Cycle question/advice needed

moreef · Nov 6, 2015

Im not really new but have only cycled a few tanks and have question. Current tank is IM16g AIO tank that is cycled but only about 3mos old. I did the raw shrimp method. I don't have skimmer on tank but have done several large water changes since the first nearly 100% change after cycle was finished. I have few small corals GSP, mushroom rock along with peppermint shrimp, emerald crab and few small snails. I'm now dealing with what I think is hair algae. It is all over the tank walls,rock,ph etc.

I just set up a larger 40g tank with 40g sump that will house everything from 16g tank that I will take down. Is it possible to use the rock from the 16g to cycle the 40g? if I put a few pieces in the sump will it seed bacteria in the new tank or just hair algae? I also have some of the bacteria in bottle stuff I could use with it.

I would prefer to just cycle it normally but both tanks are in home office and wife is getting upset with all the " fish crap " I have in there. Also her desk can't be moved to final location till small tank is removed.

I'm sure I know the answer to this question but is it possible without light in the sump the algae will die off leaving behind cycled rock?

ThePriceSeliger · Nov 6, 2015

IMO, If it were me, I wouldn't use that rock. Without light, the algae won't grow, true. However, if the phosphates are still leaching out of the rock, you'll end up with the same problem. Since the tank is only three months old, I'd say the diversity of bacteria isn't great enough to have it be a major consideration of a new tank. You can pick up some live rock from your LFS, or if you have a friend with a tank you feel is healthy, you could ask them to store a part of a Marine-Pure Ceramic media plate for you for a month and use that to start your tank. In the end, is it worth the risk in a new tank? Probably not.

moreef · Nov 6, 2015

yeah I was afraid of that answer

However I think you are right. The rock for both tanks are from the same order from Marco rocks and now im wondering if i should have done a muratic acid bath with the new tank rock? The 16g doesn't have a skimmer however or gfo reactor that i will be running on new tank. Thanks for your reply

NanaReefer · Nov 6, 2015

You could always cook the rock in a separate container for several weeks. This allows for die off and any leaching to happen outside of your tank. This method allows the bacteria to consume any phosphates present.
Or you could just give the rock an acid bath and start fresh.

ThePriceSeliger · Nov 6, 2015

1eberk said:
yeah I was afraid of that answer However I think you are right. The rock for both tanks are from the same order from Marco rocks and now im wondering if i should have done a muratic acid bath with the new tank rock? The 16g doesn't have a skimmer however or gfo reactor that i will be running on new tank. Thanks for your reply

If the algae issue is that bad, I don't think a skimmer, especially a nano skimmer can remove your algae. An acid bath would work just fine if you like your current rock. However, hypocritical on my part, but I used BRS Reef Saver rock, and didn't even rinse it before I put it into the tank. It was pretty cloudy for a day, but zero po4 issues since and zero pests. I staretd my cycle with a bottle of BioSpira and ghost feeding for two weeks. Hope this helps! God Speed!

moreef · Nov 6, 2015

Thanks for all the replys. I think I may try peroxide in the tank that's running and do acid bath for rocks in new tank. Acid kind of freaks me out anyone know of better way to do this? I have heard of using phosphate removal stuff for pools or even bleach.

moreef · Nov 6, 2015

Thanks for all the replys. I think I may try peroxide in the tank that's running and do acid bath for rocks in new tank. Acid kind of freaks me out anyone know of better way to do this? I have heard of using phosphate removal stuff for pools or even bleach.

moreef · Nov 6, 2015

S@@# sorry

Dastins · Nov 6, 2015

I may be wrong but with the tank only a few months old your brown ales may just be diabloom from it cycling. I had the same thing when I set up my ten gallon nano. Eventually it died out when the tank was a little more mature. In the mean time I just clean the glass periodically to keep it looking nice. Also my cuc helped keep the glass free of algea. A few turbo snails works wonders.

moreef · Nov 8, 2015

ok now the hair algae looking stuff is dying off and im getting the beginning stages of red cyanobacteria in one corner on the sand. I asked on another thread about the " supreme guide to tank cycling " that is on R2R and it says after ammonia/nitrite are zero within 24hr period of dosing ammonia to tank you are done cycling. You then turn on lights and go through more stages, diatoms/cyano/and finally hair algae. Is this correct I actually want cyano and ha?

I just added first dose of ammonia to new tank and was planning on running skimmer and gfo reactor once i'm done dosing and the lights come on. I don't want to get gha,cyano etc. I plan to take it really slow and at that point try and seed tank with coralline scrapings and establish cuc etc. does this sound like the way to go or should I not run phosphate remover,skimmer etc and let algae go crazy? Thanks for any help

moreef · Nov 9, 2015

Bump... anyone agree you want to grow gha and cyanobacteria in your tank to finish cycle as stated in the supreme guide to setting up a saltwater reef aquarium?

brandon429 · Nov 9, 2015

I disagree they shouldn't be grown on purpose

moreef · Nov 9, 2015

Thanks for reply Brandon that seemed crazy to me lol. I can grow cyano and gha fine by myself without trying

brandon429 · Nov 9, 2015

Each person has their own take that's just my opinion. See the thread in the macro algae thread pest challenge thread

Those tanks are doing the opposite of leaving it in, to fix the condition that leaving algae in the tank causes. It's true one should find the nutrient sink if applicable. But that speaks nothing as to whether one should leave in organisms that reproduce by fragmentation in the delicate reef tank as we search for the cause. The status quo had it wrong many years, leave the algae in the tank until you find the cause....

Tufts of algae catch and hold detritus. This leaks feed into algae as we starve the water for it, a common side effect from leaving algae in, we claim that algae causes algae mostly.

Have to be careful about getting on algae soap box lol but I've yet to have a tank show up in two years that was zero algae, with an algae problem. What that specifically means is, a poster in the nano-reef.com peroxide thread showed up with a pristine tank free of algae and he was tired of keeping it clean. Claimed full tank bryopsis invasion. But you couldn't see a trace of it, he'd been burning/scraping and disallowing.

That is the secret to being algae free in all of reefkeeping

He didn't show up with a tank of algae

He showed up having to work too much to prevent regrowth it was exhaustive, not fun, not balanced.

he simply disallowed it all the time be it scrubbing, water changes, etc but he darn sure didn't have algae bearded around delicate sps, disallowance equals algae free. Nutrients are about third in line of real concerns IMO. We used stronger concentration to hit the holdfasts and he acid etched some of it too.

Anyone that has algae in their tank wants it there, and anyone who has made their tank permanently algae free day one to day ten thousand wants it that way, it was the old standard to give algae the choice. Sometimes mere repeated action work sustained a few mos fixes anything.

brandon429 · Nov 9, 2015

It's not that your tank cannot recover from the usual process of letting algae alternate generations and genera...wax/wane naturally, many tanks do recover from the allowance.

it's that it's not worth the risk to your money or your livestock to allow the option of failure when the direct proof of pure tank control is laid out, with pure work a reef can be forced to run--the hands off mode is the cruise control after ramp up is completed, secret to making a reef tank live a very long time

Work equals % of water exported and mass of detritus exported vs input. When in doubt, a series of large cleaning blasting water changes adds lifespan to a reef tank and a quick start over to any parameter imbalance, saving months of detailing.