Special Circumstances & The Package

[happyclam]

I have been considering The Package after seeing all these great tanks, BUT I have a few concerns:
1. the system has a total capacity of ~ 165g, which means possible BIG water changes, and I normally just buy my RO water from the store

2. the system already has ~50-75 lbs. of dry rock in the tank


So, what I'm thinking is just get the package for a 20-40g tank. Cycle the rock in a separate, smaller aquarium to allow easier water changes. Once rock completely cycled, then add it on top of the pre-existing dry rock. Also, since the tank is pretty narrow front-to-back, I will probably have to drill the rock to allow it to be fitted to a vertical PVC frame. Or I could just remove the dry rock and start with all TBS LR... :)

Thank you for your consideration.

[liverock]

I have been considering The Package after seeing all these great tanks, BUT I have a few concerns:
1. the system has a total capacity of ~ 165g, which means possible BIG water changes, and I normally just buy my RO water from the store

2. the system already has ~50-75 lbs. of dry rock in the tank


So, what I'm thinking is just get the package for a 20-40g tank. Cycle the rock in a separate, smaller aquarium to allow easier water changes. Once rock completely cycled, then add it on top of the pre-existing dry rock. Also, since the tank is pretty narrow front-to-back, I will probably have to drill the rock to allow it to be fitted to a vertical PVC frame. Or I could just remove the dry rock and start with all TBS LR... :)

Thank you for your consideration.

Hiya

My rock has to go into the tank directly, trying to hold it in another tank.....will spell disaster. This is real live rock, not what you are used to seeing, and must be taken care of correctly.

If you have a 165 gallon tank, you most likely with have no issues, or water changes with adding only 40 pounds of rock.

Some folks never have to make a water change, especially in a precycled tank...

sea ya
Richard TBS

[Madratter]

I agree with Richard. Don't do this in a holding tank.

What I would do since you already have a bunch of dry base rock in the tank is cycle your base rock first (the old emulsified shrimp in the tank trick). Once you have that cycled, then get your 20g to 40g package. That is shipped in two parts so you will be getting only 20 to 40 lbs of rock in each shipment. If you precycled your dead rock first, I think it is pretty unlikely that the levels of ammonia will spike high enough to require a water change.

As Richard says, you would have a very good chance of not spiking above 1 ppm ammonia even without the precycling with that volume of water and amount of live rock.

But the precycling would give you a little additional insurance. And since you only really need to wait until the ammonia goes back to zero, not for the nitrite and nitrate parts of the cycle, it will only cost you roughly an extra week. I wouldn't bother with as many shrimp as you would require for a full robust cycle with that size tank.

The rule of thumb is one medium shrimp per 100g of water will give you a 1 ppm spike in ammonia. I think for your size tank I would just use 2 shrimp emulsified. That will give you a little over 1 ppm spike in ammonia and a good start at the bacteria that will keep the ammonia in check. Again, all you are doing is getting a little insurance that you won't need to do water changes. That amount of shrimp won't lead to much eventual nitrate to worry about.

Once you have that initial spike in ammonia back down to zero I would go ahead and have Richard send you part 1 of the package. You don't really need to wait for the nitrite to come down to zero. The nitrite is not particularly toxic in saltwater tanks and at the levels caused by two shrimp in that big a system shouldn't hurt pt 1 of the package to any appreciable degree.

Anyway, just a thought.

[Yogre]

Something I've noticed is that people with larger water volumes seem to be less likely to have to do any water changes due to ammonia.

I started my 215 from scratch with TBS rock, each part was about 150 lbs of rock 300 lbs total. Maybe I just got lucky but I never saw ammonia above 0.25 ppm. Didn't change any water till well after part 2 was in.

[raw88gt]

Sorry to jump your thread, I have a 120 with a approx 20 gallons in sump/ i have established "Live Rock" and base rock in the system it is set up with fish would i be able to add say 20-30 pounds? and not have worrys for my fish's sake? thanks!

[tspfish]

I have been considering The Package after seeing all these great tanks, BUT I have a few concerns:
1. the system has a total capacity of ~ 165g, which means possible BIG water changes, and I normally just buy my RO water from the store

2. the system already has ~50-75 lbs. of dry rock in the tank


So, what I'm thinking is just get the package for a 20-40g tank. Cycle the rock in a separate, smaller aquarium to allow easier water changes. Once rock completely cycled, then add it on top of the pre-existing dry rock. Also, since the tank is pretty narrow front-to-back, I will probably have to drill the rock to allow it to be fitted to a vertical PVC frame. Or I could just remove the dry rock and start with all TBS LR... :)

Thank you for your consideration.

Richard is totally correct and I made the same mistake you are talking about six years ago. I bought a 125 gallon package from TBS I loved it so much I wanted a smaller tank of TBS. I just thought I would cycle it in my big tank and transfer it to my small one. When I did it some of the sponge and other life died form exposing it to air I assume, and I had a mess in the small tank. So it is best just to leave it where ever you are going to put it.

I wish I still had that 125 gallon tank wow was it awesome looking. Had to sell it since I had to move at the time. I have a 50g tank now with TBS rock and I did it just like Richards instructions say and it turned out great.

Hope this helps : )

[noahm]

Just remember to get extra TBS sand to make up for the smaller package size.