skip the cycling?

[cardstars]

Anyone have much success with cutting down the cycling time to near zero? I am getting 100lbs of mature cured live rock for my new tank (not far from where I live) and am told I can skip the cycling process altogether. At what point after its placed in can I know its safe for corals and fish? Seems risky to me

 

[jas1]

I got away with no cycle on my 125 upgrade, but I transferred everything from my 55 (established for almost a year) to my 125 within 4 days. Some people have done it quicker than me but I wanted to make sure it would be OK so it took me 4 days total to do the transfer. Here's how it went:
Day 1: put in sand, base rock, new salt water, and about 30 lbs of live rock from the 55.
Day 2: checked all params (mostly for ammonia) 6 times a day.
Day 3: added some bioballs from the filtration on the 55. Continued to check params!!!
Day 4: did a 40 gal water change; took 40 gal of the new water out of the 125 and replaced it with 40 gal of cycled water from the 55. Then once the water cleared I moved everything over, corals, fish, rest of the live rock etc... Hope this helped

 

[cardstars]

Originally Posted by Jas1
http:///forum/post/3145664
I got away with no cycle on my 125 upgrade, but I transferred everything from my 55 (established for almost a year) to my 125 within 4 days. Some people have done it quicker than me but I wanted to make sure it would be OK so it took me 4 days total to do the transfer. Here's how it went:
Day 1: put in sand, base rock, new salt water, and about 30 lbs of live rock from the 55.
Day 2: checked all params (mostly for ammonia) 6 times a day.
Day 3: added some bioballs from the filtration on the 55. Continued to check params!!!
Day 4: did a 40 gal water change; took 40 gal of the new water out of the 125 and replaced it with 40 gal of cycled water from the 55. Then once the water cleared I moved everything over, corals, fish, rest of the live rock etc... Hope this helped

Yes that did help thanks for the reply. I had just never talked to anyone who skipped the cycle before, and common sense told me its not only tricky but hard to pull off since one wrong move can probably trip the thing to head south very fast. I will just have to monitor monitor and monitor some more it sounds like!

 

[ninjamini]

If its raw rock then you WILL have a cycle. If its from an established tank you MAY have a cycle. Depends on die off.
Why skip the cycle? Thats a great time for a fish tank. You will see a lot of creatures that just wont survive in your tank. I spent a lot of time watching the rock during those weeks.
But I also have moved tanks several times. Both causing a cycle and not. There is no sure fire way to not have one. Even with established rock.

 

[flower]

In this hobby...going slow is the best way. You invest so much, why even take a chance.

 

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by cardstars
http:///forum/post/3145645
Anyone have much success with cutting down the cycling time to near zero? I am getting 100lbs of mature cured live rock for my new tank (not far from where I live) and am told I can skip the cycling process altogether. At what point after its placed in can I know its safe for corals and fish? Seems risky to me
If the rock is established rock (pre cured) and your 100% sure its cured. just transport it home in buckets of water and it wont cause die off on the rock. this will reduce any cycle. if your setting up a new tank, there will still be some balancing of the nitrogen cycle as bacteria inhavbits the new sand etc.
I would transport it home in buckets of water, then add to the tank. ghost feed the tank with some fish food or a piece of shrimp and watch the parameters for a week if there is no ammonia spike then you should be ok to SLOWLY begin adding hardy creatures while keeping an eye on your parameters.

 

[florida joe]

Anyone have much success with cutting down the cycling time to near zero? I am getting 100lbs of mature cured live rock for my new tank (not far from where I live) and am told I can skip the cycling process altogether
The only way this is true is if the person telling you that you will not have ammonia or nitrite levels in your tank is if they can guarantee that the rock has nitrifying bacteria colonized and it is sufficient to handle your bio load
I got away with no cycle on my 125 upgrade, but I transferred everything from my 55 (established for almost a year) to my 125 within 4 days. Some people have done it quicker than me but I wanted to make sure it would be OK so it took me 4 days total to do the transfer. Here's how it went:
.
If you brake this down all you really did was increase your water volume by 50% everything else stayed the same
Day 4: did a 40 gal water change; took 40 gal of the new water out of the 125 and replaced it with 40 gal of cycled water from the 55
There really was no benefit to this

 

[jas1]

Originally Posted by florida joe
http:///forum/post/3145733
The only way this is true is if the person telling you that you will not have ammonia or nitrite levels in your tank is if they can guarantee that the rock has nitrifying bacteria colonized and it is sufficient to handle your bio load If you brake this down all you really did was increase your water volume by 50% everything else stayed the same There really was no benefit to this
So did I do it wrong? Is there a better way I sould've done it?

 

[florida joe]

Originally Posted by Jas1
http:///forum/post/3145737
So did I do it wrong? Is there a better way I sould've done it?

No not at all, you introduced the bio filtration from your old tank and added some mechanical filtration with the bio balls to a tank with 50% more volume. As far as the water from you 55 there is really no advantage because there would be no bio filtration in the water column to transfer. (unless you were dosing )

 

[jas1]

Originally Posted by florida joe
http:///forum/post/3145744
No not at all, you introduced the bio filtration from your old tank and added some mechanical filtration with the bio balls to a tank with 50% more volume. As far as the water from you 55 there is really no advantage because there would be no bio filtration in the water column to transfer. (unless you were dosing )
OIC thanks Joe.

 

[cardstars]

Originally Posted by Jas1
http:///forum/post/3145754
OIC thanks Joe.
thanks for the replies guys. I just wanted to check around and see what results on something like this were like, cause the last thing i want to do is get to a point where my tank is stocked and then it starts cycling. That would be a nightmare! On the other hand the rock im getting is well established and close to home so im not too sure what to expect for spikes in my new tank (if much of anything)

 

[btldreef]

I cycled a 14G, brand new with matured rock from an established reef system in under 2 weeks ... I've also upgraded to a 40G and a 155G and introduced fish within 24hrs and not had any problems, although the second two were really just adding water volume, not cycling.

 

[pezenfuego]

Originally Posted by florida joe
http:///forum/post/3145744
No not at all, you introduced the bio filtration from your old tank and added some mechanical filtration with the bio balls to a tank with 50% more volume. As far as the water from you 55 there is really no advantage because there would be no bio filtration in the water column to transfer. (unless you were dosing )
There is bio filtration in the water column. There is insignificant bio filtration in the water column. I do not agree that there was no advantage. The advantage was that he had less water to mix. In a purely filtration outlook, there wasn't really a reason to add it.
Imo and Ime, fwiw

 

[uneverno]

What Joe said.
Part of the "fun" of cycling a tank is that you know for certain that it has cycled.
Once it has, do we add our entire wish list at once? Certainly not.
This, again, begs the question: What does cycled mean?
All it means to me is that the existing bacteria are able to keep up with the existing bioload whether that be a cocktail shrimp or a school of yellow tangs. Add more biomass, and the bacteria need to adjust accordingly, cycled or not.
What I'm saying is that if the tank has not shown measurable Ammonia and/or Nitrite spikes and reductions, it's a (hopefully) educated guess as to whether or not the tank can accomodate additional bioload. Even an established tank will re-cycle if too many critters are added at once.
There are all kinds of ways to speed up the process, none of which I would recommend w/o caveats. That said, I'm also not saying it can't be done.
Proceed w/ caution and take measurements.

 

[florida joe]

There is bio filtration in the water column. There is insignificant bio filtration in the water column.
umm what does that mean%%
The advantage was that he had less water to mix
And the disadvantage is that he may be adding nitrates as well as water with depleted minerals into his DT