New Tank

a&m aggie 04'

a&m aggie 04'

Active Member
I filled my tank 1 week ago. Im about to start out with about 25 lbs of uncured Fiji Rock to cycle my tank. Im running a Berlin Skimmer driven by mag 5, mag 3 return, Wet Dry, IceCap 660 w/ 3 36" VHOs.
Right now i have appx 4" on Aragonite. Im about to go get 5-10 lbs of live sand to seed.
Is this a good idea to put uncured rock into my tank, and if so should i do any sort of prewashing before i put it in???
Can i add some damsels to give my tank some life??????
 
smalltimer

smalltimer

Member
Don't add any animals until about 2 weeks. Run your skimmer full steam and CURE your uncured live rock. Then, take amonia readings, once they disappear, take nitrite readings, once they dissapear, take nitrate reading.........then you are cycled. Do water changes til nitrates are near zero, then wait a couple of days to let water settle in. Then don't add damsel to cycle tank, your live rock can handle SOME additional amonia, considering the bacteria built up while you CURED your rock. Add a hardy fish that you will like to keep, not a tang, something like a fire fish, or something you don't want to dismantle your rock to catch and get rid of..... good luck:eek:
 
ed r

ed r

Member
What size of tank is it? 25 lbs is good for a small tank (20-30g), but not much in a bigger tank. In regards to your question about prewashing the rock, no. If there are sponges, pick them off because they will die anyway. They will just increase the ammonia level during the cycle. Some people rinse or prewash dead sand, but I don't recommend that either. As mentioned in the earlier post, add the sand, add the rock, and test-test-test. When both ammonia and nitrite drop to zero and stay there, your rock is cured and you are ready to add hardy animals. The nitrate should readily go to zero with the live sand and nothing to add much after the die-off from the live rock finishes.
 
a&m aggie 04'

a&m aggie 04'

Active Member
I should not be doing any water changes while my tank cycles, right???
When should i do my first water change, right after my ammonia, nitrite are at 0 and nitrate are close to 0( what should my nitrate be exactly???)
 
ed r

ed r

Member
Most people either do no water changes during the cycle process or do a few small ones. I did three 10% changes during the two weeks my tank took to cycle. The argument against changes is that they lower the ammonia level and can make the cycle take longer. The argument for changes is that high ammonia levels can kill more of the life on the rocks that you would like to save. The nitrate level should be low to zero (<10) on a new tank. The DSB as it gets established should keep nitrate at zero (in a reef tank) unless you overfeed or do something that overwhelms the ability of the sand bed to compensate for the bioload. Fish only tanks sometimes have such large bioloads that nitrate cannot be kept at zero. This is especially true if some of the fish eat the sand bed fauna or burrow through the bed, disrupting it.
 
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