cycling bare bottom dry rock

[G Santana]

I'm 4 months into a BB 130 gallon tank
My experience

Filled tank RODI
Added two bottles of Fritz Zyme 9
Added two tangs immediately
Tank ran for 4 days cloudy with the bacteria then I turned on the skimmer and it pulled excess bacteria out.

Never had any readings of amonia

1 month in dinos explode, fought them for two months, limited lights to a few hours a day, blew snot off of rocks daily. Cleaned skimmer. Socks and glass daily. Finally won that battle only to have algae bloom rush in to fill the void.
Dealt with it for 3 weeks and finally got a UV and it killed the bloom within 24 hrs.
Then came GHA, lots of GHA
Added algae turf scrubber, saw immediate improvement on nitrates and phosphates. Finally GHA is starting to fade from green to gray and coming off in clumps.

BB requires work to get through the full cycle of things that will happen.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It just takes time. Don't overstock tank initially, patience is key.

Don't give up or give in to the problems, they will pass.

Good luck.

 

[David Abbott]

It's fish disease see this forum

Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis

A forum for discussing treatment and diagnosing saltwater reef fish.

www.reef2reef.com

If we cycle a dry system and add fish without the preparations shown there they'll die from disease

All those help posts show the rate of expected disease in the hobby and best means to prevent

OK Brandon thanks for the conversation it was defiantly a eye opener!! I'm probably 2/3 months away from starting the cycle but will contact you when its over THANKS MAN

 

[David Abbott]

Easy, heres testless options:

buy two different brands of bottle bac specifically meant for cycling per their label, not for cleaning.

input the amount on directions from both bottles into tank


add two pinches of well ground up flake food


wait fifteen days, change some water for new, you’re cycled and can’t fail and can’t be half cycled it’s simply done and no testing was needed.

if you aren’t able to get two bottles do one, it’ll still work the same.


if you aren’t able to get any water bac, then fill the tank with saltwater and circulate it for sixty days and it’ll still be cycled just the same. Source for claims, any cycling chart, recent seneye tests on these type setups.

It’s not possible to fail in cycling. We will just adjust your wait times relative to the inputs you get back to us about


If someone tells you a reef tank cycle can stall or fail, they’re selling the fix for the claim too.


Even if you skip my method and do nine weeks of any combination using api testing until it’s zero, all these ends are the very same. Reef tank cycling is exactly this easy.


you should poll the team for fish disease prep options though. Getting the tank to control ammonia is terribly easy, not losing all your fish by November to velvet sure is not.

Hey Brandon, would adding a couple of lbs. of Live Rock in with all the dry rock in the cycle stage help in the end result with "Fish Disease / treatment"

 

[brandon429]

only as a small fractional support. but it will help moreso with tank dinos

even if folks use the highest quality live rock, a whole tank's worth, skipping fallow and qt preps still nets them a majority loss by month 8

but using that degree or any of live rock is wise and ideal, it'll lower the chance youll get dinos and folks hate that as much as brook or velvet

true live rock, aged has counter balances / micro populations said to work against disease components Im not sure in what way...its an associate takeaway from folks who look for patterns in aged tanks with great live rock vs dry starts. at least a pattern worth noting, its a fractional help in my opinion. lions share is 80 days fallow after making a basic reef without fish, then only qt preps go in.

that's the highest % retention for fish we know of currently in the hobby. many would disagree, but the fish disease forum needs their cures just the same. they're all using ttm, fallow, and qt.

 

[David Abbott]

only as a small fractional support. but it will help moreso with tank dinos

even if folks use the highest quality live rock, a whole tank's worth, skipping fallow and qt preps still nets them a majority loss by month 8

but using that degree or any of live rock is wise and ideal, it'll lower the chance youll get dinos and folks hate that as much as brook or velvet

Ok I'll try and find some here in Panama. Just had a "light bulb go off" as I live 10 min. from the pacific ocean, could I go swimming and get a few rocks????? Plus a few gal. of water

 

[brandon429]

yes that'll work too but that's a reverse type cycle where things that grow in the ocean die off a while bc a tank wont support them as well. aquarium cured live rock from a store tank is whats ideal

 

[David Abbott]

yes that'll work too but that's a reverse type cycle where things that grow in the ocean die off a while bc a tank wont support them as well. aquarium cured live rock from a store tank is whats ideal

OK cool, thanks man

 

[k2-]

Been researching on this topic for my 240 build - here is one question i want answer to

In my existing reef tank (150 Gallon) - I have alot of live rock and fish and it has been established for over 4 years now. However every now and then i thrown in a new rock (mainly small rock pieces with some corals installed on it so they can encrust) - However every time the rock (just that rock) gets through a cycle phase (brown algae etc) on it and clears up around 30 day mark ... I have done it so many times that thats the norm for me.

Any idea if this is normal and what causes that ?