tank cycle old school vs new school

A Toadstool Leather · May 16, 2017

It seems most people use pure ammonia and biospira. Raw shrimp runs the rusk of too much ammonia being added imo.

Bunnee911 · May 16, 2017

Make sure it is not sudsy ammonia.

RomoFL · Aug 7, 2019

I know this is an old thread.. but FWIW, I did both old school and new school within the last year on two different tanks.. here’s what I experienced:

20g peninsula: live rock, live sand, seawater, dead shrimp method. This process took about 3 weeks for a full nitrogen cycle. The shrimp took about 4-5 days to start looking gooey and then it was removed. Ammonia was elevated so I felt that was good enough. Ammonia settled to zero after another week or so. My nitrates finally shot up around day 30.

73g rimless: dry (but cured) rock, live sand, seawater, Fritz Turbo 900, pure ammonia. After the 3rd day adding the bacteria, my ammonia went to 0. I added ammonia to get 2ppt each day for a few days and each time it the ammonia read 0 after 1 day. Nitrates shot up after a week and that’s where I am at now.. planning on WC and livestock this weekend.

To be honest I don’t think I’ll ever do the old way again. It was definitely cool to do especially for a beginner but this bacterial in a bottle plus ammonia is so fast it’s crazy.

Now I know this is just the nitrogen cycle and I don’t consider my tank fully cycled yet - it hasn’t gotten to the ugly stage yet. But the nitrogen cycle itself was way shorter and less smelly for sure.

brandon429 · Aug 7, 2019

The substrates you brought in were fully cycled already though
weren’t those surfaces live rock/ wet longer than 30 days?

The test of the method is with dry rock cycling. The above test is ammonia overloading an already cycled system, then seeing how it rebounds. That varies tank to tank

As described above, both systems were fully ready when assembled, the bac and + shrimp or ammonia were redundant but not harmful to add. The ending bioload could have been added, without the double cycling step or wait time. It is also just fine to re test it, if someone wants. These systems are durable

I read above you may have used uncured rock on first attempt, as in ocean harvested. That indeed may need die off time if many animals are left to die off from the ocean. Both tanks however had full bacteria in tow, none extra needed, and neither required dosed ammonia if you wanted to skip that option next time

The microbiology of reef tank cycling.

You can skip your cycle. Ive been reefing online for twenty years and have never waited one second for a tank to cycle, because I buy rocks that are already cycled and move them home. Here's two: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/...

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