New tank cycle ???

[unclemuskie]

I recently setup a new 75 gallon bare bottom reef with 38 gall sump.From day one I have added about 70 lbs of well cured live rock from a local store.added cheato to the fuge part of sump and 1 clown fish.11 days later no ammonia spike seen and no nitite registered.Many opinions on whether there will be a normal cycle or not because of the cured rock.thinking of adding about 4 inches of live sand to the fuge for nitrates.What do you all think??? will there be normal cycle of 30 -45 days??? Or a mini cycle and when can I add another fish or cleanup crew???Any help would be great and thanks.

[Roy G. Biv]

Be very careful. You may have the benificial bacteria in the live rock that is holding you steady for now. Any time you do a setup or a move of a tank, there will always be some sort of cycle going to happen. It is a natural process of the tank stablizing itself.

[sir_dudeguy]

Well the rock was fully cured...cured means cycled. so if its cured, it is cycled. IMO you wont see any spikes. I never do when transfering rock to new tanks, or starting new tanks completely (i always use cured rock in all my new tanks).

You may however get a spike if you add live sand to your fuge...seems like whenever i stir up live sand it releases some nitrates or something.. I would suggest just getting all new dry sand and putting that in your fuge, then getting a cupful of live sand from someones established tank and put it on top of the new sand to seed it. You could also put some live rock ruble in the sand to get it going even more.

[VengefulNemesis]

I just set up a 75 and used 40lbs of rock from my old 30 gal. The rock had been in the 30 for 3 years (certainly cured by now)and it's been 3 weeks with no spike of ammonia or nitrites. All my critters are doing just fine.:)

[spike78]

Any reason why you have a clown fish in your refugium?

[yellowslayer13]

ya why would you put a clown in your fuge

[unclemuskie]

Clown fish is in the display,sorry for the misconception.

[Racing1]

Putting sand in the fuge is not going to do much for you. Yes, little critters will live there but if you are thinking it is going to help the main tank it will not. If you are looking to do a remote DSB then it needs to be able to have as much sand as the main display would have.... As for the Cycle it is probably not going to happen. You had quite a bit of liverock already cured...

Good Luck

[ManotheSea]

Dont use sand in a bag. IMO it causes problems. Use dry sand and seed with donated cups of cycled live sand as mentioned above. The sand bed will help if its at least 4 inches deep.