Torch coral during cycle....

[Sharkbait19]

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/...

www.reef2reef.com

1 hr study material
The art of skip cycling

Steps
Do not use an ammonia or nitrite test kit in this move. For other cycles you can, but not this one. Testless for a reason

Take live rocks that have coralline, animals, pods, live rock... and bag them with water in the bag. Direct them to bag with water, decline if they counter offer.

Move bagged rocks home set in a tank of pre rinsed sand. Pre rinsed, see thread example on my study thread

Pre rinsed sand and wet transport rocks are skip cycle. Add water coral

Thanks! Only problem is I forgot to rinse sand when I added it, they told me not to (I should’ve used my better judgment), but I’ve cleaned the water since

 

[brandon429]

that clouding never was harmful, just a headache which does clear via settlement quickly anyway. you are all set. we dont want ammonia testing because its certain to read .25 lol which = 0 on this specific set of moves


the classic concern is dieoff, and that's a legit concern/ but it will not happen with *tank cured* rocks, they simply transfer. I have a video of me draining my entire 14 yr nano reef to empty, corals included, shrimp and live rock worms, for 33 mins.

then I refill and snap video next day, all are fine. that literally means if you brought those live rocks home stacked in your floorboard they still wouldnt mini cycle lol, but we'd be drummed out of town as cycle savages.

macna sets up reefs that run fifty thousand in delicate animals for as many days as you want, this way above.

rocks from the mail sure might have dieoff, bagged and no 02, vs lifted out of aquarium 1/bagged for a few mins/set in aquarium 2. thats as reliable as clockwork, dont mess it up by testing for ammonia or nitrite (guaranteed misread) pahleese lol


*we wouldnt typically advise someone to skip cycle on their first tank unless they want to be awesome. have you dont nanos before

If there was not a 25 page exacting roadmap for every cycle you could run above, including skip cycles, Id be concerned. this is a common approach in reefing, using live materials and not waiting 30 days because they're already live.

Your ability to keep a torch or any coral isn't impacted by skip cycling, its how you reef long term. People typically verify salinity controls, able to change water, meet installation demands before starting

 

[Sharkbait19]

Thanks for the tips!
Obviously, my biggest concern as a beginner is to not overwhelm myself. If I’m skipping cycling, it’s would be only for the torch coral, because it seems rare to find something that big! Ill wait a few weeks for fish though!

 

[scardall]

NEVER ever put any coral in your tank during your tanks cycle. Corals need a mature tank. IMO 6 months cycled tank. Please Do Not listen to the poor advice to short cut proper husbandry. These people risk nothing, You do. There will always be another cool coral around the corner. Basic cycling is 6-8 weeks. You can accelerate this by 2 weeks by adding bacteria to your tank. Go to bulk reef supply video section for some of the best advice. NEVER RUSH in like others here. Happy Reefing and have Fun.

 

[scardall]

Thanks for the tips!
Obviously, my biggest concern as a beginner is to not overwhelm myself. If I’m skipping cycling, it’s would be only for the torch coral, because it seems rare to find something that big! Ill wait a few weeks for fish though!

coral are alot more sensitive to water conditions than fish. good luck

 

[Sharkbait19]

NEVER ever put any coral in your tank during your tanks cycle. Corals need a mature tank. IMO 6 months cycled tank. Please Do Not listen to the poor advice to short cut proper husbandry. These people risk nothing, You do. There will always be another cool coral around the corner. Basic cycling is 6-8 weeks. You can accelerate this by 2 weeks by adding bacteria to your tank. Go to bulk reef supply video section for some of the best advice. NEVER RUSH in like others here. Happy Reefing and have Fun.

Thank you! As a beginner, I am definitely overwhelmed my the various ways to cycle my aquarium. Likely, I will go the waiting route. If I was more experienced with reefing, I’d go for it, but I want to do everything right. Thanks everyone for the different experiences and advice!!

 

[Sharkbait19]

coral are alot more sensitive to water conditions than fish. good luck

I’ll probably wait. Depends on how daring I feel at the store....
I’m leaning towards waiting. Getting a torch frag and watching it grow can be just as fun!

 

[Sharkbait19]

*we wouldnt typically advise someone to skip cycle on their first tank unless they want to be awesome. have you dont nanos before

This is my first reef tank ever, and though I’m eager, I’ll have to go with the traditional cycle route, especially not knowing enough to kickstart a tank perfectly. Thanks for the tips on future reefs though!!

 

[scardall]

I’ll probably wait. Depends on how daring I feel at the store....
I’m leaning towards waiting. Getting a torch frag and watching it grow can be just as fun!

brs videos

 

[jeffrey750750]

go as slow as you possibly can, thats my advice

 

[SamMule]

If you're using 100% live rock and sand, you will be fine. To prevent any die-off, bring a cooler or some container you can keep water in and transport your rock that way.
My first tank was a 16 gallon. And, like you, bought live rock from Petco. I didn't want die-off and therefore, transported it wet.
Added caribsea sand and put the tank together. Lo and behold, my live rock came with a hitchiker BTA and 2 emerald crabs.
I tested every single day for the first couple weeks and never saw any measurable ammonia.
Now, as a new reefer, I made many mistakes in the first few months, but that BTA and both emerald crabs are still alive and kicking.
IMO:
The question is not weather the tank is ready for corals.
The question is: Are you ready?

If I were you, I would purchase the rocks, sand, etc, and if they will let you, the torch. Take all but the torch home and get your tank running.
Maybe run it for a week or two and make sure you can maintain temperature, water level, etc, and do a water change to make sure you have a good system down.
Then, go back and get that torch.

 

[Sharkbait19]

If you're using 100% live rock and sand, you will be fine. To prevent any die-off, bring a cooler or some container you can keep water in and transport your rock that way.
My first tank was a 16 gallon. And, like you, bought live rock from Petco. I didn't want die-off and therefore, transported it wet.
Added caribsea sand and put the tank together. Lo and behold, my live rock came with a hitchiker BTA and 2 emerald crabs.
I tested every single day for the first couple weeks and never saw any measurable ammonia.
Now, as a new reefer, I made many mistakes in the first few months, but that BTA and both emerald crabs are still alive and kicking.
IMO:
The question is not weather the tank is ready for corals.
The question is: Are you ready?

If I were you, I would purchase the rocks, sand, etc, and if they will let you, the torch. Take all but the torch home and get your tank running.
Maybe run it for a week or two and make sure you can maintain temperature, water level, etc, and do a water change to make sure you have a good system down.
Then, go back and get that torch.

Glad to know!! Thank you so much!!

 

[Sharkbait19]

After I arrived to the store, I realized—I forgot my bin of water for the rocks! ;Facepalm
do you know if Petco will put the rocks in bags of water? I don’t want to deal with die off!!

 

[SamMule]

That's what mine did. I put the bags of rocks with water in them in the cooler. The cooler was more to maintain temperature and contain any leaks. It's a 45min drive to my house from my local petco

 

[Sharkbait19]

Oh ok good! For a sec I thought maybe they wouldn’t do bags! Luckily, Petco is quite close to me, so I don’t have to worry about temp or leaks!

 

[brandon429]

If you haven't already pre selected the feed you are giving the coral, it's not time to buy one. If this post is the first intro to feeding the torch then it means skip cycling is the only part that would work then it would still die, lack of surrounding planning.


But if you already had the feed selected, how often you'd feed, then proceed if you want to reef

skip cycling is just a biological option, it has nothing to do with being ready for corals. skip cycling is simply knowing when an aquarium filter is ready to handle a load, and we can call that eyes closed. It is every bit as possible to cycle for 30 days then add coral and it still dies; your filtration details are the same either way. Waiting past a cycle close date doesn't make corals live better, direct support of them makes corals live better

 

[fishguy242]

wondering about torch?? what was outcome,what was price? any pic?

 

[Sharkbait19]

They didn’t have it anymore. Apparently I wasn’t the only one looking at that monster coral!
I did, however get overpriced rocks and overpriced blue legged hermit crabs...
The Petco by me for some reason charges by the “general size” over pounds.
I’ll measure them when I get back though.
Another unsettling factor was them not filling bags with water, claiming “we get them wrapped in newspaper”. Am I to assume I just bought painted concrete or is it true rock?
I didn’t get the beautiful shapes I wanted either, as they wouldn’t sell me ones with crabs attached, which could probably be easily pryed off with some effort.
I’ll post a pic of the tank with rocks here and on my build thread.

ps- I almost got a hitchhiker snowflake moray from the tank I got my rock in lol!!!

 

[fishguy242]

attach a link and get a badge for your build so we can follow

 

[brandon429]

Petco taking full charge of the sit is still factored in skip cycling. It takes a lot to stop a skip cycle

If you bought rocks that were wet, and got them home before they dried, you still skip cycle.


If your rocks were dry it will not skip cycle unless you add bottle bac. If the rocks were wet when you bought them, no bottle bac needed