Cycle with Cured Live Rock

[mfiltness]

Hi all,

So i got my 20g tank.. powerheads, heater etc is on its way.

When everything is here I plan to add powerheads (flow x20), heater and water then salt to get levels to 1.024-25.

I'll got 20lbs of live sand and reading on here Ive discovered to add it once the water is at right salt/temp levels to stop bacteria being killed off in the sand.. So I will put the bag to the bottom of the tank, slit it and pour the sand on to the bottom once water salt/temp is right. (this the right way?)

I take it im going to have a sandstorm for a couple of days.

Then once the sand is settled I plan to order 10kg of Fiji Live Rock, and add it to the tank, along with a raw/cooked (depending what I can find at the supermarket!) shrimp to start the cycle.

The live rock will be cured.. will adding this with the shrimp to start the cycle do any harm to it? I dont want to pay for live rock and then kill all of the living bacteria etc on it by putting it in before the cycle is finished.. thus making it base rock and my bank account very sad!

Will it be ok? Or should I cycle it with the shrimp, with just water and sand in the tank.. then add the live rock? Wont the small amount of die off from the cured live rock start the cycle again?

Im a bit confused lol...

[cav]

You would be better off adding the live rock first and the sand after that. Is your live rock mail order or will you be picking it up from your LFS? If its mail order then it will suffer a fair bit of die off during transit which, when you put it in your tank will raise the ammonia levels and if you put your sand in first this will likely kill off your live sand.
I went:
Rock first(cured by the way), let settle for a week till ammonia levels dropped
Add sand, watch levels again until readings for ammonia and nitrite were 0
Perform first water change after noticing the diatom bloom and taking readings again

You might also want to add another 3kg of live rock to take you to the 1.5kg per gallon mark.

Lastly, if you are using cured live rock you won't need the shrimp

[Reefscape]

I'll got 20lbs of live sand and reading on here Ive discovered to add it once the water is at right salt/temp levels to stop bacteria being killed off in the sand.. So I will put the bag to the bottom of the tank, slit it and pour the sand on to the bottom once water salt/temp is right. (this the right way?)

Yes this is fine, its always best to get the temp sg/salinity right at the start before adding things...


Then once the sand is settled I plan to order 10kg of Fiji Live Rock, and add it to the tank, along with a raw/cooked (depending what I can find at the supermarket!) shrimp to start the cycle.

I would not bother waiting for it to settle, just get the live rock in the tank, it will be fine..just blow off any silt that settles on the rock with a turkey baster..

If you buy cured live rock, yes, you will need to add raw prawn or shrimp to create an ammonia source as you wont get any ammonia from cured live rock.


The live rock will be cured.. will adding this with the shrimp to start the cycle do any harm to it? I dont want to pay for live rock and then kill all of the living bacteria etc on it by putting it in before the cycle is finished.. thus making it base rock and my bank account very sad!

No, it wont do any harm at all...What you need to achieve is for a good level of ammonia to be generated, up to about 4 - 5ppm which will create a nice level of bacteria as the nitrogen process happens...


Will it be ok? Or should I cycle it with the shrimp, with just water and sand in the tank.. then add the live rock? Wont the small amount of die off from the cured live rock start the cycle again?

Yes, this will all be fine. Its always best to cycle the tank with everything in it from the start. Else you stand the chance of a mini cycle when adding things like live rock after the cycle has completed.

So, to sum up..Get the water to correct temp and SG, add the rock, then sand, add the prawn and get the cycle going...

Hope this helps

Niko

[mfiltness]

Yeh Rock will be mail order.

Thanks Guys :) I just wanted to get a plan in my head before I start doing anything :)

[cav]

Ooops, looks like my advice was a bit out, sorry, didn't read the post correctly in some places but I've only had 4 hours sleep as I was up watching the Ricky Hatton, my apologies. I'll leave the advice to the experts :(

[mfiltness]

No worries bud. Thanks for your input!

The 20Gallon, is US Gallon.. UK Gallon about 16, about 73 Litres. Not massive so I know my stock limits.

I think 10KG Live rock should be ok for this right? 22lbs? Thats just over the 1lbs per US Gallon, and 1.4lbs per UK Gallon.

Im not going to have a filter. I was hoping to just use the live rock. Should this work, or will I need more Live rock?

[Reefscape]

That ammount of live rock wll be fine for your tank to act as the filtration.

Niko

[mfiltness]

Great Thanks Niko!

[Pufferpunk]

1st of all, LS in a bag isn't really live. There is no way for that bacteria to stay alive in a bag indefinately, without food for it to eat. 2nd, don't plan on that rock to be 100% cured. I bought rock online & it took 3 weeks to cure it, even tough it said it was totally cured. There was ton of crap dying & smelling up the vat that I had to scrape off before it was cured. Also any amount of exposure to the air causes die-off & I guarantee you this rock is shipped without water, so it will be exposed to the air for quite a while. About adding the rock 1st, this is mostly to be sure the rock is touching the bottom of the tank. As long as you dig out the space you want the rock to go under the sand, so the rock is on the glass, you can add the sand 1st. To remove the cloudyness, just run a HOB filter with filter floss in it & keep changing out as it clogs.