New 90 Gallon System

[Jipolley]

Hello all,

Glad to get into this hobby finally. After many hours of labor and dollar signs I finally have my system running. Its a 85 Gallon shallow tank with a 15 gallon sump below. I have a skimmer running 24/7 and tons of dry rock in the sump. I just added 2 live rock bricks from my friends tank (They were in there for 2 years). To keep the bacteria I added 2 blue damsels and just recently a clownfish. All 3 fish are very active and visibly very healthy. Bricks with bacteria were added on Aug 4. Followed by fish on Aug. 5

A couple of questions
How long should I expect the beginning cycle to take?
Does the true cycle only begin when I install grow lights?
Did I save much time by the adding of 2y/o live rock?

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Welcome to your new home for saltwater reef aquarium resources and fun! Welcome to the family!

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[Reef Wizard]

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Welcome!

1) your cycle should be done now if you added fish Aug. 6th and there is no ammonia or nitrite.

2) Light is not needed for a cycle. Nitrifying bacteria is not photosynthetic.

3) Yes.

 

[Jipolley]

Welcome!

1) your cycle should be done now if you added fish Aug. 6th and there is no ammonia or nitrite.

2) Light is not needed for a cycle. Nitrifying bacteria is not photosynthetic.

3) Yes.

Ok, understood. Thanks for the insight!

 

[paragrouper]

Hi and welcome. Not sure what a live rock brick is, but it sounds like it’s working. Are you testing for ammonia and nitrates? If so, what are you measuring?

As @WalkerLovesTheOcean stated, lights are not necessary for cycling the tank. If you get a chance you should post of tank picture.

 

[shakacuz]

welcome aboard the r2r board. hello from PA!

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[CO2TLEY]

 

[Buckster]

Hello and Welcome to R2R! Looks like you have your answers from Walkerlovestheocean

 

[rc8t6353]

Welcome to Reef2Reef! By live rock bricks I assume you mean like a bio media block. If so, then you may not see ammonia and nitrite at all, just nitrates.

 

[zheka757]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R and the salty world Joel. Take things slowly. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.

 

[Extremeengineer]

So the bricks with bacteria from an established tank create what’s called a skip cycle. You introduced the bacteria, then gave them something to sustain them with your fish.

As far as lights, they are not needed if you did not add coral. In fact I’d suggest when you add the lights to go very short on light cycles, like 4 hours. That should help considerably with the “uglies” on the dry rock. Uglies being various types of algae generally. Once you get a bio-film on the dry rock you can increase your lights snd add corals, just one line of thought. I’m almost 3 months in with my 75 doing the above, and with weekly water changes I’ve avoided the uglies almost entirely.

 

[Jipolley]

Hi and welcome. Not sure what a live rock brick is, but it sounds like it’s working. Are you testing for ammonia and nitrates? If so, what are you measuring?

As @WalkerLovesTheOcean stated, lights are not necessary for cycling the tank. If you get a chance you should post of tank picture.

They are called polyp lab genesis rocks. I haven't bought testers yet. My local petco does free tests so I may stop over there.

 

[Jipolley]

So the bricks with bacteria from an established tank create what’s called a skip cycle. You introduced the bacteria, then gave them something to sustain them with your fish.

As far as lights, they are not needed if you did not add coral. In fact I’d suggest when you add the lights to go very short on light cycles, like 4 hours. That should help considerably with the “uglies” on the dry rock. Uglies being various types of algae generally. Once you get a bio-film on the dry rock you can increase your lights snd add corals, just one line of thought. I’m almost 3 months in with my 75 doing the above, and with weekly water changes I’ve avoided the uglies almost entirely.

Ok gotcha, I am getting 3 tangs at the end of august so they should keep the algae to a minimum. 90% of my live rock is in the sump anyways.

 

[Jipolley]

Welcome to Reef2Reef! By live rock bricks I assume you mean like a bio media block. If so, then you may not see ammonia and nitrite at all, just nitrates.

They are called polyp lab genesis rocks. When you say "see" do you mean physically see or see the change on tests?

 

[1112-425XL]

 

[Ocean_Queenie]

Hello & Welcome to R2R!