Live rock cycling

[Jrswish]

IMG_4247

• Jrswish
• Jan 6, 2019

IMG_4248

• Jrswish
• Jan 6, 2019

I posted a thread about this last night, but here's two pics of my set up and the live rock.

I got caribsea live sand, and then I got 5LBS of live rock from an established tank at my LFS and I'm wondering if that means my tanks cycled or what should I do now? I'm familiar with the nitrogen cycle etc I have A LOT of freshwater tanks, but the whole live rock cycling really can't get a straight answer.

 

[ndrwater]

Live rock will definitely help, but as you add more inhabitants, you may get a small ammonia spike. Not a true cycle, but a minor spike. The more rock, or the longer the tank js established, thr less problematic these mini spikes become

 

[Sparkymarc]

I would add ammonia until 2ppm and check it after 24hrs. If there’s no ammonia or nitrite you should be good. It might not hurt to do that 2 or 3 consecutive nights.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Ammonia nitrite nitrate. That is the cycle. Period.
The bacteria live manly in the rock and sand.

Weather or not you have enough live rock to process the Ammonia produced by the number of fish you want is the question.

A tank that is all good aged live rock from the start (like a tank to tank transfer ) is called a skip cycle. You can pretty much wait a day or two and put fish in.

Depending on how long the live rock you was out of the water , you may have some bacterial die off. That will make ammoina.

It’s best to wait a bit. An $8 ammonia alert badge is a good thing to have on a new tank. Api Ammonia tests are finicky.

You can test how fast (and also confirm) that it’s processing ammonia (cycling) by doing as stated above , use dr tims ammonia.
It will spike your nitrate.

Imo and as best practice , I still leave the tank for about a month empty.