cycling

[leveldrummer]

still waiting to get my stuff together, but i got another question, when i set up my tank, will it work to put in 25 lbs of base and 25lbs of live rock, then let the whole thing cycle and seed all at the same time? or should i put in the base, half the live rock, let it cycle, then put in the rest of the live rock, and let it seed? also, its safe to have fish and inverts in a tank while you let it seed the base rock? or should i wait?

[LittlePuff]

Get all of your base/live rock, then cycle it, add inverts, add fish.

Kim

[Fishfirst]

It depends... if you want to wait the extra weeks, I'd do half the liverock 1st then the other half after the tanks been cycled. That way you can get a bit more diversity with the second half of rock as your tank experiances only a miniture cycle process the second time around.
if you rather not wait, by all means, add all the rock at once.

[AshleytheGreat]

Doesnt adding liverock instantly cycle the tank? Or do you have to wait a couple weeks?

[Fishfirst]

It can if its fully cured... partially cured (usually what you get from the store) and uncured rock will have die off so technically they wouldn't cycle a tank instantly.

[ron v]

I gonna jump in here where I have no business. I know nothing about saltwater.... But I have questions.
Can you cycle with ammonia, like you do freshwater? If so, why not do that and avoid stressing whatevery is alive on the "live rock"?

[TheOldSalt]

Down here it's easy to get good fresh rock which doesn't have much dieoff at all, and it's easy to set up an "instant" reef tank. For most folks, though, the cycling can take a week or two, or even longer. There is no need to add any food for the bacteria, as the dieoff gives them plenty.

The use of heavy skimming greatly reduces the impact of dieoff, by the way, and can often pretty much nullify it. It make the cycle time effectively much, much shorter.

[leveldrummer]

wonderful, i plan on either running a sump, with a skimmer in the bottom tank, and ive also been thinking about gettin one of those fancy little (i think the are wet/dry systems) from a lfs, its all self contained skimmer, filter and everything in one acrylic box. how do these systems usually do in a tank like mine?? (46 bow, reef.)

[Electric Monk]

Originally Posted by ron v

I gonna jump in here where I have no business. I know nothing about saltwater.... But I have questions.
Can you cycle with ammonia, like you do freshwater? If so, why not do that and avoid stressing whatevery is alive on the "live rock"?

Good questions.

Yes, you can use ammonia with SW exactly as you would FW (Best way with a fish only setup as with FW), but you win either way with live rock.

If your live rock is well cured then you get an instant cycle, the bacteria has survived and probably everything else in the rock has.

If your live rock is badly cured then the die off from the rock, sponges, bits of crab leg, divers who got lost on the reef etc etc provide the ammonia but you get the added benefit of the bacteria left on the rock giving you a good head start with the cycle.

Even with badly/uncured rock you put in your tank you'll get plenty of stuff sprouting/crawling/spreading in a few months.

Unless you have a hidden fish (It has been known......fish swam out of a piece of LR at my LFS and they have yet to id it.) inside the live rock then there's not much that can get very stressed during the process.

Then you get allsorts of odd stuff popping up out the rock

[Electric Monk]

Originally Posted by leveldrummer

wonderful, i plan on either running a sump, with a skimmer in the bottom tank, and ive also been thinking about gettin one of those fancy little (i think the are wet/dry systems) from a lfs, its all self contained skimmer, filter and everything in one acrylic box. how do these systems usually do in a tank like mine?? (46 bow, reef.)

Leveldrummer, do you have good access to a Digital camera and the facility to upload to the site?

I'd love to see a step by step, week by week 'Blog' as you set up your tank.

Can we tempt you?

[leveldrummer]

monk, you read my mind, i had a thread started in which i began. i plan on taking pictures and showing the whole process, maybe it will become a sticky for noobs like me one day. but i got held back with a divorce, so im waiting on taxes, i had to buy new furniture, so that ate up my fish money for the time being. but you better believe ill take some good ones for you.