Cycling with Live Rock

J

Jalgar

AC Members
Jan 29, 2007
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I have a new 65 gal setup. I researched for months before even buying my first piece of equipment.

I had the aquarium up and running for about a week before I bought live rock, just to make sure the temperature and sality was stable. I have a skimmer, filter, 2 heaters and 3 powerhead running (2 mj1200 and other one I don't remember). I also have a light, but I have read you shouldn't run it until well into the cycle. I purchase approx. 90 lbs of live rock. I scrubed it in a bucket of saltwater before I added it to the aquarium.

After a day or two, my amonia shot through the roof. I was expecting it to go up, but not as much as it did. I also had read some people do water changes during the cycle and some people don't. The arguement that makes the most sense to me is to do water changes if your water parameters go crazy.

Well, to make a long story not much shorter....... my questions are this:
What is a dangerous amonia level during a live rock cycle and should I be doing water changes during the cycle? If so, what is the max amonia level I am shooting for during the first cycle?

While I am here, I have my waterflow from my power heads equaling a little above 600 gph. I read other sites that say it should be twice that. Is this just personal opinion? How do I know which is best?

Thanks,
 
It does not really matter what the ammonia level goes up to while it is cycling. The rise in ammonia will give the correct bacteria the green light to start converting that ammonia into nitrITE..The first part of the cycle is complete when the ammonia reaches its highest and you start to show nirITE readings, then the ammonia will start to work its way back down to zero as nirITES start to rise to a peak...

Any ammonia is dangerous to the tank inhabitants...which is why i always promote a fishless cycle..

On flow..this will all depend on what your going to keep in the tank..If its just going to be fish/inverts/lkive rock the 10 x turn over per hour is ok...If your going down the route of corals, then you need to be looking at a minimum of 25 X turn over per hour..

Quick bit of maths shows that you have 9.6 X turn over per hour...

I also dont promote doing water changes througha cycle neither, i dont see the point...If there is a lot of die off from the live rock, then just run the skimmer...I also do see the point of running lights through the cycle either..

Hope this helps a little mate...

Niko
 
Thanks for the quick response.

I am doing a fishless cycle, I was just worried that too high of an ammonia level will kills off everything that might be living in my live rock. If you are telling me that shouldn't be an issue, I am fine with that.

Also, I did plan on putting some coral in after the tank is well established, so I will look into kicking up the water flow. From you explaination, now I understand why some people say 10x and some say 20x.

Thanks again.
 
I cycled my tank with a lot of uncured live rock and my ammonia level shot well off my test chart. Very high ammonia levels WILL kill off things that might be living in your live rock. If you have a lot of life in your rocks such as tube worms, crabs, shrimp, etc, that you are interested in trying to keep alive then you should rely on small volume water changes to lessen the spike. I've read some articles about cycling with uncured live rock that recommend a series of 2-3 20% water changes spaced out during the first stage of the cycle. The amount of dead organics introduced with 100 some pounds of uncured live rock is far greater than those introduced with cycling with fish or dead shrimp and you don't have to worry about a water change preventing the nitrogen cycle from progressing.

In my case I had uncured live rock and no hitchikers that I was trying to keep alive so I waited until the cycle finished before doing a water change. Amphipods, copepods and coraline algae will make it through the cycle fine regardless. I noticed many bristleworms, a medusa worm and probably other hidden things that did not survive the blistering ammonia levels during my cycle.
 
Ok, about a week has gone by. My ammonia has gone down like you said. Here are my current parameters:

Ammonia - close to 0
NitrITE - 2.0
PH - 8.3
NitrATE - 70

I know PH is a bit high, but does everything else look OK?

Thanks,
 
pH is fine as it is mate...looks good...your nitrITE should go back down to zero soon and then nitrATES should start to fall back down to about >5...when it stays that way for a week, then you can start stocking really...

Niko
 
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