Question?

M

Medic415

Member
I know some have been following my thread Preparing to take off, well as some know I took off Sunday. I added 60lbs. of Caribsea Aragalive live sand, which boasts to hold a vast amount of bacteria's
http://www.carib-sea.com/pages/products/marine/substrate/aragalive.html.
With that amount of sand I added 74lbs. of cured live rock, and used RO/DI water. I did not add anything thing esle to date. I checked water parameters today:
Ph-8.2
Temp.-78.2
Ammonia-0
Nitrate-0
Nitrate-2-5ppm
Salinity 1.024
Do i need to kick off the cycle...reading the information on the sand leads me to believe I can start adding live stock.
I'm confused a little, I know not to rush anything in this hobbie, but hay if I'm go to go why not start. I don't plan on adding anything right away, or atleast until I get my skimmer I ordered today. My other thread list my complete setup.

Mike.
 
Gina

Gina

Moderator
RS STAFF
We used the same sand that you have choosen and our cycle started after we added some partially cured LR. If I were you, I would add a piece of shrimp from the grocery store to help kick start you cycle.
 
lcstorc

lcstorc

Well-Known Member
Personally I would still wait a bit. You may need something to kick start the cycle. Try a grocery store shrimp. Another benefit of waiting is to see what all comes out of the rock. It is much easier to remove any bad critters if you only have rock and sand.
If you are going to start your additions olease start very slowly and add the least agressive inhabitants first so they can become established.
I would absolutely wait for the skimmer and wait until it slows down some. You are likely to get a lot of skimmate at the beginning.
 
B

boozeman

Well-Known Member
ITA...except on the amount of shrimp needed.
get a few lbs...that way you can toss one in the tank and have the rest for dinner!!:bouncer: :bouncer: :bouncer:
 
Gina

Gina

Moderator
RS STAFF
boozeman said:
ITA...except on the amount of shrimp needed.
get a few lbs...that way you can toss one in the tank and have the rest for dinner!!:bouncer: :bouncer: :bouncer:
Click to expand...



:LOL:
Being that I don't like Seafood, I didn't even think of that! LOL
If you like shrimp boozeman's right!! LOL
 
ghostwolf

ghostwolf

Active Member
I agree with both Gina and Lynn. We also used the Arag-Alive sand and fully cured rock. We waited almost a week and took reading and got pretty much the same parameters as you. We had to kick start the cycle and also added the tune-up kit from the link below. It is used for starting or tuning up an existing DSB. Within 3 weeks we had pretty much cycled through and added our first livestock.

http://ipsf.com

Lin
 
M

Medic415

Member
Thanks for the quick responses...3 shrimp soaking in sump, the rest boiling. How long should I leave them in the sump?
 
M

music man

Member
it should take about 2 months to complete a cycle completely you can throw in a couple feeder fish in the meantime but mostly what you add now will die. your filtration system needs time to take controll of the water still. if you opt to go with an expensive chemical filtration and the live rock is truly live rock with no stink to it whatsoever then go ahead. try it out with some expendable fish.
 
Warnberg

Warnberg

Well-Known Member
Please do not be cruel to fish, and I do not suggest using damsels, they become very aggressive and are very difficult to remove once in a tank. The fish cycle method is considered cruel and unusual punishment. The shrimp method is much more reef friendly. You only need a source of Ammonia and a table shrimp will do that just fine. I hope I did not offend anyone.

JMO
 
Jorgens

Jorgens

Member
A friend of mine finally removed his damsel after 2 years. Was getting cranky at everything. He had to completely empty his 90g tank in order to catch the SOB.

Glad i did not go that route either!!!!
 
M

Medic415

Member
boozeman said:
'till your spouse says ''ewwww what the @$#$#%@ is that?''
Click to expand...
Well it's been 3 days and yes there is a smell, my did today start complain...were he shrimp in long enough, can they be removed?
 
BoomerD

BoomerD

Well-Known Member
I made my wife suffer the entire time it took for the shrimp to completely rot and disappear in the tank. (no, I wasn't very popular for about 2 weeks) I added a bunch of good live rock after about week 2, which brought some bristleworms and the shrimp were gone within a couple of days. The rock also pumped up the cycle time, and it was totally cycled in about 3-1/2 weeks...I was surprised at that, but the rock was fully cured, and from a tank tear-down, so it came with a nice biological filter...
 
M

Medic415

Member
Just checked the water:
Temp.-78.3
SG-1.024
Ammonia-<.25 (Salifert test the water looked cloudy, but no real color change)
Nitrite-.1-.25ppm
Nitrate-2-5ppm

Gonna try to get away with another day or two with her.
 
blue_eyes53813

blue_eyes53813

Well-Known Member
I would leave it a couple more days , I know it is bad... I think if I remember right I left it in my tank for 7-10 days... It will get better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top