Cycling DRY live rock progress thread (with photos)

kfoerster · Jan 22, 2015

jerseypete said:
Dont worry that its too much ammonia. Dont use bottled stuff. It only masks the ammonia. U could of bought a frag or fish with the money spent on the biospira.

Thanks again jerseypete, the bottle of bacteria is going back to the store. I'm still a couple weeks away from water in the DT so the timing of this process starting is pretty good. I'll keep feeding the ammonia and watch and wait. I'm just happy I'm finally moving in the right direction!

jerseypete · Jan 22, 2015

The longer the better. I still was 3 months away from water in my tank when my rock was finally cycled.

kfoerster · Jan 24, 2015

Okay now I'm stumped. Two days ago nitrites are 1.0 with no nitrates. I have kept the ammonia up to 4.0+. However yesterday and today zero nitrites and ammonia is not dropping. What's more pH is now dropped to 7.4. Leave it be? Water change to bring pH back up? Stop testing for awhile so I don't drive myself crazy? LOL

TPetty84 · Jan 24, 2015

Let it do its thing.

jerseypete · Jan 25, 2015

You have only a tiny ammount of bacteria built up. Let it be. Dont test everyday now. Maybe every third day. Top up ammonia. You still have a little ways to go yet. No water change

kfoerster · Jan 25, 2015

jerseypete said:
You have only a tiny ammount of bacteria built up. Let it be. Dont test everyday now. Maybe every third day. Top up ammonia. You still have a little ways to go yet. No water change

Okay thank you for the reassurance jerseypete and tpetty84

kfoerster · Feb 1, 2015

Great progress here on my cycle! I can now add ammonia daily and within 24 hours it is back at 0. Nitrites are still off the chart and Nitrates are sitting at around 40 ppm for the past few days. Water change to lower nitrites or hang tight?

jerseypete · Feb 1, 2015

No dont do anything. Nitrates wont hurt anything. There is nothing in there to hurt. You now have sufficent bacteria to process ammonia. Now it takes time for the nitrite bacteria to catch up. You have some thats why you have nitrates. But not enought to handle all the ammonia processed. You can slow down with the ammonia a little. Maybe every other day.

Mjp83 · Feb 2, 2015

Hi guys!
Been following this tread, and got a question:

Got a 72 gallon tank, bought 55 lbs of live rock from an established tank, kept it wet, and placed in my tank right away with RO saltwater. Been running two weeks, with all types of little critters, testing at zero, zero, zero.
Bought another 50 lbs of dry rock which has been taken out of established tank one year ago. Washed it, cleaned it with regular water, and placed it in 30 gallons of water which I used to hold original live rock from tank. Sat for one week with heater and power head, and tested at amonia off the charts (blue!), nitrate at .50, and nitrate at 20.
Did water change, and today its at 1 ammonia, .25 nitrite, and 60 nitrate!
If I rinse the rock in RO saltwater, would it be safe to add to tank, or will the heavy bioload of the decaying organics throw my main tank off?
I wish I would have read about bleaching my rock first......missed that step ::squigglemouth:

jerseypete · Feb 2, 2015

If its dry your going to have to start at the begining like talked about earlier in this thread. Adding that to your tank will cause problems. If their small pieces you might get away with a small piece every 2 weeks. But i would cycle it seperatly.

kfoerster · Feb 17, 2015

Patience is paying off! Nitrates are 160 ppm and Nitrites are now falling and at or just below 2 ppm. Getting closer! :high5:

jerseypete · Feb 17, 2015

Almost there. I just seen uour other thread. Nice tank. But where is the rock from the display from? Is that from the tub of cycling rock

kfoerster · Feb 17, 2015

Diatoms?

Thanks jerseypete, yes that is the BRS rock from my tub that was cycling, which is why I believe I stalled a bit after moving it over because it was a 100% water change. Lesson learned. Just noticed this growing in my sand. Looks green in the pic but it is brown under white light. Diatoms?

jerseypete · Feb 17, 2015

So what water reads 160 ppm nitrate?

kfoerster · Feb 17, 2015

I have two tanks now going and cycling, the DT tank with contains the BRS rock that sat in the tubs curing for 8 weeks, which is now reading nitrates and 160 ppm and a QT tank without rock in a 29 gallon which is coming along slowly. I moved the BRS rock that was curing in the tub over to my DT on Feb 5th with new saltwater. Cranked up the heat to 82 and continued adding 5 mL of ammonia per day. The process stalled for a few days and nitrates dropped a bit, but nitrites were off the chart through the whole move over. Noticed the drop in nitrites start yesterday and a dramatic rise in nitrates over the past two days as well. I've been running my lights as well for the past week.

jerseypete · Feb 17, 2015

Dont understand why u did that. So how are you going to get rid of nitrates in you tank. Now your going to have a problem. When you cycling in a tub. There is no light so there is no algea. Now its in your display. 160 ppm nitrates. Now you adding light. Why? SMH. Your probably going to have all kinds of problems. The reason for cycling outside the tank is so you can take fully cycled rock and put in display in freshly made saltwater with zero nitrates to start. Im suprised that all you have growing on your sandbed so far.

kfoerster · Feb 17, 2015

From all of my research many cycle dry rock in a DT, but you are right it might not have been my smartest move, time will tell. This is why I'm sharing my story on the forum so that others can live and learn from my mistakes. I moved the rock because I wanted to and because while I figured it would stall the cycle it wouldn't kill it. I agree nitrates may be a problem, but my research indicated that they will spike and fall again and water changes should help bring them down to a manageable level once I get to that point. The light can easily be fixed and turned off if needed.

jerseypete · Feb 17, 2015

People cycle in tank but only use small amount of flake food or a small fish to start cycle. Only adding a very small amount of ammonia.The way your doing it your dumping large amounts of ammonia in the tank simulating a large bio load. If you were doing it in tank i would have told you not to do it this way. Well if i were you i would water change away. Cause your tank will never process that amout of nitrate. Live rock can process nitrate to an extent. But it just seems like a waste all the time you spent doing this. Not to sound condescending but making decisions like that are going to cause you all kinds of problems in this hobby. The things most people in this hobby will fight is nitrates in their tank. That cause diatoms hair algea and all kinds of other issues.

kfoerster · Feb 17, 2015

No worries jerseypete, I asked for opinions by posting here and respect yours. Where I misunderstood was thinking that in tank cycling was the same as in tub cycling of my dry rock. I assumed a larger amount of ammonia could be used in the DT. I will stay the course and wait for nitrites to fall to zero and then do a near 100% water change (which should simulate the move of my rock from the tub to the DT had I kept it in the tub until fully cycled). Obviously the difference is the nitrate build up in my sand bed. Hopefully this will put my nitrates at a manageable level. I don't plan to add anything until I'm at or below 10 ppm.

jerseypete · Feb 17, 2015

Np. They are both the same. You could use ammonia in both. But the benifit of out of tank is you can use large amounts with out any issues. In tank you always want to be wary of high nitrates. When you change water i wouldnt do 100%. Maybe 50. And you'll probably have to do around 5 of them. Thats my opinion. Just remember in this hobby stability is the key. There are no perfect numbers or parameters. Just making sure everything stay stable. That why i wouldn't do a 100%change.