Proper Cycling

[captainaquarium]

"market prawn will kick start the cycling."

[noobz]

This thread is very informative. Thanks.

[simmonsim]

Hi, am terribly a newbie here. Just wanna ask , when you said cycling your tank. What do you do ? Just leave the water & live rock in there few weeks to months? or you have to run your skimmer & pump as well.

[patricklhc]

I did run my pump and skimmer during the cycling period and does water test randomly

[simmonsim]

Alright, thanks for the info.

[woyeng**]

Can bros here help me with my PH issue (maybe its a non issue) ?

I am into 2nd week cycling my new marine setup. I have a deep sand bed with live rocks.

My current PH readings are 7.2-7.4 but I understand I need to achieve at least a 7.8 but preferred 8.0-8.3 in order for corals to thrive which is what I am aiming for.

My question is whether the PH will revert to >7.8 after cycling ?

If not, would using baking soda be a good way to get the PH up, but if the PH is up, how can I buffer it at the high level ? The last thing I want is to constantly be adding baking soda into the tank...

Hope for some advice here.

Thank you.

[MarcoVan]

What's your salinity? Check your salinity. pH is just a number which can be affected by alot of things. Look at your salinity and try to achieve 1.023.

[MarcoVan]

Once salinity is calibrated, your ph will more or less be 8.

[sherman]

Make sure your meter is calibrate or your test kit is reliable

[woyeng**]

What's your salinity? Check your salinity. pH is just a number which can be affected by alot of things. Look at your salinity and try to achieve 1.023.

Salinity of 1.025 has been achieved

[woyeng**]

Salinity of 1.025 has been achieved

That being the case, maybe I should buy a more accurate meter to check my PH ??

[MarcoVan]

You can try.

[troyjbon]

Im not promoting any products. But ive been using seachem stability n seachem matrix as media and works pretty well or recycling. Takes me abt 2weeks before all levels back to normal.

Im using fish food as ammonia. Maybe theres other products out there better then seachem.

[nicreef]

just one question on my cycling too.

will there be an issue if i am to stop my return pump for a day or 2 and let the display tank cycle on its own?

getting weird result for my tank and i think it might be due to the sump where i placed a stuff from my old tank such as

poly lab biosphere (Definately going to affect my no3 reading)

live sand and crush coral and 2 live rock (all very mature i think...survive 2 crash in my nano tank hehe).

more on the weird result: ammonia no spike according to salifert and sera test kit, api test strip shows a spike of up to 3 and drop slowly over fri and sat to 1 n now close to 0.

problem is no2 did not increase at all (test done using salifert test kit)

needless to say no3 level is close to 0 as well (probably due to biosphere).

Another question i have is beside affecting no3 does biosphere affect ammonia n no 2?

[JoeyBabooey]

Jlhr

[woyeng**]

I have been "cycling" tank for 4 months. On the 2nd month, my Ammonia and NO2 zero but NO3 and PO4 high. But I started using biosphere (wonder if that was the correct move)... Took me 4-5 weeks for my NO3 /PO4 to drop to "respectable" levels (NO3 - <5ppm, PO4 < 0.1), but now my tank got severe diatom bloom for 2weeks now... After reading some articles, I was told after diatom bloom I should get green algae bloom but no specific timeline given... Looks like this may be a waiting game since no tank is the same according to many.

Now I have some Fish and corals in the tank. No signs of stress.

[say1606]

I would like to know as well!

[Jackyx]

How long do we need to leave the market prawn in the Tank to kick start the cycling?

Any need to put it back in once every few days?

Thanks

[lazydevil]

Just leave the market prawn in the tank and it will kick start the cycling progress. Signs of it disintegrating shows that the decomposition is in progress.

there is no need to put it back once every few days.

Get the test kit to test your parameters. It will tell you if your tank is ready or not. Meanwhile dose some bacteria for your tank as well.

[kenyee]

Tank Migration : Qn on Cycling

Ihave an elementary question.

I already have an existing 2 feet tank with me >1 year. Am upgrading to a 3 footer.

Its will be a straight migration (from old to new tank) on Day One upon delivery of new tank.

-----------------------

For my new tank

--> I will use NSW + mixing in a little of my current tank water

--> I will be moving my old rocks into the new tank

--> will seed the new sand with some sand from my old tank.

Question: Is my new tank then, considered semi-cycled? Since except for the glass tank, everything in there is "seasoned"?

Is it safe to add in zoas after 1 week of the new tank (provided the parameters are alright)? Or must I cycle the tank as thought its a brand new set up (with market prawn and let the ammonia spike and turn to nitrate etc)?

Another issue is that I have 4 "hardy" fishes (3 damsel + 1 cardinal) to migrate too... wondering if I should just sell them away instead of putting these 4 fishes through the stress of a cycling in new tank.

bro, how's ur tank doing now?..

I m gg to shift to a new tank soon..planning to transfer all existing LR, bacteria king, most of existing water + new salt mix water & LS into new tank..no coral only fishes..I m thinking we cycle the tank for LR, bio filtrations, etc to house BB instead for the water..so by transferring old tank to new tank shd b consider cycled..I will share my experience when time come..any experienced reefers can share their knowledge?..Thanks..happy reefing

[DerrickLim]

What is a reliable test kit for ammonia nitrite nitrate? Is Api good enough?

[kenyee]

Going to move out all my LS, LR, sand, etc this coming sat..and new tank to arrive on Mon..everything will b shifted in on Mon, maybe fishes on Tue..hope all will b fine as I skip cycling..my LR was with me for 1.5yr..shd b well cycled by now..will update more details n status soon..thanks for reading..

[Andre'A' Lim]

Hey guys, can a tank cycle only with dead rocks rather then live rocks?

[Kakani]

Hey guys, can a tank cycle only with dead rocks rather then live rocks?

Can remember to soak your dead rock before putting in your main tank if not your main tank become milky

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[Kakani]

 

bro, how's ur tank doing now?..

 

I m gg to shift to a new tank soon..planning to transfer all existing LR, bacteria king, most of existing water + new salt mix water & LS into new tank..no coral only fishes..I m thinking we cycle the tank for LR, bio filtrations, etc to house BB instead for the water..so by transferring old tank to new tank shd b consider cycled..I will share my experience when time come..any experienced reefers can share their knowledge?..Thanks..happy reefing

I try before. Best is to wash all your liverock and bio filtration with your current tank water if not sea water. That what I do bec I worry when I shift all and dirt all this cause ammonia spike. And dose bacteria for one week since u wash all the liverock and bio filtration.

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