4 Month Cycle Questions

[Ryan9316]

Hey guys, I'll be starting a 425xl build in July, and I want to try and avoid as much of the "ugly" phase as possible.

I'm ordering 60lbs of carib sea life rock, and some live sand. I'm going to put all of it in a bucket with freshly mixed salt water, Dr. Tims one and only, and also add ammonia over time to feed them. I will also have a power head in there.

1. Do I add the sand as well? I'm fighting dino's right now and I really want a sand bet fully colonized by bacteria to avoid this.
2. Other than letting the rock sit in the bucket for 3 months, do I do water changes? Anything else?

Thanks in advance reefers!

 

[Neoalchemist]

I like your thinking but sadly I dont think this will help avoid or even shorten the ugly phase. The only way you can hope to achieve that is with wet ocean based live rock, and even then when you turn the lights on you will more than like get some uglies. Your basic bottle bacteria is usually of the nitrifying type and those arent the ones that come with a mature tank. The only way to grow those is with time and exposure to diverse microbes that ride in on rock and corals. And even if you were to know exactly which microbes the tank needs and introduce them. Thier populations only grow over time and with the right conditions. Put it this way microbe populations need time to match the specific food in waste out ratio in the tank with lights inverts fish and all filtration.
That being said. You could/should think about adding a chunk or two of true love rock to your cycleing container to at least seed some of the ocean based microbes to your rock and sand.

 

[Ryan9316]

Ok, will do, this time around I will be fish only until the tank clears up. Thanks for your advice

 

[K7BMG]

Have you watched the BRS/WWC Hybrid video series and the four month cycle?
If not go take a look very informative.
But yea the uglies will come, no matter.