Cycling question

[Landon K]

Hey all, I am currently cycling my red sea 300 and had a couple questions. I still need to buy lights, skimmer, and refugium supplies. I am planning on waiting for black Friday to make those purchases and really get started. I used microbacter start and their ammonia to get the cycle going and it has been cycling for about 10 days. Is it okay to let the tank sit like this with no nutrients going in or out for this long of a period? I may also add microbacter 7 and seed the tank with copepods between now and black Friday. I assume the pods would need something to sustain themselves? Last question is, do many of the online retailers have worthwhile black Friday sales? Thanks.

 

[DIFish]

Hey all, I am currently cycling my red sea 300 and had a couple questions. I still need to buy lights, skimmer, and refugium supplies. I am planning on waiting for black Friday to make those purchases and really get started. I used microbacter start and their ammonia to get the cycle going and it has been cycling for about 10 days. Is it okay to let the tank sit like this with no nutrients going in or out for this long of a period? I may also add microbacter 7 and seed the tank with copepods between now and black Friday. I assume the pods would need something to sustain themselves? Last question is, do many of the online retailers have worthwhile black Friday sales? Thanks.

Do you have water pumps, heater, and rock/sand in the tank? If so that is all you need to cycle it using the fishless method. I would add that you should be testing you ammonia/nitrate levels so that you can dose more and know when it is cycled.
Ammonia dosing is the nutrients, and bacteria are consuming it and growing.
Yes many retailers have good black Friday sales and you can save a good amount if you do not mind waiting. In fact my cycle guides recommend starting without lights.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Copepods eat detritus and algae (phytoplankton), so you'll definitely need to feed the tank.

Do you have anything in the tank besides water? (Sand, rocks, etc?)
The beneficial "cycling" bacteria will only grow in proportion to the amount of food and the amount of room it has to colonize.
If it were me and I chose to set up the way you have (without all the equipment at once), I would make sure to have plenty of rock or other biomedia and ghost feed the tank. This will also serve you well if you add pods since you can use fish food to feed them.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Copepods eat detritus and algae (phytoplankton), so you'll definitely need to feed the tank.

Do you have anything in the tank besides water? (Sand, rocks, etc?)
The beneficial "cycling" bacteria will only grow in proportion to the amount of food and the amount of room it has to colonize.
If it were me and I chose to set up the way you have (without all the equipment at once), I would make sure to have plenty of rock or other biomedia and ghost feed the tank. This will also serve you well if you add pods since you can use fish food to feed them.

Adding: bottled ammonia can be useful if you need a rapid cycle, but really is not needed if you add another source of food for the bacteria (i.e. fish food, etc).

 

[Landon K]

Do you have water pumps, heater, and rock/sand in the tank? If so that is all you need to cycle it using the fishless method. I would add that you should be testing you ammonia/nitrate levels so that you can dose more and know when it is cycled.
Ammonia dosing is the nutrients, and bacteria are consuming it and growing.
Yes many retailers have good black Friday sales and you can save a good amount if you do not mind waiting. In fact my cycle guides recommend starting without lights.

Yes, return pump, heater, rock, sand, and two Tunze 6045's are all in the tank. I should probably invest in some test kits. I just figured since it was going to sit so long, it would do its thing between 10 days ago and late November.

Edit: I also have 500 ml of Seachem Matrix in a filter cup

 

[DavidY]

You could use some reef chili or reef roids as a nutrient source during that time. A very small amount. Just make sure to have some sort of circulation and do a water change occasionally.

 

[DIFish]

Yes, return pump, heater, rock, sand, and two Tunze 6045's are all in the tank. I should probably invest in some test kits. I just figured since it was going to sit so long, it would do its thing between 10 days ago and late November.

You will 100% need test kits. They are one of the single best investments you will make. Also you don’t need to get the really expensive ones like Hanna checkers for everything, but I would avoid API if possible for most things. Leaving your tank that long is fine, just keep testing, adding ammonia or ghost feeding as needed to keep the bacteria alive.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Yes, return pump, heater, rock, sand, and two Tunze 6045's are all in the tank. I should probably invest in some test kits. I just figured since it was going to sit so long, it would do its thing between 10 days ago and late November.

That is fine to do, but you will need to add livestock very slowly until you're sure the bacterial colonies are large enough to handle the bioload.

 

[RocketEngineer]

Regarding test kits: avoid ammonia and nitrite. You won’t need them, especially with the long cycle you describe. A light ghost feeding once a week will keep the pods growing and give the algae something to use so it can grow to be pod food.

Once the tank is in full swing, monitor the big 3 (alk, cal, mag) and salinity. The rest are helpful but used less often.

A number of vendors have daily specials so keep an eye out for what you want.