"Cycling Question"

J

jbrim

I am new to the hobby. I have a 29 gallong BioCube and have done the following in hopes of having a nice reef tank with mostly crawling critters and a clown fish or two.

Obtained ~40 lbs of live rock from an existing saltwater tank and placed it into the cube (the rock is coated with purple algea). I have 3-4" inches of live sand from that same tank. The rock and the sand as well as mixed saltwater are now in the tank since Saturday and the system is running

My LFS had me buy three Damsels and 5 little hermit crabs to put into the tank and start the "cycle" on Sunday. I am providing a daily pinch of brine flake food per the LFS. There was a larger hermit crab that was found in the sand bucket from the live sand I got (accidently obtained but now living in the tank).

When I test all of my parameters there is nothing going on in the tank and the pH is 8.2 as of today. Here are the questions:

*Will I even have a cycle, I have established rock and sand?

*If I will have a cycle, how long does it take to see an ammonia and nitrate spike with this amount of activity in the tank?

Thank you,


Joe
 
Firs of all, very nice tank, reef chromis are always the best fish for cycling. The LR is coated with coraline algea. That's always good to get LR and Live Sand from an existing Reef Tank when you are cycling, it will take much less time. I bought all of my LR cured, like yours with the coraline, it only took my tank(100g) two weeks to cycle, so it'll more than likely take less time with the size of your tank. If your sand starts to turn brown, cycle has begun, won't take long after that. (hopefully) :? You also want to provide the tank with good flow, add a MJ 600 or something. Some people also replace the bio balls in the back, and make it into a little fuge, but I personally havn't done that in mine, it does great without it, but it's your choice. Your off to a good start. And welcome to the hobby! :p Hope this helps. I also have some xenia if youd like for your starter coral.
 
You are definitely on the right track with your nano. You honestly may never have a cycle given what you put in there. I would hold off for a few more days and if you get even a little bit of ammonia or if you see diatoms then be patient. Otherwise you may be in the clear.

Ditch the balls in the back, they are nitrate traps. Also, I would ditch the floss in favor of live rock. Mine is setup like this-chamber one is rock rubble, chamber two is chaeto with the film peeled off the back and a small light, chamber three is purigen and ocsaisonaly (misspell?) carbon. Definitely upgrade your pump. If you want frags then I've got a kenya tree frag and some shrooms for you whenever you are ready.

Once again, welcome!!!!!
 
Nice start... is that the oceanic cube?? I saw one in Franks place and thought it was a really nice setup. I agree about the bio-balls and setting up a refuge/algae area on back with a little light. Also the Powerhead as flow will help you avoid several problems. Just remember to keep your input cover on so nothing gets sucked into it.

The only thing that would concern me would be your sand depth.. with that rock pile in the center, you don't have much open sandbed for DSB functions, which is what your 3"-4" would end up being. I doubt you'll have any problems with it, but if you start to notice some cyno or your nitrates rising down the road, you'll want to make sure you clean that bed on a regular basis. The fuge etc will help mitigate that though so I wouldn't worry about it right now.

Looks very nice and hope you enjoy your new obsession!
 
All that posted, I thank you very much for your help. I should have mentioned that I had taken the filter media out of chamber one (I have a heater in there). I took the bio-balls out and put LR rubble in that chamber and I put poly filter floss on top of the rock and then put the plastic grate on top of the filter. I dropped a bag of Purigen in the third compartment. If any of this is of concern, please let me know.

If I am going to have a cycle, would I have it by the weekend in your opinion, or should I wait a couple weeks? I guess I am showing that I know little other than what I have been reading on this website....I understand about the cycle with new rock and sand, I just have no clue how long I should wait to be safe with established rock and sand? I just do not want to harm the creatures I put in the tank with ignorance.

Also, thank you for the offers for the coral. I plan on making this a reef tank as stated before, with maybe a Clown or two in there for the kids to see. I will probably not change the stock lights anytime soon (however I will be searching for a quieter fan) so will just need good guidance on coral solection.

Again, thank you very much for your help.


Joe
 
I should have mentioned that.... said:
Actually you didn't ask for advice about how to run your whole tank, we gave that unsolicited :p Sorry, it's in our nature. The way you have your tank setup is pretty much ideal. Any mods that you could make to the back from here are just a matter of opinion. I would put in a fuge but it really isn't neccessary.

With regard to your question-if you get through the weekend with no cycle then I would consider your tank cycle free. I'm sure that most would advise being more cautious but I think a week and a half with no ammonia is a pretty good sign that you are cycle free.

As far as coral selection-zoos, xenia, mushrooms, gsp, kenya tree, etc. are good choices. You really aren't that limited and you can have a heck of a tank under that lighting!
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"The only thing that would concern me would be your sand depth.. with that rock pile in the center, you don't have much open sandbed for DSB functions, which is what your 3"-4" would end up being."

Dave,

I found the rock on Craigslist, a guy was breaking down a tank and had 80-90 lbs of rock and sold it to me for a $100. I stacked what I wanted into the tank and took the rest (45 lbs) to the LFS and they gave me a $90 credit so I got the rock and sand really for nothing. I go into this dialog because I just kind of stacked the rock in because I wanted kind of a cap look, but I did not take much time in doing so. I am concerned about the issue you bring up with not having a lot of room with the sand; I really wonder if I am going to have enough circulation with this look. I think I am an oddball, I like looking at the crabs and things crawling on the rock so I wanted it sticking out close to the front viewing area.

Do you and the others think that I can keep this configuration and provide a decent environment for the coral? I do not plan on putting a fuge in place in the near future, I will just be happy near term not killing the creatures under my care. I have no issues buying a stronger pump as suggested in one of the earlier posts (please give suggestions). Please continue with your thoughts.

Joe
 
You won't have circulation problems with the rock setup as long as you angle the powerheads just right. I like the way you aligned the rocks personally. Just me though. :roll:
 
Nice rock. If I'd seen that Crag's List I'd beat you to it.

Sounds like you are off to a good start. Probably won't have much of a cycle if any. Just keep testing for 0-0-<10. You should grab the Xenia offered. It's a great little tank barometer. Xenia is usually the first thing to wilt when things go bad.
 
That's a great deal on rock. Did you tell the LFS you had all that rock and sand? The only reason you'd see anything is if a little rock died or you stirred up the sand bed. Don't get too attached to your aquascape because you're going to have to move everything to catch those damsels. :wink:

I also have a 29 and did a lot of difficult corals early (torch, frogspawn, bird's nest the first few weeks). I think the key is keeping my fish load very low and feeding 2-3 times a week.

Also remember that your tank will always be in cycle. Every time something dies or decays, it goes through a mini-cycle. You just won't notice it.

Good luck and welcome to the hobby.
 
Thank you for your advice. I have been feeding the fish a small pinch of food daily, sounds like you would go to every couple days. If there was to be a cycle, would it have already started to elevate with the fish being in there for ~5 days?

Thanks,


Joe
 
If you start to detect nitrates and no ammonia or nitrite, then you should be home free... I had a similiar experience with very well cured LR and good LS. Cycle was pretty much a non-event. We had detectable nitrate in 1 week.
 
@jbrim wrote:
Thank you for your advice. I have been feeding the fish a small pinch of food daily said:
Personally... I would feed my fishes once a day. Nitrates in a small cube like this will occur naturally over time... But that is what water changes are for... and with such a small tank, I think that you just need to make sure you do consistant water changes to minimize any nitrate issues.

But everyone here has differing opinions as to how often we should feed our fishes.... I dont like to see my fishes stomach empty. That's just me.
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Gant,

That was a good article and I do understand "a bit" more of what is going on. Where I have been confused however is what I am going to see in my tank because I used very established rock and sand from a running tank.

I am not going crazy on stocking the tank. I bought the Damsels because that is what I was told to do but will either give them back to the fish store at some time or keep them if they will get along with a clown fish. At this time I do not want any other fish in there, just suitable coral and tons of crawly things. I did put a couple Emerald crabs in this past weekend and will probably put as much of this type of livestock in the tank as I can get away with.

I guess at this point I need to find out if I can keep putting crabs and snails into the tank without issue and how many are "too many" in a 29 gallong Biocube. This is not just for the cleaning side of things, I can just sit and watch those guys do their thing on the rocks for hours. Also, if I have a large population of crabs if acceptable (say 20-30 small hermits and 6-8 Emerald/Sallys), is there anything I can feed them? I am guessing that there is only so much they can obtain from the rocks (I have 35-45 lbs of LR).

Lastly, what beginning coral should I put in the tank to start with and when would you do it if I am not getting any kind of spike in my system (I have stock lighting in the Biocube).

Thanks,


Joe
 
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