Cycling a tank.

[Paul31733]

Used the search function but found 10000000 entries... Just wondering if someone could direct me to a current thread or article regarding tank cycling. Preferably lights off with no fish and dry rock.
Thanks.
Paul.

 

[brandon429]

Here’s a condensed version right here no search required

buy one bottle of bio spira


buy one bottle of dr tims


add the dosage from both on the bottle to your tank of rocks and sand and saltwater


Add one decent ground up pinch of flake food.


wait fifteen days, change water for new, you’re cycled and no testing needed, you can’t buy two dead bottles of bac.

let the record reflect this works 100% of the time and is the worlds shortest cycling procedure. We didn’t list your salinity, just aim for any common reef salinity, the ammonia, darn sure didn’t mention nitrite, because this arrangement produces filthy degrees of bacteria in swirling warm water and it cannot fail to do so. #inbeforestallers

 

[Reefer1978]

Hi Paul. They are all still valid. Mainly just need to get ammonia to about 1ppm and give it time. Some use a shrimp from food store, some use fish food I use clean household ammonia as it's a day or 2 faster. Use Turbo Start if you want to speed it up. Otherwise wait about a month.

 

[Paul31733]

I did this a year ago but I forget wether to keep filtration media in while cycling or if I put it in after.

 

[Paul31733]

Such as clear fx or chemipure...

 

[Paul31733]

Also do you run a skimmer during cycle?

 

[brandon429]

It doesn’t matter one bit if you do.


here are the industries that wish killing bacteria was as easy as forums paint it to be:

hospitals
labs
medicine production facilities
food production facilities
medical hardware industries
sanitization companies

if we apply forum cycling science to those industries we show up merely withholding fish food, and the places go immediately sterile. If you want to nuke the place, have a spray bottle of tap water handy, or worse, 1 ppm nitrite seawater. You’ll burn clean through the steel man.

when multi million dollar companies backed by phd microbiologists put a completion date on a bottle bac label, put all chips in that they’re right. post #2 accounts for that. Fifteen days was past both their label completion dates, we were as conservative as apple pie in that sequence. In fact your cycle will go better if you test nothing the whole time because it’s been ninety days and my ammonia is stuck threads.

 

[aquaman05]

From what I've read you don't run the skimmer during a cycle

 

[Ippyroy]

Running the skimmer will not hurt anything. It also doesn't really help anything. I run mine long enough to figure out how to tune it. The important thing to do while cycling is give it time. Your tank will be able to complete the nitrogen cycle quickly and easily. This is only the beginning of the cycle. If you are using dry rock, you will have a minimum of 6 more months, possibly a year before the tank will be stable. Take you time and go slow.
The only filter media I would run is maybe carbon, but that is not necessary. Don't run Chemi Pure until you have tested for PO4. If it's high, .02 or higher, then you can run it. Do as large of water changes as you can. If you haven't set up your tank yet, I'd cycle the rocks in a Brute Trash can. This will allow you to do a 100% water cange every couple of months which will remove all of PO4 built up in the rocks. Good Luck!

 

[Paul31733]

Running the skimmer will not hurt anything. It also doesn't really help anything. I run mine long enough to figure out how to tune it. The important thing to do while cycling is give it time. Your tank will be able to complete the nitrogen cycle quickly and easily. This is only the beginning of the cycle. If you are using dry rock, you will have a minimum of 6 more months, possibly a year before the tank will be stable. Take you time and go slow.
The only filter media I would run is maybe carbon, but that is not necessary. Don't run Chemi Pure until you have tested for PO4. If it's high, .02 or higher, then you can run it. Do as large of water changes as you can. If you haven't set up your tank yet, I'd cycle the rocks in a Brute Trash can. This will allow you to do a 100% water cange every couple of months which will remove all of PO4 built up in the rocks. Good Luck!

How do you guys feel about 3 months with lights off?

 

[G Santana]

I recently cycled my 130 gallon tank,
Two large bottles of Fritz Zyme 9, dry rock and two big Tangs in they went (lol)

Never had an amonia reading, fish are great and the tank cycled in what was like no time. I was skeptical, but it worked.

I had the lights off, no skimmer or socks for four days. Tank was cloudy from the Fritz, on the fourth day on went the skimmer, it pulled out the Fritz that was suspended in the water column and bam all done.

It's the only non live rock experience I have.

Good luck.

 

[Paul31733]

Here’s a condensed version right here no search required

buy one bottle of bio spira


buy one bottle of dr tims


add the dosage from both on the bottle to your tank of rocks and sand and saltwater


Add one decent ground up pinch of flake food.


wait fifteen days, change water for new, you’re cycled and no testing needed, you can’t buy two dead bottles of bac.

let the record reflect this works 100% of the time and is the worlds shortest cycling procedure. We didn’t list your salinity, just aim for any common reef salinity, the ammonia, darn sure didn’t mention nitrite, because this arrangement produces filthy degrees of bacteria in swirling warm water and it cannot fail to do so. #inbeforestallers

So just to clarify you are saying one properly sized dosage of each of these?
Not a half dose of each to equal one dose?

 

[Ippyroy]

How do you guys feel about 3 months with lights off?

The longer the better. Get all of the fish in the tank. Dose MB Clean for at least a month, then start dosing MB 7. Keep testing NO3 and PO4. I'd also use as many nitrifying bottle bac as possible. You can't overdose any of these. You won't need lights until you have corals. The goal in the beginning is to get NO3 and PO4 levels steady and learn how to lower them. NO3 can be slightly controlled by water changes, but PO4 binds with the sand and rocks. You have to use something to remove them. There are many methods, you need to choose the one you like.

 

[brandon429]

Yes just the dosage on the bottle one from each. I would never assume two bottles were needed, we did this to head off near revolt over the non testing part. Redundancy is the backup. All forum refs fear the dead bottle scenario.

Both of these brands, fritz included, are absolutely known to allow fish- in cycles without burning fish. That's same day reefing.

You're waiting fifteen days, look what happened when Ike did only biospira and refused to wait:

Bio-spira works great

I just started a new tank a little over a week ago. I started with all dry rock and new sand. I added a bottle of Bio-Spira and put fish and coral the same day. Never saw any ammonia and fish and coral seem healthy.

www.reef2reef.com

When he refused to wait a fine reef still resulted. If you want to pinch feed twice that's awesome they'll eat it up. Change water for new on day fifteen, proceed


*consider fish disease issues not related to cycling, consider doing fallow after cycle is ready

 

[brandon429]

Truly if Ike had a bad bottle of bac it wouldn't have worked, that's a lot riding on nonverification

but
Ive never seen a dead bottle happen not once in my threads. not ever. crypto should be everyone's concern, or new tank dinos those are by-the-minute risks for quick cycle setups its not basic filtration that's the concern.

what people prefer is ammonia-proofing the setup before adding fish, or seriously above the two bottle setup is guaranteed to work untested. it cannot fail. having never seen one dead bottle, Im not likely to see two in the same run from different brands. fifteen days and one or two feeding intervals + all new water on day fifteen will work for all major brands of bacteria, Brightwell exluded so far in 15 day testing its taking longer we think.

 

[Paul31733]

Truly if Ike had a bad bottle of bac it wouldn't have worked, that's a lot riding on nonverification

but
Ive never seen a dead bottle happen not once in my threads. not ever. crypto should be everyone's concern, or new tank dinos those are by-the-minute risks for quick cycle setups its not basic filtration that's the concern.

what people prefer is ammonia-proofing the setup before adding fish, or seriously above the two bottle setup is guaranteed to work untested. it cannot fail. having never seen one dead bottle, Im not likely to see two in the same run from different brands. fifteen days and one or two feeding intervals + all new water on day fifteen will work for all major brands of bacteria, Brightwell exluded so far in 15 day testing its taking longer we think.

Ok so I keep my media out and skimmer off except for tuning. Drop in a couple proper doses of nitrifying bacteria and keep lights off for three months to keep algae at bay. Once I see steady readings of nitrate and phosphate I drop in my media and run skimmer. And safe to add fish after a couple days.

 

[burningmime]

buy one bottle of bio spira
buy one bottle of dr tims

I thought those 2 were the same formula. Are they different now?

 

[brandon429]

ha nice

I have no idea. its the fact they're two different bottles who couldn't by raw unluck alone endure the same shipping and handling conditions that killed one of them, in the worst-case scenario that is always forum cycles

 

[Paul31733]

I thought those 2 were the same formula. Are they different now?

If this is the case should I just pour in one of the types lol?

 

[PigDaddyF15E]

What do you mean when you say "change water for new" a certain % of water change?

for example: "After 15 days change X percentage of water"? something like that?