cycling new tank

[Barnacle Boy]

How do I cycle my tank without live rock or live sand? This is my first time at salt water so please excuse the dumb questions.

[jon99]

Do you plan on ever adding liverock? If so, you will likely cause a cycle then, so it's best to add the liverock from the get go.

What will be going in the tank, dry sand and dry base rock?
Ifso, cycling basically means establising bacteria loads in the aquarium that will carry out the nitrogen cycle that converts fish waste (ammonia, which is most toxic) to nitrites and then to nitrates, which are least toxic. So you will need a bacteria source and this is where usually the liverock comes in. If you don't want to use liverock, a scoop of sand from an established tank will "seed" your tank. A fresh uncooked shrimp, clam etc will also work. Just drop it in the tank and it will go to work. Next you need to feed those bacteria to grow the population and get the cycle going. "ghost feeding" with fish food works for this. Do some searches for "cycling" and you should find some step by step instructions. The basic idea is first there will be an ammonia spike as the food/shrimp decomposes. The ammonia will allow for the bacteria that feeds on it to grow. As the bacteria grows it will conver the ammonia to nitrites which will then allow for the bacteria that converts the nitrites to nitrates to grow. Soon, both ammonia and nitrites will go down to zero as its all converted into nitrates. At this point the cycle is completed.

[Barnacle Boy]

Yes I want to have fish then some corals later on. This is my dads old tank and we have alot of nice rock but it has been dry for a long time. I dont have money for live rock so I'll have to cycle without it. How long should I leave the shrimp in for? When can I add fish? Should I run the skimmer now? Thanks for your help.

[nynick]

Some very good advice in the stickies in this forum. On a side note, tanks that have been dry for a long time sometimes leak. You would definitely want to test this first.

[Barnacle Boy]

Got it half full now with no leaks so far. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[jon99]

With dry rock and dry sand expect about 12 weeks for it to fully cycle... not sure you want to keep the shrimp in there the entire time. I would recommend a small piece of liverock (fist size, won't be expenive) or a scoop of sand from an established tank. I've heard of the shrimp method but never tried it myself. The only way you will know that the cycle is complete is by testing ammonia and nitrites. These will spike up at first and then slowly go down to 0 as they are converted into nitrates.