Put water in new tank for the first time. Cyling with table shrimp help.
I started putting water in my new reef tank for the first time yesterday. I have gone back and listened to almost all of the podcasts and have a question about cycling. I have aquascaped my tank with Marco Base Rock and Ocean Direct Carib-Sea sand. My question is: If I use the table shrimp method to start my cycle that Rob talks about, will I "miss out" on any innate beneficial bacteria that I might get, if I used a piece of cured LR from my LFS? Or are all the needed bacteria going to already be present in the base rock and newly introduced table shrimp?
I think you shoudl have some LR cured or uncured doesnt matter, but it will help your cycle and be a starting source for all the bacteria to grow from. The dried base rock probably doesnt have all of what you want to get growing in there.
I started putting water in my new reef tank for the first time yesterday. I have gone back and listened to almost all of the podcasts and have a question about cycling. I have aquascaped my tank with Marco Base Rock and Ocean Direct Carib-Sea sand. My question is: If I use the table shrimp method to start my cycle that Rob talks about, will I "miss out" on any innate beneficial bacteria that I might get, if I used a piece of cured LR from my LFS? Or are all the needed bacteria going to already be present in the base rock and newly introduced table shrimp?
What i like to do to start my tanks is use sand,uncured rock and live rock. I usually mix the live rock with the uncured rock and probably within 6 months your uncured rock will be nice live rock. The best thing to do is place the table shrimp in the tank for a few days watching the decay and the levels Once the level peak and the table shrimp starts to break down simply pull the shrimp out and let it sit until you get the brown diatom outbreak and then recede and you should be good to go. It really stinks to sit there and look at an empty tank but once everything is all said and done you will look back and be happy.
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haven't listened to that pod but, you could get some established water from someone and add that to you tank for some additional bacteria.
I agree and i disagree with this. If you have a 50 gallon tank and you place 5 gallons of already established water into the same tank you are basically watering down the established water. Now if you did 45 gallons of established water and 5 gallons of fresh or new water then thats a little different story but its still wouldn't make it established water. I am by far a scientist but i have always looked at it as the tank needs to starts somewhere and adding water from another tank just means adding more water and nothing more. but thats my opinion
Thats a really good point. Just about every type of bacteria is available in the air or on a rock, dead or alive. Adding water from an established tank would be redundant. All of the bacteria you need will gow from the shrimp and rock. Adding water from an established tank, especcially a reef, means that there will be just about zip in that water except for bacteria, and maybe the occasional deadly disease. The only time you should ever use established water is when you don't have any water available for the benefited tank.
When you remove the shrimp after the tank spikes you still need to feed the tank until ammonia producing critters are placed in there. You've built the bacteria populkation up... now ya need to sustain it. If you don't add ammonia (in whatever form) daily or every other day, they will starve and die.
also, i think Wes means "dead" rock or "base" rock rather than "uncured" rock in his post (unless i misunderstood).
i actually like using uncured LR to cycle my tanks. the dieoff feeds the cycle as the rock cures. just go to the LFS and let your nose be your guide as to the degree of cure the LR is in. then pick some nice "ripe" pieces.
adding a cup of LS from an established tank will help to seed the sandbed. i also feel that adding some water from an established tank is benefical as well, since you're trying to establish bacterial colonization.
also, depending on what you're planning to keep, a tank can be populated (slowly) once the nitrogen cycle is complete, but prior to the algae/diatom cycle finishing.
So....if I am adding 60lbs of cured rock to a new tank...would I still want to add a shrimp to start the cycle? The cured rock would be shipped over night, so I'm assuming it won't be truly 100% cured since it will be out of water for 24 hours wrapped in wet newspaper.
the tank may short cycle for you, but there should be at least SOME curing of the LR, as there will be SOME dieoff. get the rock in, then test after a day to see where you're at.
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