Lfs Told Me That I Don't Need To Cycle My Tank, Lr ?

[walmartpetsalesassociate]

Well I put some rock in yesterday and it already has life on it. It's from the Mt. Fiji and I bought it at $5 a pound.

The LFS told me that I wouldn't need to cycle my tank and I could get an annenomie (sp) tomorrow if I wanted too. He said that the rock was already cured and I wouldn't need to cycle it for a month. Any truth to this? This guy is the owner of the store and not just an employee, maybe he's trying to get me to buy more??? I really wanted to add coral and annenomie, but I wanted everyone's thoughts on this. Thanks!

 

[lisa_perry75]

anemone I don't know, I assume you do. As a general rule never listen to what they say cos they normally just want you to spend loads of money at their store.

 

[Chac]

Your tank is not cycled fully nevermind mature enoughr for a Nem

 

[Mr Miagi]

As chac said, an anemone would very likely perish under such conditions. Needing very established and mature tanks, with a high level of lighting, your tank isnt ready im afraid.

Your LFS is wrong, and as youve pointed out, they are just trying to get you to buy more stock. This is wrong.

Because your live rock is new, and youve already started adding fish, stop. Let everything settle down and level out. The live rock will have what we call "die off" where some bacetria die from being transported. This, and the tank being new is going to cause your nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia to go through the roof.

If your fish survive the next week, let the tank mature for four or so weeks, and dont add anymoe stock until your water stats like ammonia and nitrite read zero. You might need to buy some test kits.

Let your water also settle. Youve really jumped in quick, and need to slow way down.

Here is a VERY useful link I think you need to read through.

 

[mj32]

Well, I bought live rock for our tank - which was months old cured rock from our LFS display tanks. Even though it was cured i was still advised to wait 2 weeks before adding any clean up crew (and then only if 0,0,0 stats on tests) and then another 2 weeks before adding any fish...... as the stats would probably bounce around a lot

 

[walmartpetsalesassociate]

Thanks for all your help as usual guys. I'm going to take it slow for now and see how these damsels do. Good thing this forum exists other wise I'd be hurting animals and my wallet.

 

[jen20147]

You would want to wait to be safe. We got 200 pounds of LR for our tank, it had been in the store a while but they still told us to wait and check the levels every once in a while. Our LFS rocks

We never did get any weird readings so we added some damsels after a week or two. We had to wait for our VHO lighting to be delivered so it ended up being about a month before we started really stocking the tank.

Even with fully cured live rock there is always some die off in transport so always wait.

 

[andywg]

If the live rock is fully cured then the tank will be cycled upon getting it to the tank and you will want to put livestock straight in to prevent a die off of the beneficial bacteria causing a re-cycle; this is just like cloning a tank in FW. The curing is allowing the die-off from collection in the wild to happen so that it levels itself out. If the curing has taken place at the store, then you should be fine.

There is the possibility of a small curing process as a very small amount of life dies off on the rock as a result of the rock being moved form the lfs to your tank, but if it is fully cured then I see no problem with adding some livestock (even if just a clean up crew).

The ethics of adding a nem are somewhat open to debate, and I certainly wouldn't want one until the tank has been up and running for a couple of years. These things are pretty much uimmortal in the wild with no natural ageing process or genes, yet something like less than 5% of those collected are still alive 2 years after collection (not to mention their ability to almost nuke a tank if they do die).

 

[Navarre]

If you purchase good quality and well cured liverock in high enough quantities then you will not need to cycle.
If your liverock is well matured then it already has a large amount of the bacteria needed to consume the waste material given offf by the fish you intend to add. If you add this rock and then leave it for a couple of weeks then the bateria level will deminish and its capacity to support the livestock that will be added.

Now i dont mean that you need to go out and get one bit of rock and then add 20 fish as this simply wont work! but i have added large quantities of rock and then added a couple of clowns and a small wrasse without any spikes in water quality.



Ok now onto the anenome...

Dont do it.

I have said this many times in the past but i will repeat myself once again for those that are newer to the forum...

Anenomes live for many years.. Probably the longest living thing known to man. In fact, scientists cannot find an aging process in them so its possible that they are immortal and wont die unless predated upon or disease/sickness takes them. (yess its possible that we have anenomes still living when jesus walked the earth!)

Now if we have something in our tanks that can live for this length then how can anyone say that they have sucessfully kept one of these animals when we only live for a tiny percentage of its natural life! 1o years in a tank to us is a great accomplishment yet to an anenome its a fleeting moment

Ok so now we know a little more about its life expectancy, now lets give you more information on its life expetcany in a home tank

For every 100 anenomes caught and collected in the wild on average only 1-10 will make it to the suppliers.

For every 100 of these anenomes in the suppliers tanks, perhaps only 1-10 will make it through the 1st year in captivity!
For every 100 or so of the anenomes in your home tanks, only about 1% will ever make it past 5 years

Now once you put this into perspective I hope most people will question their motives on trying to keep one. They are incredibly hard to keep, they need strong lighting and very clean water conditions, I only recomend them for truely experienced marine keepers.

Now i know that resisting them in lfs is hard (i have even succumb on occasions) but if people were to have a better knowledge of them then they wouldnt buy them. If people dont buy them then shops wont stock them. If the shops dont stock them then they will remain in the ocean where they truely belong