Gfo & Carbon for new tank.

[viks]

hi guys.

I'm about to fill my 83gallon tank with water. Couple of questions regarding gfo and carbon. Firstly should I cycle my tank with both the media. If so, how much should I use of each. I'm gonna have mainly dry rock, and will seed with about 10lbs of live rock from my old tank.

Cheers
Viks.

[bhammer]

I am sure others will have a different say. I would wait on the GFO and run the carbon. The carbon will help absorbe any checmicals that may be there from the build. Once you cycle, check your po4 levels and use gfo if needed.

[viks]

Thanks. I have the BRS dual reactor. I'm guessing it's fine to only run carbon initially?

[dlp211]

yes

[bhammer]

You will be fine. Not sure how the BRS dual works but you will probably want to run the GFO at a much slower flow rate than the carbon.

[viks]

Thanks!

[markster33139]

Run carbon first, and add GFO at a later date as you add livestock

[javajaws]

If you're not worried about the cost, then run GFO from the start. That rock emits phosphate (until cycled) just as good as fish/feeding do so why wait for any to build up and contribute to startup algae problems?

[Chris27]

I don't think it's worth the money or time to run either at startup.

[Chris Lakies]

I would run both gfo and carbon from start. I would definately check phosphates from the start.

[EasyEd77]

+1 on running GFO from the start. I recently started using it a couple of months ago and am kicking myself for not doing it from the beginning.

[fishome25]

Its easier to prevent a problem than try and fix one.

[Paco]

Will you have macro algae in a fuge? If yes then I would wait on the GFO because any P that's released from the rocks should help the Macro get established and growing. Just my $0.02. I don't run GFO regularly -- I let my Chaetomorpha absorb it.