Meteorflower Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Well, as some of you know, I decided to tear my tank down a while back and take a break after I lost most of my prize corals in a massive die-off. But I finally feel like I've stared at an empty tank long enough, and am ready to get back in again! In other words, I'm relapsing I'll be starting very slow. Most of the rock I'm working with is dead, dry rock that was once live, so I'm planning on doing the cycling very slowly, probably over a few months. I'll be doing a long, fishless cycle, and I may do the first part in darkness to help combat any algae outbreaks that might occur as a result of the dead rock. Right now I'm in the process of assembling a simple, solid rock structure consisting of two islands with an empty channel in between. I'm lifting the rock structure 3" off the glass to allow for flow during cycling, and because I'd like to have a deep enough sand bed for a jawfish. I'm using hydraulic cement to stabilize the structure and bond the rocks together, since one of my worst faults in the past has been an insatiable urge to fiddle with my rock structure. My past setups were constantly a work in progress, and it was terrible for me and my corals! So I'm setting it up once and cementing it together and never touching it again. So far it's been very cathartic! I'm looking forward to focusing only on my corals and never on my rocks. My eventual plan is to have a very low fish load in this tank, and to focus on anemones and SPS (I know, not the best combination, but I'm a sucker for a nice 'nem). The long slow cycle will give me time to pin down a good maintenance schedule, possibly install a carbon reactor, and build a canopy with new lighting for the eventual light-loving corals I'd like. Wish me luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Definitely good luck! Sounds like you have this well planned out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offroadodge Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 glad to have you back, now you can do it the way u have learned from the 1st time. Meaning usually the 1st one you realize what you shouls have done differently. Tht what happened to me on my 1st 76G, when i built the 120G it has been very successful, i just hopeing that it will transfer to my new 200G. Good luck!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteorflower Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 Update time! The rockwork has been more or less set. I don't really plan on making any changes save adding a few more pieces of live rock to seed the tank once the rough part of the cycle is over. My rockwork is pretty simple; two asymmetrical islands with a slanted channel running between them. I'm hoping I can get a few rose BTAs to settle there . I used a drill to add some frag holes, with varying levels of success, before filling the tank with RO, adding the salt and tossing in a couple of powerheads. Now the cycling has begun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteorflower Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 So now I'd like to pose a question to you guys: Pretty much all of the rock I'm using was live rock up until a few months ago, when I broke my tank down and dried it all out to store it. I'm pretty sure that it's chock-full of dead and decaying organic material as a result, which sounds like the perfect recipe for a disastrous algae bloom. This is something I'd really like to avoid, as that was a contributing factor to my tearing the tank down in the first place. So my question is, what would be the best way to cycle this tank and encourage coralline algae growth while simultaneously doing all I can to thwart nuisance algae growth? My plan so far is to do a decent part of the cycling without light. I might go so far as to wrap the tank in black plastic for a month or two. Bruce told me that coralline algae actually grows very well in the dark... but I've never tested this theory. Thoughts? Also, I'm thinking of using a bottled bacterial product to seed denitrifying bacteria since my rock is pretty much dead. Would this help in deterring algae, or hinder it? I don't want to feed the tank at all if I can avoid it since I'm worried that anything I add will encourage algae growth. For now I've been adding small amounts (1 cap each) of Microbacter 7 and the liquid carbon source it's paired with, but I'm not sure if this is a good idea or a bad idea. I feel like I have a lot of contradicting desires at work here (want to encourage coralline but discourage nuisance algae; seed with bacteria but don't want to feed...). What do you guys think? Either way I'm planning a long slow cycle of at least a few months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Well, if you have a lot of organic material built up in the rocks, that will feed the bacteria you are adding. Coraline algae needs light .. which of course will feed nuisance algae. You will probably go through the whole "new tank syndrome", maybe a bit worse due to high levels of organics. It is hard to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteorflower Posted August 2, 2011 Author Share Posted August 2, 2011 So, the tank has been cycling for about a month now. It was still showing some nitrite last week, so we're continuing with the slow and steady cycle. Over the weekend I added a Two Little Fishies phosphate reactor (my first ever!), and I'm pretty excited about it. Hopefully it will help me keep my nuisance algae in check this time around. My tank went though a magnificent diatom bloom about two weeks ago, and surprisingly enough, my turbos went after it! Must have been some other good detritus-y stuff under the diatoms on my scuzzy old rocks. Here's a pic of the first turbo snail's progress after one hour: I've never seen rock so clean! I'm all about my cleanup crew this time around. I have about 10-12 turbos in there right now, along with two trochus and roughly a dozen Ceriths, and I'm wanting to add more turbos. The diatom bloom is getting under control, but the next algae wave is starting to appear - green hair algae Or at least I assume it's GHA and not bryopsis since the turbos are eating it... fingers crossed! I'm also working on building an arch of rock to connect the two islands I have going, and am testing my calcium and kH obsessively to try and make things perfect for coralline algae to take off... instead of all the other kinds I have going at the moment. All I have right now is a tank full of scuzzy rocks and happy snails... but I'm loving it. Yesterday I noticed my pod population is really taking off, and spent twenty minutes staring at the glass. This hobby can be great sometimes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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