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View Full Version : Not new to the hobby but have a question while cycling


650-IS350
07/24/2006, 10:50 AM
Alright lets start by giving you guys whats there...

100 gallon NON-drilled tank

I don't have RO/DI unit so I have been using the tapwater filter thing that converts the tap to DI.

A large aqua fuge with protien skimmer, 48" Tek 8 bulb, 300 watt heater, 3 Seio PH ( 2 1500 and a 2500 or something like that )

I added the water and 100 pounds of live aragonite with the benificial bacteria on Wed or thursday.. ( to supposudly aid in cycling tank with good bacteria )

Friday I recieved my order of 100 lbs or TBS Coral Rock - nice stuff with a lot of hitchhickers ( good and Bad )

The first day I did not have any spikes... but the last 2 day DAMMMM.... ammonia was close to 5. So I did a 40% water change the last 2 days. Now the readings are showing ammonia is down to 2.5 or so. and Nitrites .25 and Nitrates close to 0.

I also vaccumed off a lot of the dying stuff off the live rocks while I was taking out some of the water during the water change. My question is that should I do anymore water changes or should I just let this thing settle on its on ( Ie- let it cycle ) and do water changes once the ammonia goes 0 and nitrates finally come up.

I just don't want to lose the nice hitchhickers that I got and the corals that came with the rocks.

Should I even have some of the lights on for the coral and some of the benificial alage and macro algea came with the rocks.

Akl. Specific gravity and pH are within parameters. temp has been going up due to heatwave...

phenom5
07/24/2006, 10:58 AM
well...doing lots of WC's during the cycle will slow the cycle down...but it will also help to keep hitchhikers alive by keep your levels down. i'm not a big fan of TBS rock myself, but if it were me and i got TBS rock...which the whole point of TBS rock is all the life that comes on it i would do WC's and run your lights. otherwise you might as well have just gotten some uncured fiji or something like that.

HTH :thumbsup:

bertoni
07/24/2006, 11:24 AM
I've never believed that water changes will slow the curing process. If anything, I would expect the curing to go faster, since the ammonia is being removed, and likely fewer animals are dying.

I don't think a week or so without light would even be noticeable to the organisms on the rock, but running the lights might help remove ammonia. Of course, pest algae might also get a leg up. I think it's a personal choice.

phenom5
07/24/2006, 02:02 PM
I've never believed that water changes will slow the curing process. If anything, I would expect the curing to go faster, since the ammonia is being removed, and likely fewer animals are dying.

it seems to make sense to me that WC's would slow down the cycle...during the cycle bacteria is building up, fed by the nutrients provided by the die off that's caused when the LR is shipped, with each spike being a case where the bacteria builds up, consumes the nutrients and converts the nutrients into another form (ie-ammonia->nitrite->nitrate) until consumption out paces the production of each nutrient, so wouldn't WC's have the effect of reducing the population of bacteria and therefor increase the time required to complete each spike? okay, so that may be the longest sentence i've ever written, but you get the idea...at least that's how i've always thought of it, not saying your wrong, and i'm not saying i'm right...that's just always been my line of thinking.

to simplify, based on the original question. regardless of the effect on the time, you paid money for TBS rock, which is know for the wide variety of life on it, so i'd do WC's & run the lights ( at least for a short amount of time each day ) to preserve as much of the life on the rock that i could.

:beer:cheers:beer:

650-IS350
07/24/2006, 02:13 PM
That's what I was figured, I was thinking doing only 5 gallon changes per day. just to keep the ammonia low enough. Salt and water and cheap... thanks folks..

bertoni
07/24/2006, 03:51 PM
During the cycle, you're just waiting for all the dead animals to rot away. The bacteria buildup is secondary to the rotting issue. That's my view, anyway.

gabegmonkey
07/24/2006, 05:34 PM
I think by letting it (the Tank/Cycle) do it's thing with all the Ammonia you probably just build a more dense biofilter. As the Bacteria have to deal with ALL of the ammonia... so there has to be more of it/stronger bacteria. So i'd imagine when you're finished you could fill up the tank faster with less strain on the bio-filter... But if you were to do the water changes and stock more carefully you might well be able to have an equal amount of stock in the same or similar timeframe... So many things seem to come down to a matter of preference in this hobby...

They say there's more than one way to skin a cat, but there seem to be thousands of ways to set up your Aquarium...

bertoni
07/24/2006, 07:53 PM
I don't think it's really possible to build a more dense biofilter. Once the food source of the rotting goes away, the bacteria that processed it are going to die or go inactive. There's also bacteriophages waiting to eat them.

sarduci
07/24/2006, 08:33 PM
The cycle has excess food for the different stages, which is why you see spikes. As soon as the excess food is used, some of the ability erodes until it hits a level that the system can maintain.

It's like feeding a family of 4 enough food for eight, so they invite the neighbors. Then the next day, the neighbors show up but there is only food for 6, so 2 of the starve and decide not to show up (die off) the next day. Then the next day only food for 3 shows up, so the neighbors are completely gone and they send dear old dad out the door because he eats too much. Next day after that, there's food for four and dad shows up again. And now every days there's food for four.

That's basicly what happens in a cycle (compressed for time), and the ongoing food supply is what you add daily for the tank.

And if that makes sense, then I'm glad someone understood it..... =?)

650-IS350
07/25/2006, 09:14 AM
I went through some of the rocks last night... and DAMMMMM>>

A bunch of the sponges that came with the rock turned rotten... really rotten... one was white before then turned clear'ish white but when I pulled it off, the pieces that contacted the rock were black/grey.... it smelled worse than 90 day old rottn eggs...

I did the same to some of the rocks that had some sponges that were turning white ( red/orange original color ).

The one monster rock that had that big white sponge smelled so bad that I couldn't even talk to my wife cause I was so busy not trying to hurl... kept on gagging from the nasty smell..... Got tired of that nasty smell that I took it to the back yard scrapped it with a new toothbrush and sprayed it with fresh water ( I know bad ) but I could not stand that horrid smell. A least less smell now on the tank and I put one of those rock pieces that you can put in the closet to remove nasty smells ( almost like charcol ) on the aquarium to remove some of the horrible smell while its cycling.

The water IS very yellowish, ammonia is probly off the roof... will do a 25% water change...

Question for you folks, I was using Tropical Marine Pro. but ran out.. is it ok for me to use another salt like KENT or RC till I get some more TMP in?????? I just want to do some little water changes till this damm cycle finishes...

ANd what do you guys think of these additives that add more helpfull bacteria to the tank which would help cycle faster like nitromax marine/Fresh or CYCLE from Drs F&S?

bertoni
07/25/2006, 12:59 PM
Kent or RC salt would be fine, in my opinion.

I don't believe that the bacterial products accomplish anything, but I don't think they'll hurt, either.