Cycling a tank with all marco rock

[The Saltman]

Hi guys,

Because I don't want any pests in live rock, I'm going to go with all marco rocks. However, I need to start a cycle without using fish or live rock. Is there any other way to start a cycle besides getting a cup of sand from someone else's tank? This will be a large tank of 210 gallons.

[schigara]

The easiest and quickest way is to start with pure ammonia. Go to Kroger or any Grocery store and buy pure ammonia in a bottle. It must be clear and have zero surfactants. Shake the bottle, if it fizzes, it's not usable. Look for a bottle that says 100% pure ammonia and will also state 0 surfactants.

Other than this, you can go to the seafood department and ask for a prawn. It's an uncooked shrimp and place it in the tank and wait for it to decay and produce ammonia.

[LockeOak]

Check out my results, a 50G tank using 45lb of marco rocks:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1291734

I started off with ammonia and sugar. I'm not sure if my tank ended up cycling faster with this method or not. It is very lively now, 1 1/2 months in, the main tank is cloudy with copepods at the moment. My lights arrive on Tuesday, I'll do an update then.

[mrpet]

tagging along im about to do the same thing. why not just add a few fish?

[dwd5813]

mrpet, the reason not to add fish is that they are quite sensitive to ANY amount of ammonia in the system, and the result is damage to their gills, and ultimately death. no fish needs that, and we don't need to subject them to it.

LockeOak, why the sugar?
edit: nevermind, i just read the reasoning. how's it look now?

[Icefire]

The dead stuff in the marco rock with trigger the cycle, you could add a few pinch of flake food to be sure.

Putting ammonia directly is a recipe to disaster if you put the wrong one.

[schigara]

Very true. You must be sure you get totally pure ammonia. No color, not scent, nothing! It can be hard to find sometimes. I had to go to 4 different stores to find it.

Originally posted by Icefire
The dead stuff in the marco rock with trigger the cycle, you could add a few pinch of flake food to be sure.

Putting ammonia directly is a recipe to disaster if you put the wrong one.

[dp reefer]

Originally posted by dwd5813
mrpet, the reason not to add fish is that they are quite sensitive to ANY amount of ammonia in the system, and the result is damage to their gills, and ultimately death. no fish needs that, and we don't need to subject them to it.

LockeOak, why the sugar?
edit: nevermind, i just read the reasoning. how's it look now?

Its not pretty, but I used to work in an aquarium store and I have to tell you this is a business of death. LOTS of death. Killing a couple of damsels or chromis, though it maybe cruel, is nothing compared to the number of fish and corals that die simply due to the fact that there is a demand for them and taking them out of the ocean and shipping them halfway around the world is not a clean or healthy process. That said, the ammonia and shrimp methods do work, and damsels are damn near impossible to get out of your tank once they're in.