Cycling Minimalist Coral/Invert QT

[Tihsho]

This past Sunday I setup a QT for Coral and inverts while I'm waiting on getting everything together for my DT. The QT is a barebottom 20L with 2 HOB AquaClears (70 and a 30) running sponges and biomedia only with a 150w Eheim heater keeping the tank at 78. The SG is at 1.026 with AquaVitro Salinity and has been consistent with only a quart or so of RO/DI being used daily to top off the tank. I seeded the tanks bacterial colony with Brightwell Aquatics MB7 and provided an initial feeding of Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride later that night. I've been testing the water daily and have been adding MB7 per the instructions, but I'm not seeing the ammonia levels drop and Nitrite and Nitrate are at 0 ppm. Previously I've cycled tanks with live sand and live rock, but with this minimalistic approach for this QT I'm keeping the holding tank bare with the bio media in the filters and a reactor (adding it soon) holding the surface area to break down ammonia and then the final stage of nitrate being pulled out with water changes and a cheato reactor.

Is there anything I can do to speed up the cycling process? I could swing by the LFS and pick up some LR rubble and drop it into the filter, but I'm trying to not add anything to the tank that will contain annoying algae. Thoughts?

 

[brandon429]

you don't have to do anything other than let the current setup swirl around for about three weeks total. submersion alone will coat the required surfaces in bacteria.

since the display doesn't contain the normal complement of live rock and sand, don't be testing this system at 2 ppm cuz corals w never present a fraction of that load. it will still clear 2 ppm at completion time, but likely slower since your ability to convert ammonia is now not only surface area dependent, but also dependent on basic turnover because the sole point of beneficial nitrification is found at the end of a small tube input (into the filter areas) vs the whole tank, actively nitrifying.

you can measure your cycle better at .5 - 1 ppm than 2 full on.

also, testing your wastewater before the required submersion time may or may not indicate ideal measures, but this variation doesn't matter at all.

what matters is after the known duration times of being underwater with these boosters you've used, you can change out all the water, dose back to .5 ppm accurate ammonia verified, and the system will pass with flying colors (to the best that nitrite testing accuracy allows)

your system will likely cycle before 3 weeks in the current setting, but that's a known safe overshoot for you to wait if you have any concerns. stew for 3 weeks with boosters, change all the water, refill, surfaces are ready for QT without contamination sources

 

[Tihsho]

Good to know! I ended up picking up live rock rubble to put into the reactor, but for now it's sitting in the whirlpool of a tank. Additional surfaces will be added, frag racks, so I'm going to work on getting those in the tank to provide surface area.

 

[Clownfish2]

I would recommend adding corals about 4 months minimum after starting a tank. Adding a bottle of bacteria and fish to a tank works, but corals need more time than fish. My 20 gallon coral invert QT didn’t work very well when I mixed up saltwater and added a bottle of BiroSpira.

 

[Tihsho]

@Clownfish2, what issues did you run into?

At this point I'm just using it as a QT/frag tank that will be constantly up and running unlike my fish QT. I'll probably QT some inverts first to add a bigger bioload to the system and hopefully there should be some organics for them to munch on with the Kessil A160 above (might be adding another.)

 

[Clownfish2]

@Clownfish2, what issues did you run into?

At this point I'm just using it as a QT/frag tank that will be constantly up and running unlike my fish QT. I'll probably QT some inverts first to add a bigger bioload to the system and hopefully there should be some organics for them to munch on with the Kessil A160 above (might be adding another.)

I lost 5 frags in a newly setup QT using a bottle of BiroSpira. They suffered from tissue loss and died. I took the remaining alive and placed in my 110 gallon tank which had been running for 1.5 year and they were fine.

There are other sources that recommend 4 months or longer before tossing in corals...Red Sea as well as videos produced by Bulk Reef Supply.

 

[Ron Reefman]

With a small tank like that, especially being used as a QT for corals and inverts (not fish) you could keep the water very clean and safe simply by doing water changes. And now that you've added rocks it's just a matter of time before you get the cycle. But for Coral and inverts in a small holding tank, as long as you test for ammonia and can do water changes, your good to go. You don't need to add all that bottled chemistry for a simple holding tank for coral and inverts.

It's the feeding of fish and the detritus that cause the big spike in ammonia and more likely requires a cycled tank. But even then, in the short term, water chages can do the job.

I had a 180g tank break and I kept all my LR in 2 Brute garbage cans and all my fish, corals and inverts in spare tanks, buckets and other containers for 2 months. It took that long to shop, order, have delivered, set up, plumb and prepare a new tank for them. My loses were very small and mostly fish due to my not doing enough water changes. And all I used water saltwater. I never used any bottled stuff to add anything to the tanks.

 

[Tihsho]

@Ron Reefman, this is good to know! I started the long process as that's what I'm going to do for the DT, so I figured I'd get comfortable with the bottle of 'snake oil' approach on something smaller before I jumped on it for the DT. That said, if the QT is up and reliable that means I can have the QT started during the long period the DT is getting up to speed on it's cycle.