Cycling Dry Rock Plan

[Zhewitt04]

Here is my plan please critique or add any comments. Love to hear ideas. Here is mine.
This is dry rock from a previous setup. The Rock sat in a dry aquarium in a basement. To get the dust off I put it in a plastic barrel and ran freshwater with a high flow pump to help loosen dust and dirt from the rock. I am going to remove all the water in a week or so. Then add fresh rodi salt water. I will add a shrimp to start the nitrogen cycle. I will test until I get nitrates. At that point I will remove shrimp and ghost feed from this point on every other day. After about 2 weeks I will start dosing microfactor 7 to get bacteria diversity. At this point I might add a damsel or 2 just to get the build up of bacteria. I also heard fish release ammonia out of there gills so this will aid in the nitrogen cycle. I will be setting up the tank after our remodel of the house in July. Please let me know if you feel I need to do something different or add to the plan... thanks in advance.

 

[Pistondog]

Many here swear they'll never start another tank without live rock. Gives a big head start with Biodiversity, not that expensive.
Gulfliverock.com has a nano package 17 lbs, $85 including shipping. 3days to me, shipped in wet newspaper and paper towels. Snails, crabs, clams macro algae sponges, limpets, feather dusters, and the stuff you can't see.

 

[Jekyl]

Many here swear they'll never start another tank without live rock. Gives a big head start with Biodiversity, not that expensive.
Gulfliverock.com has a nano package 17 lbs, $85 including shipping. 3days to me, shipped in wet newspaper and paper towels. Snails, crabs, clams macro algae sponges, limpets, feather dusters, and the stuff you can't see.

My next tank I will be using this rock. You could add a few pieces of this to your cycling rock and not have to dose at all. The die off during shipping will supply the ammonia to seed the other rocks. If you did it however you may need to put a light on it and feed. Some of their rock comes with coral and inverts.

 

[redfishbluefish]

You've skipped a step, which isn't talked about much these days, albeit can occur concurrent to cycling. That is curing the rock. Curing allows all the death that is within the rock to completely decompose and leach out of the rock. If this step is skipped, three months from now you're going to be complaining about algae taking over your tank and high nitrates One way to speed this up (could take up to a couple months) is to bleach the rock first. BRS has a video on this that also includes acid dipping, but recommend not doing the acid part. It's dangerous and, in my opinion, just leaves you with less rock. However, the bleach oxidizes the organics in the rock quickening the leaching of that death from the rock. I've always multiple rinsed the rock and air dried before putting into saltwater. Now you'll still see a cure....rise in nitrates and phosphates, but won't be as high and last as long. Do water changes to get N and P down. Continue water changes until N and P and where you want them. Typically cycling has now already occurred, and you didn't have to do anything.

If you do what you proposed above....shrimp and test a little later.....you're going to see nitrates, but likely from the nitrates and phosphates leaching from the rock. This could give you a false sense that your cycle is done. Cycle is done when the addition of ammonia is readily converted and disappears.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Here's a BRS video about bleaching....not the one I saw, that included acid dipping, but just about bleach. I didn't watch this one, but sure it will back up what I said and give some detail:

 

[Azedenkae]

I will add a shrimp to start the nitrogen cycle. I will test until I get nitrates. At that point I will remove shrimp and ghost feed from this point on every other day. After about 2 weeks I will start dosing microfactor 7 to get bacteria diversity. At this point I might add a damsel or 2 just to get the build up of bacteria. I also heard fish release ammonia out of there gills so this will aid in the nitrogen cycle.

I want to know, is there a reason why you would not start dosing Microbacter7 until (2 weeks?) after you get nitrates? Personally I would have added Microbacter7 from the start.

 

[Pistondog]

You should add mb7 or another starter bacteria with the shrimp.

 

[Ippyroy]

If the rock was used in a tank previously, it does help to cure it. I personally wouldn't worry about it. After the first month do 100% water change and do that every 2 weeks. I mix my saltwater in a different container the night before and just move the rocks from one can to the next. When you set up your tank, you will have to build the scape in water. Make an order from ipsf.com and get some mud and their bacteria and add it all to your tank. Don't bother with MB7 or fish. Just ghost feed heavily right after the water changes. I did this to dry rock and the only real issues I encountered were my fault. Not a large enough CUC, didn't harvest the chaeto, and shocked the tank and got dinos trying to get rid of the GHA that was growing due to not harvesting.

 

[Ippyroy]

I forgot to mention, start off with IO. It's cheap and you don't need anything else. At a month before you are ready to add the rocks to the DT, switch to TM Syn Biotic and use it to start the tank. After you run out of that salt switch to TM Bio Activ. You only to use 1 bucket's worth of it as well. After that, use which ever salt you would like to use, they all work.