Tank Cycling

I have cured live rock in my tank and I am in the process of cycling the tank. How quickly should I see the ammonia start to rise in the tank?

With cured live rock do I need to add something in there that will produce more waste? Or do the cocktail shrimp method?

 

eh...u'll still have some die off even if the rock is cured, it will cycle...give it about a week or so and ull see ur params goin up..

 

cool thanks! My pH is a little weird too is that normal for it to dip a bit its at like 7.8 right now...

 

yeh if it doesnt come back up to 8.2, 8.3 soon i would add some buffer (natural baking soda works)

 

sounds good. Thanks

 

Your ph may be different from morning then in evening, Running the on a reverse photo period will also help with fluctuations over night. Proper ionic balance will help to keep things in check as well. Get some alk supplement. I use seachem aquavitro eight.four personally but there are plenty of products for alkalinity.

 

Sounds good. I am going to the LFS with my boss to look at a 210 gallon tank he is going to get for his house for an inwall here in a big I will look at the alk supps there.

 

make sure the shrimp you use is raw irish. precooked wont do any good. only adding this because not sure if a cocktail shrimp is already cooked. also all tanks are different , so no real timetable on seeing spikes. good luck with it all. slainte

 

I just read on some website that if you use fully cured live rock, like i am, you may not see any cycle at all. Here is the exerpt I am talking about

"Then, finally, there is cured live rock. Fully cured rock that is quickly placed into your tank with minimal transportation time, such as from your LFS (local fish store) to your home, may 'instantly' cycle your tank. The beneficial bacteria groups are already there in good numbers with no die-off to trigger ammonia spikes of any significance. With fully cured live rock you may never see the typical cycling progression of ammonia —> nitrite —> nitrate. Your levels may initially read — and remain at — zero, even while you are slowly stocking your tank."

Is that nonsense? I have been reading up on all I can about saltwater so I can avoid some "newbie" mistakes and I came across this. So I thought I would ask and see if there was any consensus fromt he great minds on 3reef.

 

theres no guarantees irish. and i woudnt want to take any chances. and questions such as , how long has the rock been cured for? has the lfs experienced all the dieoff? id rather be safe than sorry and wait it out and monitor the water params before declaring being cycled

guy