10 gallon reefs

[Ace25]

get live rock from local reefers, and dont listen to cycle nazis

Be glad your on here and not on ReefCentral saying that. I once made the mistake of saying "nazi" jokingly on there and got an instant lifetime BAN from the mods. No warning, PM, post edited, nothing but "Moved On".

As for the statement.. well.. to each their own. I value the welfare of the things living in the tank and won't put them under stress if it is something within my power to help. I am old fashioned that way and have learned patience and will make sure the tank is capable of supporting a fish before I put one in the tank, even if that means I have to force start the cycle with something like a table shrimp.

 

[Conski]

i agree with both sides, i did no cycle on my 14 gal and the shrimp on my second tank.

both ways work... just dont catch dino and ACE your right man, alot of people take those things the wrong way and i like doctaQ so im glad this isnt reef central haha which yet another reason i dont go on that site.

 

[DoctaQ]

well i definateley dont beleive that fish or anything ornamental should live through a cycle because a person decides that thier tank is ready for fish before theyve tested and waited and tested again.
its just that ive set up 3 tanks each with established rock and never had a cycle, waited out a couple weeks on each with no amm or rites, i realize its a small sample size but quick transport and immedediateley going into water leads to little die off, all 3 times i had less than half hour transport and still let it sit before doing anything, die off only ever showed in the form of nitrates, about 20ppm, which a couple of water changes and macro took care of.

that being said, its a delicate balance, if you do actually get ammonia, it will kill other stuff on the rock which will in turn die and become more ammonia, the trick is to get as little die off in the begining as possible.

i would hate to get banned from here, this was my first forum, evarr, plus where else would i go to see that connected tanks thread every week

 

[Amphiprion]

I've experienced both scenarios to know that it varies. In any case, one should be testing during this period to prevent bad situations, anyway. I would say most tanks I've dealt with experienced no cycle--but some did. I've even done the unthinkable and set up tanks in the store, 100% complete with livestock in about an hour. I also changed water on them regularly--several times per week, at first. None of those tanks ever experienced a cycle (the ones that people continued to take care of did well for years afterward, too). Would I ever recommend someone else to do this? Not at all, but food for thought, I suppose.

No worries, no bans .

 

[Ace25]

LOL, I wasn't trying to imply you should be banned. Just telling you what happened when I said that same thing on RC. Hate those mods there, but I am far from alone on that feeling. They actually sell shirts at frag swaps that say "I was banned from RC" and I bet 1/2 the people at the frag swaps could honestly wear one.

Back to the cycle thing, this is just my point of view, but if I don't see any cycle starting after 7 days then to me that leaves a big question mark in my head as to whether or not the rock has enough bacteria to support a fish. Obviously it will have some, and if you believe it is good rock there very well could be no die off, but the 2 negative scenarios I can think of is 1. rock freshly cured, only 30 days from a LFS, not enough time to build up a large enough population to support a fish and once you add a fish then you will have a small cycle as the bacteria multiplies enough to support the fish waste. 2. Too old of rock that has turned into a sponge for undesirables like nitrates and phosphates that will get dumped back into your tank as soon as you put it in and will take a lot of water changes and GFO to remove all that buildup.

So if I don't see any cycle and the rock is from a LFS I would go with the shrimp route to force a cycle to start, that way after I see the cycle complete then I will know the rock is built up enough to support 1 fish. After I add the fish I wait at least 4 weeks until the rock again builds up enough bacteria to be able to support a second fish, rinse and repeat until you are happy with your fish selection or have reached the limits of what your rock and other filtration methods can process while keeping water parameters stable.

With the old rock, sure, it can very well be good enough to support fish, but it is going to take a while if it is a nitrate/phosphate sponge to be able to add corals to the tank with that rock.

There is always the middle ground though were you get good clean nitrate/phosphate free rocks and have more than enough bacteria to not have a cycle and be ok for fish, that is certainly a possibility. If you know where the rock came from (close friend/reefer) then sure, probably little question if it is safe, but off of craigslist from an unknown person that just said "tearing down 5 year old tank, live rock for sale" then I would be cautious.

 

[FtwayneFish]

you guys think im good? 2.5g pico reef, running for 1yr plus,4lbs LR and shallow sand bed. lotsa corals and 1 torch head goby. AC 20 fuge. PC 40w fixture.

5days old is my 10g nano bare bottom switch. I did it tuesday. Another 7lbs LR, of course my ol AC20, and another 10g hob with a sponge for flow and mechanical filtration.

I added a royal gramma and clown goby and CBS and a starfish and 4 snails on the 2nd day. ( I know im awful)

Everything "looks" good and happy. Think I should do a gal wc or two? this cycle things got me worried. I thought Id be fine with using LR insteada base and my already est. fuge. Thanks guys.

 

[Amphiprion]

Water changes won't cause issues with the cycle.

 

[DoctaQ]

im glad you said that amph, it wouldnt have been very credible coming from me.
are you over on NR now? with like 20 posts? the guy reminds me of you

 

[Amphiprion]

im glad you said that amph, it wouldnt have been very credible coming from me.
are you over on NR now? with like 20 posts? the guy reminds me of you

Yes, I joined yesterday (or maybe the day before?). I'm Amphiprion1 on there, since the other name was already taken. I had meant to join there a long time ago, but it got shuffled to the bottom of the stack under RC, AC, and local forums. I just recently was directed to a page and it seemed to be an interesting site.

 

[Fishieness]

Ill play along.

Sorry for all the blue. I have a daylight bulb somewhere that I want to replace one of the blue+s with, but I can't seem to find it...