Seeded dry rock cycle

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caldridge

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Hey there! I’m back to reef tanks after a 6 year hiatus. I’m starting my 4th tank now and wanted to do it “right” with a pristine 16 g nano. I used dry seeded life rock and live sand. I used Dr Tim’s one and only, and a single dose of ammonia. It’s been 4 weeks and my nitrates and nitrites have been 0 continuously and my ammonia won’t budge from 2ppm. I dosed the Dr Tim’s 2 more times with no change. I read more blogs that recommended Microbacter7 over Dr Tim’s. But after reading the fine print on Microbacter 7 found that bacterial supplements are contraindicated with dry seeded life rock and with live sand!!! Not sure where to go now. Should I throw out all the water and start fresh. Has anyone else heard of this?
 
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caldridge said:
Hey there! I’m back to reef tanks after a 6 year hiatus. I’m starting my 4th tank now and wanted to do it “right” with a pristine 16 g nano. I used dry seeded life rock and live sand. I used Dr Tim’s one and only, and a single dose of ammonia. It’s been 4 weeks and my nitrates and nitrites have been 0 continuously and my ammonia won’t budge from 2ppm. I dosed the Dr Tim’s 2 more times with no change. I read more blogs that recommended Microbacter7 over Dr Tim’s. But after reading the fine print on Microbacter 7 found that bacterial supplements are contraindicated with dry seeded life rock and with live sand!!! Not sure where to go now. Should I throw out all the water and start fresh. Has anyone else heard of this?
Click to expand...
I would try seeding it with some live rock. I also recently got back into the hobby after going tankless for a couple years (had tanks for twenty years prior) and set up a tank with the same ‘life rock’ and had a weird cycle. Did the same using bottled bac (biospira and aquavitro/seachem) and bagged live sand. Didn’t really start processing ammonia (it did a little, but it was just weird and slow) until I added a few lbs of real (maricultured) live rock. I would’ve added the live rock anyway, just because I don’t think a reef tank is a reef tank without the microfauna, but it 100% helped with my cycle. I’m around 4 months in now and everything is good, but it kind of put me off using this fake rock (I don’t know that we’ll have that much of a choice in the future, it seems real live rock is getting harder and harder to source).
 
Deltec
Clint Eastwood.gif

Howdy. Glad you're here. Water changes usually help just about anything!
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
caldridge said:
Hey there! I’m back to reef tanks after a 6 year hiatus. I’m starting my 4th tank now and wanted to do it “right” with a pristine 16 g nano. I used dry seeded life rock and live sand. I used Dr Tim’s one and only, and a single dose of ammonia. It’s been 4 weeks and my nitrates and nitrites have been 0 continuously and my ammonia won’t budge from 2ppm. I dosed the Dr Tim’s 2 more times with no change. I read more blogs that recommended Microbacter7 over Dr Tim’s. But after reading the fine print on Microbacter 7 found that bacterial supplements are contraindicated with dry seeded life rock and with live sand!!! Not sure where to go now. Should I throw out all the water and start fresh. Has anyone else heard of this?
Click to expand...
Welcome!

Glad you joined. Keep us posted, but don't feel you have to rush anything. Sometimes things just go at their own speed when it comes to reefing
 
Tidal Gardens
Top Shelf Aquatics
caldridge said:
Hey there! I’m back to reef tanks after a 6 year hiatus. I’m starting my 4th tank now and wanted to do it “right” with a pristine 16 g nano. I used dry seeded life rock and live sand. I used Dr Tim’s one and only, and a single dose of ammonia. It’s been 4 weeks and my nitrates and nitrites have been 0 continuously and my ammonia won’t budge from 2ppm. I dosed the Dr Tim’s 2 more times with no change. I read more blogs that recommended Microbacter7 over Dr Tim’s. But after reading the fine print on Microbacter 7 found that bacterial supplements are contraindicated with dry seeded life rock and with live sand!!! Not sure where to go now. Should I throw out all the water and start fresh. Has anyone else heard of this?
Click to expand...
Hi there!

Yeah seems like live sand does not really help, nor does the seeded Life Rock. There's been a lot of threads on this, and I notice that it seems like dormant microbes, at least the ones used with these products, don't seem to be able to 'seed' the tank well.

Dr. Tim's One and Only also does not seem to be effective, at least according to recent posts that I have seen.

I'd suggest either seeding with live rock, or something like FritzZyme Turbo Start 900. Fritz is one of the bottled bac products that I still see a lot of good reported results recently.
 
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