I got all the dry rock from DS4x4 from the market place. I’ve setup a 40breeder with RODI, a powerhead, and heater. The rock looks like it was previously “live” and has since been removed from a tank and dried.
Should I let it sit in the 40gal until its gone thru a full cycle? I DONT want it to induce a cycle in the existing tank.
Ammonia is dropping to 0.25ppm
Nitrite is currently spiking
Nitrates are over 80ppm
If we do leave it for a full cycle, once the cycle is done I’ll be left with a tank full of severely high nitrAtes. When I got to drop the rock into the mature tank, just rinse it real good w/ some RODI? I don’t want to pump alot of nitrates into the mature tank.
Let it cycle in the tank before you add it to your main tank, also if you have a couple of small pieces in your main tank already cycled stick those in the 40 and that will help speed of the cycle process. What salt salinity do you have the 40 breeder at?
So John (I believe its John at least) hehe…Your method would be what exactly? The rock is not cruddy at all. The only real issue I see are the remnants of thousands of little tube worms that are all over some of the rock pretty heavily.
Method?
Put it all into buckets, nuke em with water/bleach (2:1 ratio? and for how long?), then rinse/soak a few times to get the bleach out, then toss em into the tank?
The sooner I can get it into the main tank and start aquascaping w/o having to worry about inducing a tank cycle the better!
If ammonia is already dropping your almost there. That means the first part of the cycle is just about complete. I’d let it keep going as is. The nitrite is a shorter portion of cycle, and if you already have nitrates then you have a healthy colony of nitrite reducing bacteria, you’re just waiting for it to catch up with the ammonia spike from the die-off on the rock.
I’d consider doing a water change in the near future to reduce the nitrates some, but you don’t have to get the nitrates to zero. Nitrates exist in the water column more than on the rocks themselves. Once your levels are settled in the 40 then you have very little decomposing matter left on the rock.
At that point you can start moving the rock in to the display tank, just do so slowly, a little every couple days, give the bacteria a chance to colonize in the new tank and you’ll prevent any spikes in parameters.
If no one has said it yet “take your time, nothing good happens fast in this hobby”. Don’t be in a rush, rushing creates more issues than it solves. Remember you’re dealing with live animals, complete with a nervous system.
I would also test it for PO4 if it’s leaching PO4 it would be better to drop in some kent phosphate sponge and try to get as much out as you can before adding to your tank.
+1 to hudzon, i’d be more worried about phosphates leeching than nitrates.
You could also add some microbacter7 or similar to help speed up your cycle.
I had “dead” dry live rock that I made live again. I put everything in a tub with saltwater/heater/ph, added microbacter7 and some shrimp (or other ammonia source) and let it go. Took a couple of weeks to cycle which sucked, but it was also 60lbs of rock.
If you’re doing less, you could probably get your cycle done quicker, especially since you have live rock to seed it.
I had no nitrate in tank, but leeched phosphates for like 6 months.
The issue faralon has is that the rock has dead organic material on it already (functioning same as a shrimp would). It’s just a matter or allowing the dead organic material to decompose in a seperate environment so it’s not added to the DT, which would generate another cycle.
I would etch it, using either vinegar or acid, to remove the remaining organic matter, and much of the attached PO4, then cure it in fresh SW for a couple of weeks while checking for nutrients, i.e. PO4.
Yeah its 50lbs of rock, plus my DIY rock while we’re at it…maybe 75lbs of rock total.
I’ll have to get a PO4 test kit to see if its leeching. Amazingly I have NOT had to deal with algae issues with my setup yet. Snails and the Yellow Tang were handling it with ease. (Update on the Tim the Tang…he passed away…apparently whatever parasite he got once in captivity he could not overcome, but I’ll update that thread separately…I do however need a new lawnmower for the tank now.)
Current plan is once the Ammonia/Nitrites are zero I’m going to do a water change and monitor it for another week. (As I agree, all the leftover NitrAtes will be in the water column) If all is well, I’ll start tossing in about 10lbs every other day or so.
If I had waited a bit longer to start cycling the rock I would have given them a vinegar bath 1st, thanks Downbeach.
[quote=“jtnova13, post:11, topic:6156”]
But once he’s reading 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, the organic material should be completely consumed by the bacteria, right?[/quote]
Not necessarily so- it means that the bacteria has colonized at such a level to consume the ammonia as it’s being produced from the organic decomposition. Dead sponge and such can still be decomposing, but there’s enough beneficial bacteria to consumer the ammonia and nitrite fast enough to not be testable.
