Two weeks to cycle a new tank??

We just purchased about 100 lbs. of live rock yesterday & put it in our 90 gal tank. While at the LFS, I commented about waiting for the tank to cycle before putting any livestock in it. The guy said because it is live rock & we used live sand, we don't really need to cycle the tank - we could put in a couple of crabs this weekend, wait a week for our first fish, and then a another week for our first coral.

This seems to go against everything I've read here on this forum. I was expecting it to take about six weeks before putting any fish or corals in the tank.

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

you should test the water every couple of days until the levels are all zero except nitrates. I would definately wait longer to be safe. Also i wouldn't add new livestock weekly, i think it is best to give more time in between adding things. I would start by putting a small fish in right after you have decide it is done cycling just to make sure that the cycle is really complete and wait a week or two to make sure that it can handle a small load. Then little by little add more slowly so that the bacteria can keep up with the load.

 

I would actually wait longer on the cleanup crew such as crabs and snails. There really isnt anything for them to eat within the first month. I have some very small sinking food that they like, so if you use something like that at least they will have something to eat.

X2 on the testing every two days to keep an eye on things. Live sand, live rock aside, your tank will spike to some degree over the next few weeks.

\Cheers

 

The guy at my LFS told me the same thing about the live sand and the live rock. This can be very confusing to someone who is new to the hobby.

 

Bottom line is, All the Live Rock, Live Sand, Natural Seawater, Cycle addatives,, are all meant to help speed the process. So take the 6-8 natural cycle process and maybe you can speed it up some by using one or more of the above products.

By testing the water you will know where the Cycle is at and what it is doing.
This info was helpful to me.
Beginner FAQ: The Nitrogen Cycle

About.com: http://reefsources.itgo.com/guide/biological.html

The Tank Cycling Process, and Ways to Cycle a Saltwater Aquarium

and of course, all the 3reefers that help out...

 

Think a good way to put this issue is that if you are beginner/novice the longer you wait the better. If you're advanced and know what you're doing it then the cycle time could possibly be cut down to next to nothing. The key here is to "know" what you are doing and why. If you don't then play it safe and wait.

 

I think this is what happended to me, i filled up my tank with water around september 8th or so then, i put cured live rock in it on thursday the 11th, then on the 13th i saw that the nitrites had gone up and the nitrates were also registering, Amonia was registering but my red sea kit said it was only .25ppm and thats what it still says up until this (day20)day I checked with another test kit and the amonia is 0, nitrites are 0 and nitrates are around 20ppm. what im thinking is that on the 13th the amonia spiked that day but the test kit was faulty so it didnt register. I started with live rock that was cured small amount of die off, i added 26 pounds of bio active substrate and 1 bottle of bio spyra, at the bigining of the second week i added damsels and they are still alive and doing well. So I think its possible to be cycled this fast if you have cured LR and live sand/aditives. Unless all my red sea tests are wrong i am cycled after 23 day????

 

I think that there is more than enough data, threads and other "Advanced Reefers" that will support me when I say that weather your a Novice or and advanced Reefer there is no way to "speed" up or cut cycling time down to "Next To Nothing".

There is a reason everyone says to take it slow and let grow! How many times have you seen posts where some one just couldn't wait till the cycle was over and rushed things, I am guilty of this and have also paid the price with excessive algae growth and loss of stock.

If the Sales person at your LFS told you this I would say keep in mind that they are just doing their job, selling you something and if you are waiting for your tank to cycle for 4 to 6 weeks then you are not buying from them are you....

 

Theres ways to cycle a tank in 2-3 weeks, but I do not reccomend it for beginners. You have to learn to crawl, before you can walk.... As for your first fish, you can put a clown in there for now, depending on tank size, you could put 2 in there. My first tank was a 75g and I cycled with 3 damsels then on week 4 I added a clown and everything was hunky dorry.

 

That's fine, I don't have a problem with your point of view. But I won't go as far as telling anyone that "there's no way" to do something in another way. And I did say that the safest way to do it is to go slow.

I just did this myself, cut down cycling next to nothing, and have lost nothing yet. In fact I have done it several times during my hobby experience. There's enough data that Moorish Idols are next to impossible to keep alive for any period of time. Yet I know at least one person who has kept one alive for 5 years. The important lesson here is NOT to make the same mistake twice ;D