cycling 30g with LR
- Thread starter pyro
- Start date
mbrands
Member
pyro,
I'm still new to this, so take it with a grain of salt (no pun intended) . . . I'd still consider adding the cocktail shrimp for a week as it would jump start the cycle. If your LR is like mine, there will be very little die off which wouldn't give much decay to start the cycle. I started a 55 with 45 pounds of LR, 2 cocktail shrimp, and a media that was pretreated with beneficial bacteria. My cycle only took about 2 weeks.
Also, I think it is best to do a water test about once/week to observe the spike in ammonia, then nitrites, then nitrates. If you wait several weeks and your tests come out 0/0/0 your cycle could be done, or maybe it is taking a while to get started and hasn't gotten anywhere.
Again, I'm new, so you might wait to see what those with more experience advise.
Thanks,
Mike
I'm still new to this, so take it with a grain of salt (no pun intended) . . . I'd still consider adding the cocktail shrimp for a week as it would jump start the cycle. If your LR is like mine, there will be very little die off which wouldn't give much decay to start the cycle. I started a 55 with 45 pounds of LR, 2 cocktail shrimp, and a media that was pretreated with beneficial bacteria. My cycle only took about 2 weeks.
Also, I think it is best to do a water test about once/week to observe the spike in ammonia, then nitrites, then nitrates. If you wait several weeks and your tests come out 0/0/0 your cycle could be done, or maybe it is taking a while to get started and hasn't gotten anywhere.
Again, I'm new, so you might wait to see what those with more experience advise.
Thanks,
Mike
jester805
Member
I have a 29 gallon tank that only took about 2 weeks to cycle. I fed the tank some flake food every day, then added 16 pounds of LR. I just kept testing the water every other day, and was very surprised to see good levels so soon. I added a yellow tail damsel and hermit crab on Sunday and they're doing great.
mbrands
Member
arkey,
I doubt you've had to add much for just top-offs, right? So a majority of your tank is tap water?
To be honest, I originally filled mine with tap (shame on me), then found a RO/DI machine that sells it for only $0.25/gallon. If you can find the same price, it is probably less than the distilled you are using now.
Please post with what the LFS tested for your levels. I'm curious to see what some of the seasoned veterans of the hobby think has caused your cycle to stall.
Thanks,
Mike
I doubt you've had to add much for just top-offs, right? So a majority of your tank is tap water?
To be honest, I originally filled mine with tap (shame on me), then found a RO/DI machine that sells it for only $0.25/gallon. If you can find the same price, it is probably less than the distilled you are using now.
Please post with what the LFS tested for your levels. I'm curious to see what some of the seasoned veterans of the hobby think has caused your cycle to stall.
Thanks,
Mike
kentuckian
Member
hey i was wondering what is the difference between live rock and base rock i was asking a sales person at my lfs about live rock and she threw out the term base rock to me and i figured maybe it was just a cheaper form of LR then again she didn't seem to be to sure of what she was talking about but who knows
kentuckian
Member
simple enough is it alot better to buy live rock and would base rock eventually turn into live rock?