Fast Cycling

[sigma]

I added 40 lbs of live sand to my 40 gallon tank and finished filling it with water yesterday afternoon. I also put in 6 lbs of live rock. I tested yesterday and ammonia was at 0.25 ppm. and nitrate and nitrite at 0, pH 8.1, salinity 1.024. Today I tested it and all were at 0, is this a case of fast cycling or did the cycling not even begin yet? Either way I was thinking about adding a damsel or two, but my skimmer not yet been shipped to my house ( I ordered a CPR backpak skimmer). Is this ok or should I wait for the skimmer to add the damsels

 

[Navarre]

I would feel happier if you added more live rock to a tank of this size. 40 gallons of live rock will need about 25kg min of live rock to sustain the tank. The live sand will of course help but rock is a better but i feel.

Anyway. Heere is a post froma very experienced reefr that really knows his business regarding reef tanks and liverock etc.

Good quality live rock needs no cycling. here read for yourself.

Fully cured live rock should not cycle on introduction to a new salt water aquarium.

What Steve has said above is right - it really all comes down to the rock being fully cured on introduction. If it is, when it enters your tank, then there should be no problem.

I've noticed a lot of replies lately about fully cured live rock going through the 'recognized' cycling process. I really don't think that this is true. The reason I don't say that "it categorically isn't true" is because I'm waiting for an answer to a question from some microbiologists - hopefully within the next week (all established tanks cycle continuously but this is beyond test kit detection )

Fully cured live rock has nothing on it that will die back. With no die back, there can be no cycling of the rock - end of story.... - ish . There is the issue of 'osmotic shock' to address though. From what I believe, the Nitrosomanas sp. of bacteria found on/in live rock don't have a cell wall that allow the rapid transfer of water into/out of the cell (this is what I'm trying to establish). So, osmotic shock should not be a major factor.

That said, if anybody doesn't agree with me, then why do Steve, STM, Fantasea etc (all purveyors of quality fully cured live rock) say that their rock is ready to go? Provided that the rock arrives with you within 12-24 hrs then it should be fine. The only way this rock will 'cycle' is if some of it has died during shipping (unlikely, given the experience in packaging of the sellers) or if you kill some of it on receipt.

Provided that your salt water is set-up in accordance with your salt manufacturers’ recommendations, then there really shouldn't be a problem.

I've only set-up 6 reef tanks thus far (nothing, compared to others), all using fully cured live rock as the main filtration, and I've stocked each tank within 2 days of the rock going in . So far, I have suffered no fatalities as a result of this start up procedure (fatalities down the line are a different issue ). Now, I'm either the luckiest Taff reef keeper around or the suppliers of fully cured live rock are right .

Once I've received the answers to the questions I've asked, I'll write a diatribe on this subject . If I'm wrong, then I'll go gracefully


Cheers,

Jerry

I can only back up his statements by saying thati have come to the same conclusions regarding live rock and tank cycling.

 

[sigma]

Thanks... the reason I didnt add so much live rock at first is that the LFS only had one piece that I actually liked and look fully cured, although the sign said it was cured, it pretty much looked like normal base rock. There was nothing growing on it, and no colors. So I figured I would buy the good piece then shop around at other places or wait for them to cure those other pieces.

 

[Navarre]

No problem Just thought i would suggest you should get some more but if you are already doing this then thats good news.

You can tell cured olive rock from uncured. Smell it
If it smells of the ocean then its cured

If it smells of rotten eggs then its uncured

 

[sigma]

Thanks for the advise...I was just comparing the way the other live rock looked. The one I bought had alot of colors and what appeared to be a little featherduster on it. Every other rock in there looked plain and a greyish color

 

[Max]

FYI dont buy 2 damsels they will fight (or will eventuly)