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01/24/2010, 02:12 PM
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#1 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: southaven ms
Posts: 5
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cycling new tank
hi everyone,im new to reef keeping and have a question. is there a way to cycle a 55 gallon without live rock?
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01/24/2010, 02:25 PM
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#2 |
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Tangaroa to 500 gallons
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Edmond, OK
Posts: 5,855
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Not sure I understand... the rock (and sand) is what is cycling...
You are developing good bacteria in your tank, and they live on the rock and in the sand... LL
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Click on my username and select "Lightsluvr's Home Page" for a recap of our build thread - AGE Hybrid Tank in a 500G system with dedicated fish room. (Takes a few minutes for photos to load) Leave a note if you stop by... Current Tank Info: 350G AGE Hybrid reef tank. 500G+ total water volume. Three sumps for filtration. Barracuda Gold return and Hammerhead Gold closed loop pumps. DIY T5 light system on rails. MP40W x3 to supplement closed loop. 130G Water management system. |
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01/24/2010, 03:33 PM
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#3 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: southaven ms
Posts: 5
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the reason im asking is because im not able to get the live rock right now because it is very expensive where i live. i have 40 lbs of live sand in there right now but that is it!
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01/24/2010, 03:38 PM
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#4 | |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Maine
Posts: 396
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Quote:
have you looked online for live rock? |
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01/24/2010, 10:57 PM
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#5 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: 808 State
Posts: 1,356
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You don't need LR to cycle your tank. All you need is a medium to cycle. Your sand is a medium. Just throw a shrimp in your tank and your cycle will begin.
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01/24/2010, 10:58 PM
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#6 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: KC
Posts: 599
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Re: cycling new tank
lr helps a lot. so does live sand.
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01/24/2010, 11:07 PM
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#7 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Richlands, NC
Posts: 241
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You're probably better off waiting to get rock to prevent having to recycle your tank or cycle your rock in another container.
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Carlos No tank at all. Sold everything when I got stationed in Okinawa. Planning for when I return though. Current Tank Info: 20 gal reef tank |
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01/25/2010, 02:19 AM
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#8 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 61
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Live rock is cheap on the net. If you can't afford it yet I recomend saving up 200 and then order. If you try to have a tank without it I would bet your gonna have alot of issues. Don't buy at pet store buy on eBay. I've done it 3 times it's allways better than the pet store a 1/4 the price and will benefit your tank greatly. The people I see fail the first thing they say is what is live rock I didn't have that in
I bet you spent more on that sand witch your rock woulda made live that stuff sits on the shelf for months. I just got 30lbs of Fiji for 120 my tank
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This hobby is gotta be worse than a crack habbit Current Tank Info: 125g T5 HO 25g sump 125 lbs Fiji.protein skimmer UV sterilizer. Purple tang 1 pepermint shrimp 1 fire shrimp 2 cleaner blenny mandarin maroon clown hawian duster red coco worm baby starfish. Maze brain coral. Cats paw. Pink xenia. Purple anenome+. |
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01/25/2010, 02:32 AM
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#9 |
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Upgrading my 20gal
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Chicago/Glenview
Posts: 1,230
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well if you add marco rock or dry rock later you will not go through a cycle again but i wouldn't think the sand is enough to filter the tank with fish.
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Twitter is my personal customized news feed. It only tells me what I want to hear. Current Tank Info: never big enough |
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01/25/2010, 08:23 AM
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#10 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Virginia Beach, VA
Posts: 4,452
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If you plan on having fish in there before Live Rock, you'll need some more surface area for your bio-filter, the sand problably isn't enough. Bio-Balls could be used in the interim, until you can get some rock in there, they will provide ample surface area for bacteria to populate. Each time you get some more rock, you can remove some of the bio balls...
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01/25/2010, 08:26 AM
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#11 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Nottingham, NH
Posts: 7,251
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You can always make your own live rock. Check the DIY forum for recipe's. There was a really good one awhile back. in a very long discussion.
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-David- President - New Hampshire Reef Club There’ll be no one to save, with the world in a grave Current Tank Info: 100 gal lagoon/seagrass, 100 gal sump, Lifereef 72" skimmer, 180 inwall, 125 inwall seagrass/lagoon in progress |
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01/25/2010, 08:35 AM
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#12 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Alhambra, CA
Posts: 170
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Throw 2 or 3 cheap damsels in there with some premium blend bacteria. It'll be fine and it'll get your bio started. Its better than having a empty tank sitting around.
In the meantime, look on craigslist for some LR out of someone's tank. Your tank will cycle instantly ...pending the distance and time from their tank to yours. |
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01/25/2010, 08:40 AM
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#13 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Seaside Park, NJ
Posts: 2,138
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^^^-1
DO NOT cycle your tank with live fish. Use a raw shrimp if you must. This hobby is expensive, and i don't want to discourage you, but if you really can't afford LR, I would wait until you can. There are ways around it, but LR is a fairly essential part of the equation. I'd save up, and while saving READ READ READ READ. There isn't ever too much reading in this hobby. If you can, you can buy dry rock from somewhere online, get it shipped ground to reduce shipping cost, then get one chunk of live rock from your LFS. Dry rock should cost $2-3/lb.
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Chief Current Tank: 20 Gallon tall, 4-bulb t5 HO, Eshopps psk75H, ac-70 fuge. So far, green clown goby, striped goby, more gorillas than I wish I had, 5 SPS frags, 3 LPS Frags, 1 Softee, Turkey Wing Clam. Plan for the future: 120 gallon 4ft glass tank. Current Tank Info: 20 gallon tall Reef Tank |
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01/25/2010, 12:43 PM
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#14 | |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 4,670
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Quote:
IMO, cycling without LR should be the prefered way to cycle. You can cycle with any medium even if you intend to use LR as the medium of filtration ultimately. In such as case, you can use a cheap transition medium to cycle. After the cycle, you add the precious LR, all lives on it. There will be no ammonia, no re-cycling, if you had cycled the transition medium very well, as you can very very very easily. Cycling without recently collected LR, without any lives to save, is very very very easy, and easy to do very very very well. You slowly, over a few months, withdraw the transition medium and allow the LR to take over filtration. Cycling is the intense cultivation of nitrification bacteria, very very very easy. Newbies will tend to think of "cycling a tank". In time, an experienced aquarist should better think of "cycling the medium intended for a tank"; such a concept is much more flexible and nimble in the application of nitrification. For one thing, one decouples the quality of the water in the tank after a cycle with the quality of the water you cycle with. Last edited by wooden_reefer; 01/25/2010 at 12:48 PM. |
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01/25/2010, 09:28 PM
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#15 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: southaven ms
Posts: 5
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thanks everyone for the info... means so much to me!
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