert badge is quite reliable and easy as long as you forget the dosing instructions, and stay on top of the ammonia. How long do you plan to hold the Clown pairs in this fashion?

[paddyob]

Originally Posted by Myka

If there is no rock or sand you will have to dose an ammonia detoxifier daily in order to process the ammonia that the fish produce. A setup of that fashion is essentially a quarantine setup as it will not support enough nitrifying bacteria to support the fish waste which means is will never "cycle". This makes your question a moot point. If you add a layer of sand to the tank then you can slowly back off the ammonia detoxifier with the system supporting itself around the 2 week mark, so in that case you could say the cycle would take about 2 weeks. I've setup many fish in this fashion, using an ammonia detoxifier with a SeaChem Ammonia Alert badge is quite reliable and easy as long as you forget the dosing instructions, and stay on top of the ammonia. How long do you plan to hold the Clown pairs in this fashion?

This is for my breeding system. I dropped a couple pounds of cured rock in each chamber as well as 5g water from the rock tank.

[daniella3d]

when you have no liverock and no sand, where do the bacterias settle?

My guess is there will be very little bacterias present to do the filtration. Also one good thing about porous liverock is that it will do a good amount of anaerobic filtration thus getting rid of a lot of nitrates as well.

How can one do a fish only aquarium without this as filtration? you will need to do lots of water change probably and monitor ammonia and nitrites and add something like Prime or AmQual to remove it.