How do YOU cycle a tank?

91Atrac · May 17, 2016

So I've been doing tanks for many years and haven't really set a proper tactic to tackle cycles stages.

Can someone enlighten me on how YOU do it.

I've always added bacteria (prodibio) and waited a few days and added fish. Currently I'll be starting a tank with live dry rock tho and some live to seed it.

Anything I should change?

brandon429 · May 17, 2016

http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-ta...d-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/

That's my fav

tankstudy · May 17, 2016

91Atrac said:
I've always added bacteria (prodibio) and waited a few days and added fish. Currently I'll be starting a tank with live dry rock tho and some live to seed it.
Anything I should change?

Are you still going to add bacteria?
So your dry rock is already live? If so, are you seeding it for coralline algae?

91Atrac · May 17, 2016

I'll be adding prodibio bacteria and an accelerator. Rock will be fully dry rock but I will be adding a few pieces for seed in purposes.

RyanCSGO · May 17, 2016

Reef rock and sand in.
Add water.
Start pumps and wave makers.
2 hours after I add "start up", run lights out for 2-3 weeks, lights on for a week or so.
The last tank I cycled this way had very little diatom bloom and no GHA issues

Sticking with this until it fails.

tankstudy · May 17, 2016

91Atrac said:
I'll be adding prodibio bacteria and an accelerator. Rock will be fully dry rock but I will be adding a few pieces for seed in purposes.

The bacteria will usually be sufficient without the seeding but seeding can be for more than just bacteria

Some people do your method where you add bacteria and then add fish. This causes the population of the bacteria in the bottle to adjust to what your fish bio load is. If the population of the bacteria is very high in the bottle, where it can handle more bioload then your fish can produce, it will come down to match what your fish-livestock is producing, which is fine. If its low, it'll take some time for it to catch up and you'll know that when you still see ammonia/nitrite on your test kits, not good.

What I prefer to do to avoid the scenario if I'm short on bacteria is test it with ammonium chloride. If it can consume 2-4 ppm within 24 hours, I'll start adding live stock. At 2 ppm, I'll initially stock really light, 1-2 small fish. At 4 ppm, I can initially stock a lot more. However, the digestion test requires you to follow instructions and keep water parameters in certain numbers. Going outside those numbers can really elongate things for you.

My only advice is, when dumping bacteria in to your tank, turn off your skimmer.

CodyRVA · May 17, 2016

Pure Ammonia.

91Atrac · May 17, 2016

Thanks for the pointer. Yea usually I won't add fish till I see bacteria has settled. Like once ammonia is down and nitrates aren't showing or up to 5ppm. Make sense

91Atrac · Jun 21, 2016

CodyRVA said:
Pure Ammonia.

Does ammonia go down on its own?

RyanCSGO · Jun 21, 2016

it supposed to yes. the bacteria would convert it into nitrite, which then turns into nitrate.

91Atrac · Jun 21, 2016

Ok. Because I started up my new 150g knowing my dry rock had dead matter in it. I added stability for bacteria to help break everything down and my ammonia is at the highest on my Red Sea kit.

I assumed it went down on its own but I've personally always always done water changes to drop the ammonia in cycling

RyanCSGO · Jun 21, 2016

how long has the tank been running?

91Atrac · Jun 21, 2016

RyanCSGO said:
how long has the tank been running?

Lol a week ish. VERY!!! New in cycle right now. But bacteria always speeds up cycling.

RyanCSGO · Jun 21, 2016

91Atrac said:
Lol a week ish. VERY!!! New in cycle right now. But bacteria always speeds up cycling.

I see @brandon429 is veiwing the thread. i'll wait and see if he posts something. he always has good info.

91Atrac · Jun 21, 2016

Hahah alright sounds good. Always looking for some good info

zoomonster · Jun 21, 2016

Pretty much same method I used for current tank. Mostly dead rock and some live, mostly dead sand and some live, continuum aquatics bacter gen m and tank started getting light stocking in about two weeks. Most bacterial products work as well but a lot of people seem to like the Dr Tim's stuff these days.