OgreMkV Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 So I splurged and got some 'cured' live rock to seed my dead rock. I put the the water and liverock and livesand in on top of my dead rock and dead sand. Let sit for 24 hours. My ammonia reading at 8PM was 0ppm and Nitrate was 0ppm as well. I really don't think I'm cycled, but it's kind of curious. I don't want to have to wait for several months because there's nothing for the bacteria to survive on. I don't want a bacteria die-off. Anyone have some ammonia I can borrow? I figure about about 0.5 milliliters will give me 2ppm in the tank and we can see what happens after that. What do you guys think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Go to HEB and just get a single table shrimp toss it in it will kick start your cycle.. just a raw non frozen shrimp.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 you could take a whiz in the tank... There is enough stuff dying off that it will feed your cycle. The table shrimp isn't really needed, but it could be a fun science experiment! Your cycle won't take a couple of months either, I'd give it 1 mo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texmexbigspring Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 This is almost the same issues I was having I started just like you with the dead rock and sand. I did the shrimp thing and that got it off to a start but it just didn't seem like it did the trick so then I put some live sand in and I think that it really started there. Two weeks later I put 3 damsels in there (90gal by the way) and finally I started seeing my cycle take off. So I am now just putting some live to seed my dead. So long story short it took a while to get my cycle going. Not saying what I did was right just what happend with me. And by what I understand if you put cured live rock into a tank with clean rock and sand then you may not see a cycle. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 With the shrimp thing, the bigger the tank the more you should add like if i were to do a 90 id put 2 shrimp in it.. please dont add any live fish or anything in it till the cycle is done. harming fish is just sad, people add damsels to their tank to help cycle but it truly is killing them, some servive but most die, and not to mention damsels are mean and hard to catch when you want them out.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 OgreMkV- When I started my 90g back in November, I had the whole thing cycled in a little over 2 weeks. Here is what I did: 1. I used 100% dead rock and dead sand at first. I even filled the tank with tap water - I just ran the garden hose in the house and turned it on. I mixed the salt in the sump and added de-chlorinator to the water. 2. Once my salinity was stable, I added a couple of pieces of LR from my 55G. I made sure some was touching the sand bed and some was touching the other rock. 3. My tank started cycling immediately. For the first week, all I had was Ammonia readings, nothing else. About half way into the next week, I still saw no nitrite readings and no drop in ammonia. 4. At this point I started getting impatient and added a product called "stability" from SeaChem. I had used it in my 55G when I moved it to prevent a cycle and it worked great. 5. A week after starting stability (see the graph below), my ammonia and nitrites were gone and my nitrates had moved up to 20, which is perfectly acceptance for fish and most soft corals. I never added anything dead to my tank, or any fish till the cycle was over -i.e. my nitrates were around 20 and the ammonia and nitrites were gone.. Even tho the rock you bought was alive, you'll still get some die off, which is a good thing as it will feed your cycle. Plus you'll have some things dying off from your dead rock now that it is submerged again. I can't imagine waiting for 2 months for a tank to cycle...that'd kill me! It was hard enough to wait the two weeks that I had to till I added the livestock from my 55g. One last thing to consider is that if you haven't added a protein skimmer yet, go ahead and do it as it will have plenty to munch on as your tank cycles. Graphs: The first one is just ammonia and Nitrite, the second is Nitrate. You can see that on day 4, the ammonia and nitrites started dropping and the nitrates started rising - exactly how a cycle happens naturally. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustint21 Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 WOW! Nice chart action!!! Did you ever see that episode of How I met your mother??....... LMFAO! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 WOW! Nice chart action!!! Did you ever see that episode of How I met your mother??....... LMFAO! Huh....? I think I missed something.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
innate1 Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 That episode was hilarious! One of the characters made presentations for everything, like the pros and cons of what movie to go see, etc. etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 i love that ep. but good advice mark.. yay 4 no damsels or fish to die.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 The damsels would make but you are right, you'd NEVER catch them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Damsels = And yet I was silly enough to put 3 in my tank... and they try to be the bullies of the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OgreMkV Posted August 3, 2009 Author Share Posted August 3, 2009 Well, HEB was nice enough to give me 2 fresh shrimp for free. So, I've got them floating in a ziplock with a bunch of holes in it. I'll check again ammonia again tonight and tomorrow. I wish I had ordered that top-off, they're on vacation until mid-next week. My salinity is up a lot since Saturday with evap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Well, HEB was nice enough to give me 2 fresh shrimp for free. So, I've got them floating in a ziplock with a bunch of holes in it. I'll check again ammonia again tonight and tomorrow. I wish I had ordered that top-off, they're on vacation until mid-next week. My salinity is up a lot since Saturday with evap. Check with Reef_Pug, I think he has an ATO for sale. Until then you get to manually top off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 you dont have to have them in a bag, they will breakdown.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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