Cycle/not to cycle a Q-tank?

[wong jim]

Dear Experts,

I'm some kind of stuck in the middle. Some guys said just take the water from your display, run the matured HOB filter. Put the fish in after proper acclimation. Others siad 100 % fresh salt water + matured filter; run & feed the Q-tank for 1 week+ before bringing the new guys in. In other words, does it mean I have to go through a "Cycle" again? Please don't tell me both can do. Another advice I need from you expert is do I have to do water change with a fishless Q-tank undergoing cycling?

Urgently awaiting your advices.

Best wishes,

Jimmy WONG
from Hong Kong.

 

[Anonymous]

I would not worry about cycling the tank. When you are cycling a tank you are curing the live rock, not the water. If you are using a HOB for your q-tank I would run it on you main tank for a week or so to get the filter "primed". Personnally I would not put live rock in a q-tank. I would have a q-tank I could tear down when not in use. Plastic rocks and PVC pipe is all you need so the fish can hide and not stress out. Keep on top of the water changes and keep the bioload light on the q-tank.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry, don't mean to split hairs on ya here Wazzel, but as this is the new reefkeepers forum, I just thought I'd point out "cycling" isn't "curing".

Curing is whats usually done with fresh, wild liverock that may / may not contain unwanted hitchhikers. A MAJOR cycle will usually occur (or at least start) while curing, but the main focus of curing is working past the LARGE die-off and weeding out harmfuls.

Cycling is when you're doing something similar except the die-off is usually MUCH lighter and theres not usually so much concern about harmful hitchhikers or what have you as thats already been done.

And a cycle can occur without making any additions whatsoever to the tank. - A cycle just means that there was an increase in ammonia that was processed into nitrite and then to nitrate and finally let off as nitrogen.

A dead fish or crab or whatever can set off a small cycle. The two terms aren't really interchangeable.

But otherwise, yes I agree with what you're saying should be done with a QT tank.

 

[Anonymous]

No problem. I'm not always as detailed or clear as I need to be.