silly question

[chadman]

i have had an established reef tank for well over a year now...during the next week i will be setting up a 50g reef for my g friend....my question: it has been a long time since i cycled a tank...i am buying 50lbs of live sand from my lfs...also 70 lbs or so of live rock...would it be dumb of me to purchase my clean up crew at this point...or should i just wait until the tank is fully cycled...i was thinking that my cycle may not be as drastic because i am going to be using live sand right out of the tanks at my lfs...

 

[chadman]

i suppose all that live rock will still cause a substantial spike in my levels though huh?

 

[1journeyman]

If the live rock is from the store and is cured you may not have much of a cycle.
If you are ordering it then yes, it will cycle.
Either way, hold off on buying any livestock until the tank is stable.

 

[chadman]

i new that i think i was just hoping you'd say it would be perfectly fine...haha...i said i would never rush my cycle like i did when i first started my original tank....the guy at my lfs said that he was a product which will enable my tank to cycle in 2-7 days....what do you guys know about a product like this? is it better to just let nature run its course?

 

[teresaq]

let nature take it course.

 

[bang guy]

There are a few products that add a lot of bacteria quickly. It still takes a while for the different bacteria populations to balance out.
Typically, if you have live rock you have lots of bacteria already that just need to grow out and what's in the bottle isn't going to make a significant difference.

 

[dejaco]

With "new" live rock and sand, even if precured in dealer tanks you will get a cycle. Smaller yes but definate progression of spikes. Set up the tank and test and adjust levels of calcium and carbonate. Add a small bottle of cycle.
Add a pinch of dried pellet or flake food. Let it go for a week. Test, adjust, top off. Then "order clean up crew. So when it arrives tank will be 15 - 18 days old. I personally would wait becuase there won't really be all that much for them to clean up for awhile. Say after 1 month. It is hard to wait I know.
Try this - pick out one small fish that you are going to want eventually. And maybe 4 snail, 4 hermits, and maybe one shrimp. Put them in around day 21 and then add nothing else till around day 60. It will give something to look at, and will help push cycle and development of bacteria's needed for tank to assimilate nitrogenous wastes. Usually around day 60 of new tanks is when algae can become a problen and then it's time to introduce full contingent of cleaners.

 

[chadman]

thanks guys....i should know by now that patience is the most important thing in the hobby...we will stick it out and just have to look at live rock and live sand for a little while...haha...thanks for your help!