Feeding Bacteria?

[benye]

question 1; i just set up a 30G marine tank two days ago. i put the RO water in and salt, got it up to temperature and then added 40lb of live sand. should i be putting any food in for the bacteria on the sand? or will it be fine with just the salt in there?

question 2; how will i know when my tank is fully cycled and the filters are full of bacteria ect.

question 3; the lady in my lfs said it was advisable not to have my protein skimmer on during the cycling process, and would not need to be on untill i have livestock in there, is this true? i assume it is,i was just checking

any help would be great as i am new to sw tanks

 

[Navarre]

question 1; i just set up a 30G marine tank two days ago. i put the RO water in and salt, got it up to temperature and then added 40lb of live sand. should i be putting any food in for the bacteria on the sand? or will it be fine with just the salt in there?

You will need to add something for them to feed on. Usually a prawn from the freezer will do the trick.

question 2; how will i know when my tank is fully cycled and the filters are full of bacteria ect.

Daily water tests. You will get an ammonia spike, then a Nitrite spike, once the nitrie has fallen to zero you are safe to add fish.

question 3; the lady in my lfs said it was advisable not to have my protein skimmer on during the cycling process, and would not need to be on untill i have livestock in there, is this true? i assume it is,i was just checking

No need to use a skimmer until there is something in the tank for it to skim



Are you only using live sand as the only filter in the tank? Are you using live rock? I wouldnt think live sand alone will be enough fitration to support your future livestock

 

[benye]

no,i have a canister filter and a small internal filter. thanks for the advise. do you mean like a reguar shrimp that you buy from a sumpermarket? or the fish food type?

also atm i only have on tube in my hood, which will need a new bulb and will odviously not be suitable to keep coral with, but do you think that if i added one maybe two more tubes, then i would be Ok for some corals? and what kind of wattage, type of tube ect... would i need with all of those?

 

[benye]

oops, sorry you said prawn, im now guessing you mean regular prawn!

 

[Navarre]

HI Benye,
You can use just regualr fish food ... basically its just to give the bacteria something to start the process off with.

As for lighting, if you cannot afford the expence of halides then fit as many tubes under your hood as you can. You probably wont have enough to keep hard corals but i would say that soft corals will be ok.

As for products in the UK... Well its been quite apparant since i have come to this forum that the USA brands are different to the UK/European variety. There are some that are the same but most of the time i have never heard of the USA brand names (which i why i try not to advise on prodcuts like that).
For advise on UK brands of lighting I will send you a PM of a site that might be able to help you out

Good luck

 

[yhbae]

Is cycling reef tank the same as fresh water tank? If that is the case, can you use the pure ammonia solution instead of these food as the source? I would think it would be far easier this way to manage...

 

[Navarre]

Well.. Ihave heard of some people taking a "wee" in their tanks to get them started )


I guess it would work and it used to be the advice i saw given out alot about 7 years aago. I then packed in marines for a while and when i came back this practice stopped (i have no idea why). A pure ammonia solution would work as well i guess but it goesnt need to be alot, just a tiny amount to start the ball rolling.

Im no chemist so i will probably find that someone will jump in with a perfectly good reason for NOT doing this.

 

[yhbae]

Odd, since this is still the most common way of doing fishless cycling - just put enough to create 5ppm concentration of ammonia in your tank daily... I would have thought this would be by far the cleanest and the most accurate method...