Let me hear your stories about your first ever cycle!

J

jeps

Guest
I gotta say, this hobby and this forum has taken over me like the invasion of the body snatchers :hilarious I've actually gradually stopped going to my favorite basketball forum and have found myself spending more and more time here. ***)
I started my cycle yesterday, and from the moment that i dropped my live rock in the water, i haven't stopped staring into the water looking for any sign of life. I might have officially lost my mind.

I am so into this right now it's not even funny. I would really love to hear your stories of when you initally started with this hobby... were you as cuckoo as me? Did you spend hours upon hours staring at a rock? When and what was the very first life that you found in your tank? What hitchhikers did you get?
Looking forward to your stories. Thanks.
 
vtfishies

vtfishies

Member
cycled first tank a 75 gal..on jan 29..watched watched and occasionally watched some more..9 days..cycled..so excited..been hooked ever since..wish there were more people in my area tho...seconde tank started cycle not sure date.. maybe 7 weeks ago..cycled in a month..smaller tank..longer cycle..all levels normal..0 0 0..son decided tank was "hungry" (he's 3) fed animal crackers and jelly beans..yes was around easter lol...tank levels no longer 0 0 0 lol..restarted an waitin patienly..but yes i have to say obsession comes with the hobby..
 
S

sinner's girl

Guest
I would really love to hear your stories of when you initally started with this hobby
let's see, there was the time sinner thought he could turn his fresh water fish into saltwater fish by slowly adding fish.... :hilarious that was good.
I went to the fish store with Sinner every week (we were just starting to date), at some point he killed the fresh water fish. First tank was 20gl long with cc and ugf, had a clown (which died) and an anemone, Rosie, which did pretty darn good till his mom killed it (Rosie didn't like being left all alone for the weekend with no heater, fliter, ph or lights, poor Rosie, evil mother-in-law)...anyway, I got into the hobby when I fell in love with a yellow tang. the guy told me I needed a 55gl tank Sinner bought it.
But when we cycled my 55gl (which curently had sinner's freshwater fish) we bought 55gls of bottled water. Yep, we bought 55 gallon jugs of water. and it was hot, and not a drop to drink. also used ugf and cc (that's fun too
) mixed it, don't remember what was used to cycle it, my guess is a damsels since it was Sinner's doing (my tank, I wanted a yellow tang, guy at lfs told me I needed 55gl), I think it had lr, not really sure, then we went to the lfs 40min away every friday for them to test our water, (didn't have a test kit) plus I looked at all the cool fish and my tang (I had my eye on a certain fish, it was him who I wanted, no other would do, no matter the cost), then after some point the tank was cycled, I assume Sinner did a water change but don't really remember. Added a pair of clowns (I think :thinking: ) and at some point added my yellow tang. Who died some time later, not because of a small tank, but because of a mean, killer clown named angel (who I loved dearly) and the fact that Sinner told me he didn't need green food (he was too small for the tank size to be an issue yet).
We had our 20long with inverts (I think) so I didn't pay much attention to the 55gl yet. Plus we had satilite and Disney channel and well other things to do other than watch an empty tank.
At some point I had fish in the 55gl and inverts in the 20long, I loved that tank.
 
J

jeps

Guest
Originally Posted by vtfishies
cycled first tank a 75 gal..on jan 29..watched watched and occasionally watched some more..9 days..cycled..so excited..been hooked ever since..wish there were more people in my area tho...seconde tank started cycle not sure date.. maybe 7 weeks ago..cycled in a month..smaller tank..longer cycle..all levels normal..0 0 0..son decided tank was "hungry" (he's 3) fed animal crackers and jelly beans..yes was around easter lol...tank levels no longer 0 0 0 lol..restarted an waitin patienly..but yes i have to say obsession comes with the hobby..
cycled in 9 days?? :scared: ..wow. i hope i'm that lucky.
 
J

jeps

Guest
Originally Posted by Sinner's Girl
let's see, there was the time sinner thought he could turn his fresh water fish into saltwater fish by slowly adding fish.... :hilarious that was good.
classic
 
terriel

terriel

Member
I too have been bit by the "sit and stair at the rocks" bug. I have a 12G Nano that has been cycling now, going on 4 weeks now. I take a sample of my water to the LFS every Saturday so I am hoping this week will be the week. The first couple of days I didn't see anything on the rocks, then I had the diatom bloom, phew that was ugly. Then as that started to clear I found 4 little brown button polyps, a few days later I started finding little asteria star fish, since then I have found a couple little fan worms, bristle worms, a couple of small. round shelled snails, a few stomatellas, and recently I must have had some type of snail egg hatch because I have tons of these very tiny little snails all over the place. I have quite a bit of fuzzy green algea in spots so I am hoping to be able to get a hermit or two soon. I am going to try some very beginner and easy corals for this tank.
This is an expensive hobby and a very addicting one but I love it.
 
J

jeps

Guest
Originally Posted by TerrieL
I too have been bit by the "sit and stair at the rocks" bug. I have a 12G Nano that has been cycling now, going on 4 weeks now. I take a sample of my water to the LFS every Saturday so I am hoping this week will be the week. The first couple of days I didn't see anything on the rocks, then I had the diatom bloom, phew that was ugly. Then as that started to clear I found 4 little brown button polyps, a few days later I started finding little asteria star fish, since then I have found a couple little fan worms, bristle worms, a couple of small. round shelled snails, a few stomatellas, and recently I must have had some type of snail egg hatch because I have tons of these very tiny little snails all over the place. I have quite a bit of fuzzy green algea in spots so I am hoping to be able to get a hermit or two soon. I am going to try some very beginner and easy corals for this tank.
This is an expensive hobby and a very addicting one but I love it.

Thanks for that story TerrieL, i've been staring at my rocks for a couple of days and have found nothing... i was starting to think that maybe nothing survived the shipping time. I guess the moral of your story is that patience is key.
So a few weeks eh? Doesn't mean i'll stop staring at them.. hehe ***)
 
terriel

terriel

Member
I have never been brave enough to order anything on-line and am very fortunate to have a fantastic fish store here locallyand I bought my live rock from them. They keep their live rock in very large fully running aquariums under lights and all. There is nothing else in this huge aquarium but the various types of live rock they sell. I guess that helps with having all the little critters on it. I paid more for it than I would have on-line but I think I got some good rock from them.
 
samiam4663

samiam4663

Member
Started my first tank on Sat 4/29/06. Yep.. almost a week! Going to take some water to my LFS tomorrow. I have a great store right up the street. Very helpful & knowledgeable.
I have some time of sponge, that "f..." stuff, and some feather dusters that seem to be doing OK. My levels are low, but not quite at 0.
I am doing my best to be patient, but I can't help sitting in front of the tank staring at the "goo" on the rocks moving.
I can't wait until I can actually have some critters!
 
J

jeps

Guest
Hey Samiam! I'm from the bayarea too.. san jose. Where is this friendly and knowledgeable LFS that you speak of? So far, I haven't found a good one here in San Jose. Also, have you heard about the Bay Area Coral Market on the 25th of June in Fremont? Here's a link www[dot]ba-cfm[dot]com. Hopefully my tank will be cycled by then and I heard they got some good deals on corals and such. I'm psyched!
 
samiam4663

samiam4663

Member
Yep! Gotta love the bay area. Send me an email through my profile and I'll get you the name of my LFS. Might be kind of a far drive for you from San Jose, but it's worth it!! I'm out in the East Bay.
I hadn't heard of the Bay Area Coral Market. Hope my tank is cycled by then too! What happens there? (Newbie)
 
drewsta

drewsta

Active Member
This hobby is worse than crack and about 1,000,000 times more addicting..... J/K I wouldn't know.....
lol I love this hobby I got into it because I was stressed out all the time because of my job... Now i'm stressed out that my water parameters might be off lol. Well needless to say I quit that job and still spend as much money in this hobby as I did when I had my job (uh oh bank account). Oh well I got a new job so more money for fish YAY!
:joy:
Great relaxing hobby!!
 
sdascher

sdascher

Member
Cycled my first tank ...... 1999???? I think .... a 45g, a year later 125g, a year later, another 125g, last year a 75g, 11 days ago, a 55g!!!!! The first tank was a 45 tall - I didn't know nothing!! A friend helped me, but I didn't realize that she didn't know much more tham me until months later!! I did a lot of reading and talking to others before I finally got a grip on what I was doing!! I cycled the first 2 tanks with live rock and a month later for my first fish, a pr. of damels to help season the tanks, in the 125g, 6 damsels each. I cycled the 75g with raw fish - I don't recommend it - it's a lot slower. It took me 7 weeks to get completely through the cycle, but I like to try different ways for myself. For me - Live rock is the best way. I enjoyed watching everything come alive after the last nitrite cycle!! I still love it!!
 
S

sinner's girl

Guest
let's see, there was the time sinner thought he could turn his fresh water fish into saltwater fish by slowly adding fish.... that was good.
opps! I meant, by slowly adding salt. He added salt to the freshwater fish...they died (of course)
 
S

sinner's girl

Guest
Oh well I got a new job so more money for fish YAY!
I hear ya, the stress over the tank drove me crazy during school, esp grad school when I was also working close to 40 hours a week. I gotta get a job so I can get a house so I can get a bigger tanks, Sinner says the next must be at least double what I have, so that's min 150gl...
I'm thinking I'll forgo having a kid, fish are stressful and enough and have given me enough sleepless nights (if my water is off or I feel guilty about not doing a wc or something, I dream that my stars are out to get me)
(sorry for two posts...not sure how that happened)
 
J

jeps

Guest
Originally Posted by Samiam4663
Yep! Gotta love the bay area. Send me an email through my profile and I'll get you the name of my LFS. Might be kind of a far drive for you from San Jose, but it's worth it!! I'm out in the East Bay.
I hadn't heard of the Bay Area Coral Market. Hope my tank is cycled by then too! What happens there? (Newbie)
Hey samiam, i think you might have your email feature in your profile disabled. Wont let me send email.
As for the Coral Market, i've never been to one of those either.. i'm only a couple of months old in this hobby. I'm guessing it's the equivalent of a star trek convention for trekkies, minus the spock ears
. I'm looking forward to it though, hoping to get some good deals on corals there.
 
tucsonmike

tucsonmike

New Member
I started my cycle 2 Sundays ago its a 55g with 80lbs of LS and 50lbs of LR and box water from Catalina. I had copepos in the first 3 days a few worms with an ammonia spike at the 5th day and everything was great had the water tested the last few days and all looked good so my LFS and I decided it was ready so I added a true perc a very small blue tang, a green anemone, 20 crabs and 10 snails and they all acclimated fine and were all swimming and eating in like the first 3 hours. This Saltwater hobby is so exciting i'm stoked my family loves it I couldn't ask for anything more, except I wonder if anyone has fed the dog in the last week oh well.
Quick question my perc is just swimming in the current all the time and the tang just follows him around and he hasn't even looked at the anemone, did I get the right one?
Michael
 
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