Pre-Cycling Tank

[NewRobert]

Hi guys,

So on the 21st of June for fathers day my wife and kids surprised me with a 100 gallon marine tank. Unfortunately the LFS that put it all together did not have the sump available yet. So for the time being it's just been standing in my office waiting for this to arrive. What should have been a 1 week wait for the sump, has now turned to 3 weeks and that isn't even a guarantee.

The entire family is a bit frustrated as we all expected to be 2 or 3 weeks into the cycling process already looking forward to adding a clownfish.

I have the stand, the tank, the rock, the salt and the crushed coral all good to go.

Having already got 9 freshwater aquariums in the house and having some supplies for it, I was wondering if we could maybe start cycling some media so long?

The plan would be to scrub and rinse the rock, rinse the crushed coral, stick a heater or 2 in the tank and then fill the tank with salt mixed ro/di water below the overflow level and put a bunch of available internal tank filters filled to the brim with seachem matrix in the tank, then add some ammonia and see if I can kick off the cycle.

Is this a viable plan? Then when the sump eventually makes it's way here I can just move the seachem matrix to the sump.

Please advise as the situation is now becoming annoying.

Sourcing another sump elsewhere is not really an option as it is being custom built to fit the equipment already purchased and we have already paid for it.

Thank you.

 

[andrewey]

You can cycle your live rock in a bucket if you wish. No need to wait on the sump (cycling in the tank without a sump is also a great option!). You can add ammonia only, however it will likely take one to many more months to cycle your rock using the bacteria from the air. Therefore, most people usually add bacteria. This is most commonly done with a piece of live rock to seed your dry rock. Another option is to use a bottled bacterial product. Not all bacterial additives are the same, but for those that are efficacious, this may be a good solution for you. You will want to test your water during your cycle so you know when your cycle is complete and your water is safe for your new fish.

Cycling an Aquarium

Cycling a new aquarium. One of the earliest topics a new aquarium hobbyist needs to learn is how to properly cycle their aquarium. There is a ton of information on this process and many different methods on how to accomplish it. There are many different chemical and biological cycles our tank...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[NewRobert]

You can cycle your live rock in a bucket if you wish. No need to wait on the sump (cycling in the tank without a sump is also a great option!). You can add ammonia only, however it will likely take one to many more months to cycle your rock using the bacteria from the air. Therefore, most people usually add bacteria. This is most commonly done with a piece of live rock to seed your dry rock. Another option is to use a bottled bacterial product. Not all bacterial additives are the same, but for those that are efficacious, this may be a good solution for you. You will want to test your water during your cycle so you know when your cycle is complete and your water is safe for your new fish.

Cycling an Aquarium

Cycling a new aquarium. One of the earliest topics a new aquarium hobbyist needs to learn is how to properly cycle their aquarium. There is a ton of information on this process and many different methods on how to accomplish it. There are many different chemical and biological cycles our tank...

www.reef2reef.com

The LFS included a bottle of "continuum bacter gen md" which they said I will use to cycle the tank but from reading up on it, I am not quite sure that that is the right thing to use. Any thoughts, any other products you would recommend?

 

[andrewey]

If you pardon the funny colors, here's a good place to start- the first few posts have summaries and you can follow the links if you want to read any of the test procedures or further discussions:

Bacteria in a bottle, Myth or Fact

Call me old school, back in the day we placed a deli shrimp in a tank to kick start the cycle. When tank reached 1.5-2 ppm ammonia we pulled it out and waited sometimes weeks to months for bacteria to colonize and drop ammonia and nitrites down to 0 to make tank safe for livestock. With recent...

www.reef2reef.com