Cycling Aquarium With No LR

[Mr. Fish]

I am setting up a 55 gallon reef and I am very close to beginning it's cycle. My question is I refuse to use lr because all my experiences with lr has been aweful, so I am only using marco dry rock and dry sand. How should I cycle the tank, I was thinking about adding some liquid ammonia to start it then to help with the fact that I have no lr I was going to use Seachem Stability. How much ammonia should I have in there?

[fatdaddy]

There is a lot more to an aquarium then just free nitrogen. You're also going need carbon, phosphate, trace elements, etc. I'd use regular fish food for your nutrient source. Just add a little every day, so that it degrades and starts to nourish your biofilter.

btw, what was your problem with LR? Just curious.

[Mr. Fish]

There is a lot more to an aquarium then just free nitrogen. You're also going need carbon, phosphate, trace elements, etc. I'd use regular fish food for your nutrient source. Just add a little every day, so that it degrades and starts to nourish your biofilter.

btw, what was your problem with LR? Just curious.

All the live rock I get no matter where it comes from seems to have aiptasia, little worms that eat all my coral, mystery things that sting my arm and make it numb for days, and so much more stuff. I really don't want to deal with all that crap with this tank.

[RegalAngel]

......I was going to use Seachem Stability. How much ammonia should I have in there?


I use Stability for startup of my QT and never have any ammonia. I used Stability for my 300g FO and never had any ammonia.

Use it as directed...works great!

[dmarkham]

Try to get some water from an older tank. Find someone doing a water change near you or a LFS. That would help also.

[Mr. Fish]

I use Stability for startup of my QT and never have any ammonia. I used Stability for my 300g FO and never had any ammonia.

Use it as directed...works great!

Does that mean I can add fish right away?

[jorgeldelapaz]

Dip the rocks .

[jorgeldelapaz]

Dip the rocks .

All the live rock I get no matter where it comes from seems to have aiptasia, little worms that eat all my coral, mystery things that sting my arm and make it numb for days, and so much more stuff. I really don't want to deal with all that crap with this tank.

[jorgeldelapaz]

All the live rock I get no matter where it comes from seems to have aiptasia, little worms that eat all my coral, mystery things that sting my arm and make it numb for days, and so much more stuff. I really don't want to deal with all that crap with this tank.
Dip the LR

[cdeboard]

I use the shrimp method... toss a couple table shrimp in there and let them decay.

[Mr. Fish]

Dip the LR

What do you mean?

[Palting]

Does that mean I can add fish right away?

I don't know if you are serious or not! :)

Even thought you add the bacteria, the bacteria still have to colonize on the dry rock, and propagate in numbers adequate to handle the bioload. Despite the manufacturers claim to the contrary, you probably will still cycle. Although the addition of bacteria-in-a-bottle may alleviate it some, it is generally frowned upon to use fish for cycling. Haven't heard of anyone using liquid ammonai in a long time, shrimp is the usual recommendation here.

[jeepinphil]

Throwing a dried sponge (a real sponge) into a friends tank for a week then droppnig it into your own will also help the colonization process, a dry sponge has a ton of surface area, so it populates really well. I've done this a few times to jump start tanks

[xbehmerx]

i used the shrimp method spiked the ammonia very fast

[Mr. Fish]

I don't really like the idea of having rotting shrimp in my room and wouldn't it make my overflow?

[Sk8r]

Use water from an older, established tank. But do not put any fish in for 8 weeks (which is about the time it will take to cycle dry rock, anyway.) The water from an old tank could have ich parasite in it, but in 8 weeks, it will starve out. The problem is, without some dieoff from a piece of live rock, it's too sterile, and the bacteria have nothing much to eat, so adding 2-3 flakes of fishfood a day might help.

Let me add, just for the record, that worms are generally something you want: the ones with tentacles on their heads (eunicids) are the only common BAD worm. Worms are the tank undertakers, and always come to something dead: if there are worms at it, they are cleaning away dead flesh, and can actually help some wounded things survive.
Aiptasia is a threat greatly overblown, unless you have hundreds, and you generally won't if you keep the tank too clean to afford them food. You will have algae: it comes in from the air we breathe, via spores.
Re mystery stingers: wear latex gloves when working in your tank, and you may be one of those unfortunates who is hypersensitive to stings, in which case over-the-elbow gloves are your friend.

To keep a 'clean' tank, have a very good skimmer, rated for 2x your total water volume; and feed (past cycling) only what you see disappear within 5 minutes. Use nassarius snails for under-sand cleaning, and keep a small army of cerith snails and micro-hermit crabs to clean up if you are afraid of worms. Worms are the most economical and efficient cleaners, getting into the rocks, but if you really don't like them, have about a snail and a crab per gallon, and keep it that way.
HTH.

[Jstdv8]

dry rocks, new cycle, add something that will create ammonia (you can even pee in your tank if you want if you don't like the shrimp idea)
once the cycle is done you should at least have a decent amount of bacteria colinized on your new rock tha tis pest free.
Don't make it harder than it is.

[davocean]

Sk8tr's advice is best.
Also agree you don't need a shrimp to start cycle, fish food is just fine, don't even need much.
One small piece of clean established LR from a known source could seed that dry rock and help speed things up a lil, but agree, dry rock takes longer.
A scoop of sand from an established tank will help as well.

[Jstdv8]

dave, those are some nice looking clowns, they yours?

[RegalAngel]

does that mean i can add fish right away?


yes!

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Stability.html

Stability
Product Description
Stability® will rapidly and safely establish the aquarium biofilter in freshwater and marine systems, thereby preventing the #1 cause of fish death: "new tank syndrome". Stability® is formulated specifically for the aquarium and contains a synergistic blend of aerobic, anaerobic, and facultative bacteria which facilitate the breakdown of waste organics, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Unlike competing products, the bacteria employed by Stability® are non-sulfur fixing and will not produce toxic hydrogen sulfide. Stability® is completely harmless to all aquatic organisms as well as aquatic plants, thus there is no danger of over use. Stability® is the culmination of nearly a decade of research and development and represents the current state of the art in natural biological management.

Sizes: 50 mL, 100 mL, 250 mL, 500 mL, 2 L, 4 L, 20 L

Why It's Different
Illustration of Stability's™ bacteria on biofiltration material. stability contains a synergistic blend of aerobic, anaerobic, and facultative bacteria
The bacteria used in competing products are inherently unstable. The conditions necessary for their growth and development fall into a very narrow range of temperatures, pH, organic loads, etc. When any of these parameters are not strictly within the proper range, the bacterial culture quickly crashes and dies. Stability® does not contain any of the aforementioned bacteria.

The bacteria strains in Stability® have been in development for over a decade. The necessary conditions for growth of our bacterial strains encompass a very broad range. When other bacteria begin to die off (usually from high organic loads caused by the undetected death of an organism), Stability® simply works harder and grows faster! The strains function in fresh or saltwater. Stability® contains both nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria, a blend found in no other product. Additionally, Stability® contains facultative bacterial strains which are able to adapt to either aerobic or anaerobic conditions. The bacteria in Stability® are non-sulfur fixing, another innovation in the industry. Most other bacterial supplements will form toxic hydrogen sulfide under the proper conditions. Stability® will not, ever.

[Reverend Reefer]

you gotta wait in my opinion. stability might speed up yer cycle but it won't avoid it. i used stability and it certainly didn't allow me to skip my cycle. if you don't have any test kits, then just wait. if you really want to track your cycle then use test kits so that you can know if your cycle is finished and you can even test whether the stability is actually allowing you to "skip" yer cycle.

if u have a 5 yr old nano like what is listed in your sig, why not just grab a couple pieces of live rock rubble (find some pest free pieces) that is in there and u can use that with your cycling along with some water from in there? the bacteria in those pieces of live rock rubble will seed the rest of your marco dry rock and sand.

[Palting]

+1 to the Rev. The bacteria in your old live rock are all live, complete, and best of all, free. You don't have to buy bacteria in a bottle. You still have to provide them a food source, an ammonia source. You will be branded a sadist if you use fish, though :D.

[davocean]

dave, those are some nice looking clowns, they yours?

Yes, that would be my beloved Picasso/Snowcasso pair I got from Donisreef, love those guys!