Rinsing dry rock | Cycling questions

[Pixburgh]

First, my RODI unit from BRS is coming tomorrow. I wanted to try and have the rock rinsed and glued together tonight so I can start filling the tanks tomorrow. My unit makes 75 gpd and i'll need 60 between the DT & QT tank i'm going to cycle. My question is, can I use store bought natural saltwater to rinse off my dry rock? I have a few gallons of it laying around.

Second, I have a question about cycling my tanks. Do I need to go through the algae stages of the cycle in my QT tank? (waiting for the green hair algae stage etc). After i'm done with quarantining everyone and the QT is empty, how do I keep it going? Ghost feed and normal water changes? I want to keep it running if possible incase someone gets sick or whatever the case may be.

Third, I saw in a thread that someone kept their lights off during the entire cycling process of their DT but had read I need to wait for the color transitions in the algae to be considered completely done with the cycle. Are both ways acceptable?

Thanks as always for any advice and tips:ear:

 

[Waters]

First, my RODI unit from BRS is coming tomorrow. I wanted to try and have the rock rinsed and glued together tonight so I can start filling the tanks tomorrow. My unit makes 75 gpd and i'll need 60 between the DT & QT tank i'm going to cycle. My question is, can I use store bought natural saltwater to rinse off my dry rock? I have a few gallons of it laying around.

Yes, you can use any type of water if all you are doing is just rinsing off the dry rock. Obviously RO/DI water would be preferred over tap water but saltwater is probably unneccessary.

Second, I have a question about cycling my tanks. Do I need to go through the algae stages of the cycle in my QT tank? (waiting for the green hair algae stage etc). After i'm done with quarantining everyone and the QT is empty, how do I keep it going? Ghost feed and normal water changes? I want to keep it running if possible incase someone gets sick or whatever the case may be.

Other than diatoms (which are pretty unavoidable), you don't need to go through any algae stage during cycling. I have never had any algae in my tank other than the initial bout of diatoms. As long as you use RO/DI water and keep nitrates and phosphates to a minimum you will not grow algae. You can keep the QT biological filter going by ghost feeding the tank. You just need to provide a source of ammonia of some type.

Third, I saw in a thread that someone kept their lights off during the entire cycling process of their DT but had read I need to wait for the color transitions in the algae to be considered completely done with the cycle. Are both ways acceptable?

Yes, you can keep the lights off during the cycle if you choose to. When using live rock, it is beneficial to keep them on to allow whatever light-dependent inverts the ability to grow but you are using dry rock. Again, the goal is to avoid algae from the beginning so you don't need the lights to be able to "view" the algae.

Hope this helps.

 

[rdevoe11]

I dont see why you couldnt use the natural saltwater, I just used some store bought RO water

Usually, quarantines are set up with water from your cycled display tank. So when you do a water change on your display you would use that water to start the quarantine. However starting from scratch I would suggest using a denitrifying bacteria additive like Dr Tims or pure ammonium chloride. It is important to monitor the salinity and ammonia levels in your QT and to keep up with frequent water changes. To keep it going, refer to the first suggestion (use water from display to do water change on QT)

Lights are not necessary during the cycling process. Not sure about the color transitions :squigglemouth:

 

[Pixburgh]

Appreciate it, both of you.

I've never seen a store around here carry rodi water so I had picked up a few gallons of the natural saltwater for emergency purposes.

My only concern using my water for my QT from my DT would be that it should hold excess nitrates (which is what i'd be trying to lower by doing a water change in my DT). I do plan on using Dr Tims bacteria though on both tanks.