Is Cycling A Marine Tank The Same As.....

[orange shark]

cycling a freshwater tank e.g. adding ammonia in and waiting until it drops in less than 12 hours?

Thanks, orange shark

 

[kkyyllee]

you need to add a source of amonia to start the cycle but its gonna take alot longer than 12 hours freshwater takes longer than that, it will take 2-6 weeks usually, dont use fish to cycle tho.

 

[Musho3210]

my freshwater tank took 18 hours to go from 8.00 ppm to 0 ppm. And i was cycled in 18 hours, but thats because i had plants.


Cycling is pretty much the same but the bacteria isnt.

 

[SkiFletch]

Depends on if you use LR and how much dieoff there is on it...

 

[Unseen]

how do you cycle a tank without LR?

IS the only option fish?

 

[n3ont3tra]

how do you cycle a tank without LR?

IS the only option fish?

You could add ammonia or put some fish food in, or run the filter on another tank and after a few weeks move it to the no-LR tank and add fish.

 

[AK77]

It depends on what the setup is going to be. A FO tank with an external canister filter will be exactly the same idea with regard to establishing the nitrifying bacteria in filter media as in freshwater fish.

In a FOWLR tank, the live rock already has the bacteria established in it and acts as the filtration system. However, as Ski said, if there is a lot of die off on the rock caused during transportation, then you'll get ammonia spikes and have to wait until the bacteria re-establishes itself and breaks down the ammonia.

There are other filtration methods too, such as deep sand beds.

All will differ in the length of time it takes the system to cycle.

HTH,

AK

 

[Musho3210]

FO tanks normally utilize the prawn method (i dunno if youve heard of this) FOWLR/reef tanks either use uncured rock or cured rock or cured rock AND prawn method.

 

[andywg]

FO tanks normally utilize the prawn method (i dunno if youve heard of this) FOWLR/reef tanks either use uncured rock or cured rock or cured rock AND prawn method.

Or use good quality cured LR and stock immediately.

 

[zeo]

Is Live sand meant to smell like gutter water?

Added it to my tank, everything went white. Is it possible to cycle it with live sand?
Btw I am using 10kg of sand from a previous mature aquarium. (except it was completely dry, so dont know how long its been out of water).

 

[AK77]

I always thought LS had to be kept moist in order for the bacteria to stay alive??

 

[zeo]

sorry, bit confusing what I said earlier. let me clarify.

Live sand was sealed with water.

I'm currently trying to cycle a tank that has 25kg of new coral sand + 10kg of old coral sand.

I've just added a bag of live sand yesterday aswell.

 

[Musho3210]

well is there ammonia coming from the live sand?

 

[SkiFletch]

Heh, "Live" sand sold in those big plastic bags is a ripoff if you ask me... Nothing survives in those bags. Lets be honest, what's gonna live in there with no oxygen, no water movement and no temperature control for possibly months sitting on warehouse shelves? Answer, nothing, it all dies and then smells like gutter water. You're better off just buying plain aragonite sand and allowing the LR to seed the sand bed.

The only truly live sand is that which is taken from an established reef tank and put into yours. Even still, cycling with LS is not a great idea since the biologic capacity of sand is much lower than that of LR or even a canister filter.