how do i properly cycle a reef tank? what should i do when i go on vacation for, say, a week? thanks!
how do i properly cycle a reef tank?
- Thread starter oc435
- Start date
If you going on vacation I suggest doing a fish-less cycle
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Just put some live rock and sand in the tank with the filter running and leave it when you go on vacation. When you get back, do a water change, then the next day check the ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. You want to keep doing this until you reach 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites. You may or may not have nitrates, depends how much die off occurs. Once you hit those params, you can add a clean up crew then a week later, you can SLOWLY start adding corals and fish.
Just get live rock from clean running LFS tanks. Then add fish as you choose. It isn't that hard. If you don't believe me watch the show tanked. They build new setups and fully stock them with seeded live rock from the stores. It is that simple. If you order your rock dry or off an online source. Add LFS rock that is good and clean and you are set. People like to over complicate things. Happens in every section.
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Tanked is not a good resource for how to properly set up a saltwater aquarium. Just recently they had problems with a tank they set up. http://reefbuilders.com/2013/06/18/tanked-learns-a-hard-lesson-from-hasty-fish-stocking/
To the op, you can also start off with dry rock and add a piece of live rock to seed the tank, but this way takes longer to cycle than having all live rock.
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Definitely do not use tanked as a source for learning how to start a tank. Just because you add "live sand", live rock, and saltwater does not mean that it is magically instantly cycled. At most it gets you closer then you would be if you did a regular cycle, but certainly not enough to fully stock a tank. That will land you with a load of problems down the road. Just take it slow because anything you do to try and make the cycle go quicker is most likely not going to work and you'll end up with a few deaths on our hands.
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Thanks! I was just making sure, because am about ready to start cycling, and i want to do it right!
That show makes me cringe. But as its been stated op. Works every time. Just check the params before adding.
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I have done it both ways. Cycling with rotting shrimp and seeded clean live rock from a store. I had no problems either way. I got to add more fish faster with the LFS rock. That combined with inverts not adding to bio and the small number of fish that get put into reef tanks. As long as the perams are testing good and you have a good level of seeded LFS rock you should be good for a "plug and play" system. There won't be much die off in the LFS rock that you bring home. Just make sure they are mature rocks. Don't grab fresh shipped rocks as you will likely fail.
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