Can I start the cycle on my new tank and leave town?

[Piper1]

I was about to start a new tank, 24g AquaPod. It will have live pre-cured rock and live sand in it. I was going to put both in, and let it cycle for awhile. We are going out of town in about 5 weeks, and will be gone for a week. I thought that would be great since it will have time to cycle and I can go out of town for a week and not worry about fish or anything.

I was at the LFS today talking to someone, I guess the owner, and she said that I should wait till I come home from vacation to start the rock and sand, because I don't need to leave my tank without fish that long, because if the cycle ends while I am gone, the helpful bacteria will die off since there is no ammonia for it to live on. She said that it (bacteria) need fish waste to produce ammonia to live and that I should wait till I get back to start my project. What are your thoughts? I thought I could let a tank cycle for along time. Is there such a thing as too long a cycle, or I guess I should say 'waiting too long to add things after the cycle ends'?

[barngeatbayman]

find a new LFS. Ive never heard something so stupid. The rock is alive. It will be fine. When you start adding fish do it slowly to increase the bioload of your tank

[Henry Bowman]

I agree with barngeatbayman...Go ahead with the rock and sand. Put the lights on a timer. Do a water change before you leave and one as soon as you get back home.

By the way, in a week, evaporation may be a problem. Make sure the tank is good and full before you leave and it should be OK. My 12gl needs RODI water added to it about every 3-4 days.

[Capt_Cully]

agree. a new LFS is in order. the only thing I'd worry about would be evaporation/fresh water top off. If you've got that covered you should be golden.

[virginiadiver69]

As far as evaporation, you could possibly leave town with it at say...1.022 and when you get back it wont have evaporated to dead sea level. Just a thought.

[schoch79]

I agree everything would be fine except for maybe the evaporation causing the salinity to move too high particularly in a smaller tank like yours. With smaller water volumes water parameters can and will change must faster than in a larger system.

[Roger928]

Start you cycle as planned. Have a great vacation!

[ManotheSea]

agree. drop the salt level to 1.021 or 1.022 so you dont get into a critical level by weeks end.

[ManotheSea]

some oceans have salinity levels that low naturally. varies from sea to shining sea

[schoch79]

Sounds like a good plan to me. Have fun and don't worry about it.

[RickySan]

have a time! start the cycle, and find a new LFS!!!

[dareefking]

Just another thought, if you have a close friend that could top off your water that might be an option. I mean you dont have fish so there wouldnt be any overfeeding.

But like everyone already stated lower your salinty to 1.021 and it shouldnt climb to a jurassic number over a week and to do a water change when you get back. I assume you 24 aquapod has a cover which should help reduce evap.

But yeah go have fun and dont let the tank ruin your time you should be fine. And yeah find another fish store with some more knowledgable poeple.

[boxfishpooalot]

Yes its true bacteria need ammonium to reduce ammonia to nitrite then nitrate wich comes from fish gills(the ammonia).

But im confused are there going to be fish in it while your gone? If there are then no you need to monitor the fish. Or are you just adding some rock and sand while your gone? If just rock and sand, there is no problem with leaving it you dont need fish to maintain populations of bacteria on the rock as things will still decompose and create ammonia for bacteria to eat.

Besides live rock has algae on it that competes with bacteria for ammonia anyways. Some say they are more effecient.

[Nano Chris]

I see no one welcomed you so...
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

[Sk8r]

You need to investigate an autotopoff system to spurt ro/di into your tank by the teaspoon so you won't have these problems. Autotopoff.com has a good basic water topoff unit for under 100.00; if you have that, and a 7g [old salt bucket] full of ro/di water, and you set it up properly, you're good to go for as long as you like. There are other units, dosers, etc.

Some local fish stores are great helps. These people don't know what they're doing and their advice will get you into deep trouble. You don't cycle a tank with a fish in it: that advice is from the Jurassic, and it's cruel. I hope they sold you aragonite [not crushed coral] sand and told you to use ro/di water in setup [not conditioned tapwater] and did not [unless you're all fishes, no corals] sell you a filter or wet-dry. Once they start handing you old-fashioned setup advice, a lot of other things become frighteningly possible. My advice would be doublecheck your setup.

[Randall_James]

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

Personally I would wait till you got back....

New tanks have a funny way of having unusual problems. It would be a shame to take 30 or 40lbs of good live rock and kill it due to one of these "odd" issues.

Your 24g tank is going to evaporate between 8 and 24 ounces a day depending on heat, humidity, air circulation... You can figure a 2 gallon loss minimum (this will result in a .002 increase in salinity in a 24 gallon tank 1.025 to say 1.027) This salinity change is not really much of an issue.

However: I think you could be getting your tank off to a bad start. Weekly water changes are generally accepted as the norm. A new tank may need more in the first week or two depending on die off or other unforeseen issues.

I think you are also going to cheat yourself of some of the satisfaction of this hobby, watching these tanks go from ground zero to "fish habitable" is a real high point to this obsession. I feel 6 months without fish is a good idea. As you see the tank mature, you will understand why. Populations of small animals is amazing and they do not establish very well with fish in the mix (predation)

Anyway, all the blab out of the way, I would wait till you got home. A few weeks delay in a hobby that is measured in years, is not really any time at all :)

[Sk8r]

That's a good point, Randall James. It's actually a bit of fun watching life emerge on the rocks.

[rsw686]

EDIT: I thought you were going away for 5 weeks so you can disregard the below. Your tank will be fine to leave for a week.

I agree with the LFS about there being no ammonia once the cycle is complete. The bacteria colony will only be as large as the ammonia it can consume. When you have fish in your tank they constantly feed the bacteria with their waste. Same reason why its not good to add a large amount of fish at once, you need to add them slowly so the bacteria can handle the fish load.

Not to mention that in 5 weeks in a 24gal tank you will probably loose 3-5 gal of water. My 90gal tank evaporates 1/2 gal a day. The evaporation will cause the salinity to rise. If you do buy an auto top off I wouldn't trust it without setting it up in advance and watching it for a few days to a week.

[Randall_James]

I read that as out of town for 5 weeks as well......

Poster will be leaving town IN 5 weeks
WILL BE GONE 1 WEEK..... SK8r was supposed to catch that and correct us ya know :)

that is a lot different than gone for 5 weeks... start the tank...

[NeveSSL]

Personally I think what the LFS said makes a little bit of sense, but I don't think its a huge deal. I don't think you'd loose too much bacteria if you "ran out of waste". Definitely go ahead and start it up!

I also don't think I personally would search out a new LFS just because of that. Just because they give advice thats possibly trivial doesn't mean they're completely stupid and you shouldn't shop there. Its our tanks, we should do the research! :D

Do any of those slinging insults (*cough*barngeatbayman*cough*) have anything to back them up on that being stupid and totally false? ;)

Brandon

[schoch79]

Ha LOL. Yeah go ahead and do it. You will be more than fine. I too thought you meant you would be gone for 5 weeks. That just goes to show that you see/hear what you want to and not what's actually there.