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how long to cycle a tank
- Thread starter whiirly
- Start date
Most people now cycle their tanks with live rock rather than risking the lives of the damsels and then having the damsels that survive terrorize other fish that would be added later. The length of the cycle has to be at a minimum several days longer than the time it takes your ammonia and nitrite levels to return to zero and remain there. Do not rush it. Add creatures after the cycle gradually and always keep checking the ammonia and nitrite after adding to the bioload.
Welcome to the board!
Cycling a tank does reqire you to add any fish and is become a less poular way of doing things. Most feal that using fish to cycle a tank is cruel because of the stress placed on the fish. Add into this that most will get rid of the damsel at cycles end and you see what I mean.
If you are setting up your tank as a reef system with Live Rock and a live sand bed, all you need to do to get the cycle going is to place a few pinches of flake food into the tank. The uneaten food will begin the cycle for you and after about 2 weeks, you should notice a brownish red dusting appearing on your sandbed. At this time, put in blue leg hermit crabs to clean this diatom bloom up. depending on the amount you put in, it may only take another week for them to do their work. After the third week, start checking your nitrite and ammonia levels. They should be going down by then. When the ammonia and nitrite bottom out, your ready to add your first pieces of live stock. Just remember to GO SLOW!
Each new inhabitant you add to the new tank will cause a slight change in chemistry to the tank, Benificial bacteria will then form to equalize the system. Add a new fish at approximatey 2 week intervals and you should be ok.
Oh, Be sure to go ahead and run your lights from day 1 as you will all the time. The photo period will cause things to get kicking faster for you and some of the things on your live rock like small polyps and even some corals will not die off during the cycle.
Another wise thing to do when you set up is to add a kit from Inland aquatics or IPSF for you Pod population to get a good foot hold.
After lights out, when the tank is dark, use a red light to look into the dark tank and you will see many little critters swimming and crawling about. This was the most exciting part of the new reef to me! Plus as a bonus, I was able to detect a Mantis shrimp that had hitchiked in on som LR and was able to evict him before anything was placed in my tank.
This is of course not the only way to cycle your tank but it was the way I began and it worked flawlessly. This advised was given to me by Morgan Lidster, who owns Inland Aquatics, and I trust his advise. Inland is my LFS and I can't say enough possitive things about the quality of their products and service. No I don't work there either, just feal I own stock :wink:
Good luck and Happy Reefing!
ty
Cycling a tank does reqire you to add any fish and is become a less poular way of doing things. Most feal that using fish to cycle a tank is cruel because of the stress placed on the fish. Add into this that most will get rid of the damsel at cycles end and you see what I mean.
If you are setting up your tank as a reef system with Live Rock and a live sand bed, all you need to do to get the cycle going is to place a few pinches of flake food into the tank. The uneaten food will begin the cycle for you and after about 2 weeks, you should notice a brownish red dusting appearing on your sandbed. At this time, put in blue leg hermit crabs to clean this diatom bloom up. depending on the amount you put in, it may only take another week for them to do their work. After the third week, start checking your nitrite and ammonia levels. They should be going down by then. When the ammonia and nitrite bottom out, your ready to add your first pieces of live stock. Just remember to GO SLOW!
Each new inhabitant you add to the new tank will cause a slight change in chemistry to the tank, Benificial bacteria will then form to equalize the system. Add a new fish at approximatey 2 week intervals and you should be ok.
Oh, Be sure to go ahead and run your lights from day 1 as you will all the time. The photo period will cause things to get kicking faster for you and some of the things on your live rock like small polyps and even some corals will not die off during the cycle.
Another wise thing to do when you set up is to add a kit from Inland aquatics or IPSF for you Pod population to get a good foot hold.
After lights out, when the tank is dark, use a red light to look into the dark tank and you will see many little critters swimming and crawling about. This was the most exciting part of the new reef to me! Plus as a bonus, I was able to detect a Mantis shrimp that had hitchiked in on som LR and was able to evict him before anything was placed in my tank.
This is of course not the only way to cycle your tank but it was the way I began and it worked flawlessly. This advised was given to me by Morgan Lidster, who owns Inland Aquatics, and I trust his advise. Inland is my LFS and I can't say enough possitive things about the quality of their products and service. No I don't work there either, just feal I own stock :wink:
Good luck and Happy Reefing!
ty
I bought my 125 gallon aquarium in February. A couple of weeks with only water in the aquarium. Added some oolitic sand. Didn't add it right, and needed to give it a couple of weeks to settle. Added live sand after about a month. Waited for a cycle. Live rock after two months. (It came with a lot of life) Waited again, but the cycle was very short this time, but I wanted to give the macro-algae a chance to flourish. Just got some snails and and hermit crabs today, hoping to balance the growth vs. critter munching. I don't plan on having fish in the tank until August.
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