Water cycle.

[kksg2000]

Hi,

Do i need to switch on the skimmer, pumps, wavemaker and chiller during the water cycling phrase?

Thank you.

[kksg2000]

Do i switch on the light too?

[albinosage]

Pump and wavemaker will do. You just need to get the water circulating and let the bacteria colonise the rocks and filter media.

[yikai]

skimmer will be optional.

wavemakers and pumps must on.

lights and chillers don't need. in fact, i encourage cycling without lights. save electricity, and prevent nuisance algae from growing while you cycling. also, a dark environment will be perfect for pods and other nice microlife to grow.

[jackywongto]

would suggest not running the skimmer during cycling period.

we throw market prawns in the tank to kick off cycling... when you switch on the skimmer, you are removing part of the waste and hence slowing down and reducing the bacterial growth and count.

[yooyoo99]

Light will also encourage life to start growing on the rocks. Study has shown oxygen level increases more with light on as compared to the amount contributed by skimmer.

In my opinion, i will turn on a few tubes.

[kksg2000]

would suggest not running the skimmer during cycling period.

we throw market prawns in the tank to kick off cycling... when you switch on the skimmer, you are removing part of the waste and hence slowing down and reducing the bacterial growth and count.

market prawns = raw prawns?

[comycus]

u will get many diff opinions. The must ons are wavemakers and pumps.

i suggest running skimmer after 1 week. Lightings can just switch on the blue lights for 4-5hrs daily to maintain coralline algae.

[jackywongto]

u will get many diff opinions. The must ons are lights and pumps.

i suggest running skimmer after 1 week. Lightings can just switch on the blue lights for 4-5hrs daily to maintain coralline algae.

lol have we made him more confused?

[jackywongto]

market prawns = raw prawns?

yeah.....

[comycus]

lol have we made him more confused?

made a typo on the lights, should have been wavemaker.

Anyway the topic on how to cycle has been extensively covered by many ppl on the internet and in this forum. Will help TS by reading them up.

[kksg2000]

1. when i am done with the water cycling and LR curing processes then i add in the sand?

2. After added the sand, if the water gets cloudy, i need run the skimmer to get the water clear before i can add in my corals/livestock?

Thanks.

[comycus]

1. when i am done with the water cycling and LR curing processes then i add in the sand?

2. After added the sand, if the water gets cloudy, i need run the skimmer to get the water clear before i can add in my corals/livestock?

Thanks.

No to both. Please do your research. The role of a skimmer is not to make water clear.

Completing the Initial Set-up

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-02/newbie/index.php

Reef aquarium filtration

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/dw/index.php

And lastly, everything you need to know

http://www.reefcorner.com/reef%20keeping_101.htm

Help us help you. Otherwise, there's no point in starting this hobby and always end up with fish dying, corals dying and going out to purchase new fishes and corals every week.

[kksg2000]

Hi,

I'm cycling NSW with cured LR. Day 1, reading was ammonia =0, nitrite =0, nitrate = seems like slightly above 0 ppm. If the same readings obtained continue, i intend to cycle the tank for a week and then start to introduce some cleaning crews, and a week after next, 1 or 2 corals etc. ok? In the meantime, do i still need to add in market prawn to the tank?

Thank you.

[albinosage]

Patience, bro. For the long term health of your reef tank it is better to cycle it properly. You did not introduce market prawn right? Without any rotting organism for the bacteria to consume and break down, of course your readings will be zero for everything. The true test of how stable your bio filtration is, is not how low your test kit reads. You need to at least introduce market prawn or fish food and see how well it is broken down, cos this same system will be responsible for breaking down your fish poo and other waste.

[jackywongto]

Hi,

I'm cycling NSW with cured LR. Day 1, reading was ammonia =0, nitrite =0, nitrate = seems like slightly above 0 ppm. If the same readings obtained continue, i intend to cycle the tank for a week and then start to introduce some cleaning crews, and a week after next, 1 or 2 corals etc. ok? In the meantime, do i still need to add in market prawn to the tank?

Thank you.

throw in the market prawn. dose bacteria.

wait 1 week. then take readings again ......

update us at that time.

[kksg2000]

Patience, bro. For the long term health of your reef tank it is better to cycle it properly. You did not introduce market prawn right? Without any rotting organism for the bacteria to consume and break down, of course your readings will be zero for everything. The true test of how stable your bio filtration is, is not how low your test kit reads. You need to at least introduce market prawn or fish food and see how well it is broken down, cos this same system will be responsible for breaking down your fish poo and other waste.

ok. No i did not introduce market prawn, i throught i am using NSW, the water is already cycled... nevertheless, can i intro a bit of fish food etc. flakes, dried shrimp for the cycle to kick off instead of market prawn? any difference?

Thanks.

[albinosage]

Yup, fish food can be substituted for market prawn. The idea is to introduce some organic material for the bacteria to break down.

Bro I think some of us mentioned liao, the whole purpose of cycling is not to grow bacteria in the water, bacteria is supposed to colonise the live rocks and filter media. NSW helps speed up the process cos it has live bacteria in it while salt mix is sterile.

[jackywongto]

ok. No i did not introduce market prawn, i throught i am using NSW, the water is already cycled... nevertheless, can i intro a bit of fish food etc. flakes, dried shrimp for the cycle to kick off instead of market prawn? any difference?

Thanks.

Market prawn will be more effective to ensure that you have a healthy colony of beneficial bacteria ready to break your newly added fishes' poo ........

[kksg2000]

Ok. But i do not understand here is currently i'm cycling with cured live rock, there should be already some organisms seeded in these rocks right? So market prawn is too speed up the process?

[albinosage]

Bro, the organisms (you mean bacteria?) in the live rock may be enough for now, an empty tank, but what about your future fish population? How many are you intending to keep, 5, 10? The purpose of cycling is to ensure that the bacteria population grows to such an extent that it is enouogh to support your future bio load. Market prawn is to ensure that something rots inside the tank, and can be decomposed and broken down quickly without leaving a trace of ammonia or nitrite.

So, prawn is not to speed up anything, it is to kick start the process and simulate the shit that your future fish will produce. It is the bacteria that is important, think of the cycling process as a full dress rehearsal for the bio-filtration system.

[Gouldian]

Ok. But i do not understand here is currently i'm cycling with cured live rock, there should be already some organisms seeded in these rocks right? So market prawn is too speed up the process?

Hi bro,

Your LR and LS should contains some beneficial bacteria but they may not be enough to handle the new bioload, thus most people will introduce an ammonia source to propagate these bacteria to higher concentration to meet with the addition of livestocks (bioload).

One of the way to introduce ammonia is to use market prawn. As the prawn decays, it will produce ammonia which will feed the beneficial bacteria which will start multiplying to deal with the influx of food.

Another way is to dose ammonia to start the cycle - http://www.csupomona.edu/~jskoga/Aquariums/Ammonia.html

HTH

[jackywongto]

Ok. But i do not understand here is currently i'm cycling with cured live rock, there should be already some organisms seeded in these rocks right? So market prawn is too speed up the process?

bro... my previous replies to other newbies on the same queries on cycling. Hope these help bro.

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When you start a new tank, add in live rocks (there are organisms on the rocks that are dying), drop a market prawn etc, these will produce ammonia. A strain of bacteria will slowly convert this ammonia to nitrite. another strain of bacteria will slowly colonize and convert nitrite to nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite are toxic to livestock. Nitrate is not.

The colonization of this bacteria takes time .. maybe 3 - 4 weeks. People speed up this process by adding livesand, dosing bacterias etc. Once they are colonized, all ammonia and nitrite will be reduced to 0 (This is based on your current stocking level!) This is when your tank is cycled.

Now that when your tank is fully cycled, it does not mean that the colonies of bacteria will stay forever in the tank. They may increase or decrease depending on amount of feeding, stocking level etc. Now assuming your tank is cycled and ready. You purhcase 2 - 3 fishes and put them in. Now the waste produced by these fishes may be greater than what the current amount of bacterias in your tank can handle. This is the reason why people advise to go slow. add minimum fishes, let the bacterias cope and multiply and then add another fish later so that there will be no ammonia or nitrite spike. Then to speed up the bacteria multiplication, they add bacterias starter to help dreak down the waste. So cycling is an ongoing process until you decided you don't want to add any livestock anymore

Do note that if you add too much bacteria (overdosed greatly), they take in more dissolve oxygen too and if there are insufficent waste, they die off and your water quality will be affected. That's why you need to follow reccommended dosage amount indicated on the product and not to overdo it.

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another reply previously:

Cycling the tank.

When you start up a new tank, your tank do not have all the benificial bacterial.

Cycling basically means getting the tank to reach the equilibrium of having sufficent bacterial to break down ammonia (bad) -> nitrite (bad)-> nitrate (not so bad) as fast as they are produced.

When you introduce the 1st fish (or some ppl use market prawn) in the tank, it will produce waste and ammonia will build up in the tank due to the lack of the 1st stage bacterial. Over days, the bacterial will slowly build up and ammonia concentration will decline but nitrite will start to increase. When the 1st stage bacterial are fully established, ammonia will be processed as fast as the fishes are producing it.

At this stage nitrite will start to peak. Nitrite is also very toxic to the fishes. Again we have to wait for another batch of bacterials to grow in population to bring nitrite level down. When this bacterials are sufficient in numbers, the nitrate will boom so slowly nitrite will be undetectable.

when nitrite is eliminated, the tank is cycled. equilibrium is reached. This takes approximately 4 weeks.

The resultant nitrate is not as harmful to fishes. Large concentration of it does harm the fish well being and they might be more susceptible to disease. Reqular water change will help keep the nitrate level in check. Growing Mangrooves, installing denitrators, having deep sand bed will help too to keep nitrate level within acceptable levels.

Now when you add new fishes, the balance is offset again. more fishes = more waste = need time to let the bacterial grow again.

So even after tank is cycled, it depends how many fishes you add at one time. If you add several at one time and several again a week later, the bacterial will not be able to populate and break down the ammonia and nitrite in time and fishes die. That is why ppl say go slow, go slow

Give the bacterial time to be established in your tank. Each time the equilibrium is offsetted (whether by introduction of new fishes/corals, increase in feeding frequency or quantity, dead fish/ corals unremoved) you need to give time to tank to balance the ecology system.

[kksg2000]

Thank Bros. Understood now.

[kksg2000]

Hi,

I dropped a market prawn into the tank today.

1. At which stage should i start to dose the nitrifying bacteria?

2. At which stage i could take out the prawn from the tank.

Thanks.