I just cant seem to grasp the concept. okay you have a aquarium with salt water. now you add base rock. now you cycle? do you cycle at the same that your live rock is introduced and curing?. does live rock curing cause the tank to cycle?, is cycling and curing basically the same thing? if you add more live rock later on down the road you could have another cycle while it is curing?...and apparently amonia spikes are not good for live rock but its a part of the process? so why does it even matter if its going to happen anyways, and whats the point of water changes to dilute the spike if the whole thing has to spike anyways. can you cycle a tank without live rock and what is the point if your just gonna add more next month? and why the hell do I have to wash my rocks? do I wash them in fresh water or do I gotta mix up SW for this too? if the most precious part of live rock is the goop inside than why would I want to rinse it at all, there may be things inside it that are unwanted but cant clean up crews takes care of those things over time?? I am up to my eye balls in sticky's and page after page of reading and still I cant see what the difference is between curing and cycling except one means the rock is getting used to the water, and one means the water is getting used to the ammonia, nitrites, nitrates process. what do I do first this weekend after I mix my water up with reef mix salt
cycling, curing, uncured, adding, etc
- Thread starter michaeljames
- Start date
curing rock in the tank will cycle it
cycling means there's enough bacteria to cope with the levels of ammonia
curing generates alot of ammonia so once cured, it's fully cycled
fully cured rock doesn't cycle
you add all fully cured rock into your new tank, you'll very little/no ammonia/nitrite
cycling means there's enough bacteria to cope with the levels of ammonia
curing generates alot of ammonia so once cured, it's fully cycled
fully cured rock doesn't cycle
you add all fully cured rock into your new tank, you'll very little/no ammonia/nitrite
Agreed with one slight caveat - cured live rock if it has been out of water for more than around an hour will have some die off and may cause another cycle. How big depends on how much LR is being added and how much die off is experienced.
If you add LR to your tank after it is cycled your best bet is used cured rock and small amounts at a time. If you don't want to buy lots of small amounts put it in a quarantine tank until ready to add to the main display (this is also good as you can make sure it is properly cured and to check for undesirable hitchhikers) When your satisfied that the rock is cured and not going to cause another cycle then add it to the display (the ammonia and nitrite levels will read 0 and nitrate will be minimal)
I have bought LR before that was supposed to be fully cured and found out later it wasn't and had to cope with a mini cycle. Now I double check.
The point of water changes to dilute the spike is to minimise the amount of hitchiker casualties. Only part of the point is to have an ammonia and nitrite spike - this is the sign that bacteria levels are increasing and the tank is cycling. We can't measure the amount of bacteria present but we can measure their byproducts. Water changes (up to around 50%) have no effect on the cycling itself, just reduce the toxicity of the water so more inhabitants survive.
If you add LR to your tank after it is cycled your best bet is used cured rock and small amounts at a time. If you don't want to buy lots of small amounts put it in a quarantine tank until ready to add to the main display (this is also good as you can make sure it is properly cured and to check for undesirable hitchhikers) When your satisfied that the rock is cured and not going to cause another cycle then add it to the display (the ammonia and nitrite levels will read 0 and nitrate will be minimal)
I have bought LR before that was supposed to be fully cured and found out later it wasn't and had to cope with a mini cycle. Now I double check.
The point of water changes to dilute the spike is to minimise the amount of hitchiker casualties. Only part of the point is to have an ammonia and nitrite spike - this is the sign that bacteria levels are increasing and the tank is cycling. We can't measure the amount of bacteria present but we can measure their byproducts. Water changes (up to around 50%) have no effect on the cycling itself, just reduce the toxicity of the water so more inhabitants survive.