FarmerTy Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Hey ARC crew, I just bought 60lbs of live rock from a fish-only tank and it has the typical purplish red hair algae on the live rock that you would find in that kind of setup (the same stuff you see in Jake's fish-only tank in the front of River City Aquatics). I am in the process of cyling the new 60-gallon tank and I was wondering what you guys thought I should do with the cyling. Lights on? Lights off? Nothing really photosynthetic I want to keep alive on the rocks as it only has the hair algae and some sponges. Also, the sand is new but I was thinking of scooping a cup of sand from my 12g nanocube (been up for 4 years now) and maybe even moving over a couple pieces of live rock from that tank to seed the new tank. That, and I was going to cut some chaeto out and throw it in the sump I set up. Anything else I might be missing? Was gonna do a water change in about 2 weeks and I feel like I would be ready in about a month and a half to slowly move over my tank (with testing of the water as confirmation of course). Opinions? Ty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 Great plan. I would also reccomend a product called stability that really helps with the tank cycle. I like lights on for cycling but at half duration. That way if you have any polyps or other photo critters in your rock they live but algae doesn't completly take over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted October 1, 2009 Author Share Posted October 1, 2009 Thanks Zarathustra2, Good call on the half duration lighting cycle. I was only running my VHO actinics/daylight bulbs for now as well and not running the metal halide but I will apply the half duration lighting as well. Maybe there is coralline somewhere underneath the light fuzz of purple algae. Speaking of VHO bulbs, anybody know where I can get a good price on VHO Super actinic bulbs? The delivery charge for bulbs online are just about as much as the bulb itself. Thanks. Ty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 For bulbs we do a group order to hellolights pretty frequently. I also think you could get on the marine depot order for some bulbage with reduced/free shipping. Any of our LFS sponsors has them in stock. Shane from fishy business seems to specialize in this sort of bulb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesleyB Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 Keep the light cycle to a minimum for now. I say 3 hours a day should be sufficenct. Stay up to par on your water changes and keep the collection cup on your skimmer pretty clean so that it operates efficiently.I would probably wait till you at least test positive for nitrates before you add any macro algae. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted October 2, 2009 Author Share Posted October 2, 2009 Great, thanks for the bulb tip Zarathustra2. I'll go hit up Shane today after work. Wesley- I didn't even think about when to throw the macro in there, I was just gonna toss and wait. What is the rational for waiting for the nitrates? Sorry, I'm a curious one. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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