Dry Rock Curing and New Tank Cycling (1 Viewer)

[Rigwald]

I am trying to help my wife research everything for her new 120g tank. She has had a FO saltwater tank with a canister filter, but this time we are venturing into the realm of live rock/reef.

I have been reading on many forums (and watching many videos) about curing live/dry rock, but I am still confused. We are planning on going dry rock (to avoid any pests, since this is a new realm and we don't need "complications").

One of the "pros" for dry rock, is the ability to work it and aquascape without the need to hurry or handle wet, slimy rock. With that pro, I would assume that, since you are doing the aquascaping, you would be curing your rock in the actual setting that you are aquascaping for (i.e. the display tank). Most resources, however, talk about curing outside of the aquarium. Hence, the confusion.

I realize, based on research, that we should acid wash the dry rock first to lower phosphate. It is the next stage that I am lost on.

After all my rambling it comes down to...

Is it possible to cure the rock in the new, no livestock, aquarium? Is curing and cycling at the same time possible with a new set-up?

Thank you for your time and advice!

 

[Myclang]

It's possible, but you would need to add some sort of bacteria to the tank ie: fresh shrimp from the deli, Bio Spira (live bacteria), or the not so popular throw a damsel, or hardy saltwater fish to add a bio load to the tank. I reccomend live bacteria, which is sold at most reputable salt water stores (very cheap, and humane). This will start the cycle. This can be done in your display (the easiest/cheapest way), or you could even throw it in a big bin with a heater and power head, filled with saltwater.

I should also add that once you add this bacteria. It will take a couple of weeks to complete the cycle. you should see your ammonia,nitrite, nitrates all rise and then fall to zero. At that time it should be safe to add a couple of hardy fish. If you go with a top of line Biro Spira brand of live bacteria, you could add fish as soon as the next day.

 

[David Grigor]

Curing and cycling is the same thing. So yes.

What you describe is the most typically way for a completely new setup.

Curing separately in a tub would be if your going to add rock to any already established tank that has livestock in it. You wouldn't want to add dead rock for fear ammonia/nitrite may spike and kill stuff.

The only downside to using all dead rock is unless your real good at keeping water quality good, algae is more likely to take over because all the surface is available and nothing to outcompete once you add your lighting. This is also one of the reasons why as soon as your cycle is over you want to do as near to a 100% water change as possible. So that you start out with good clean water and very little nitrate/phosphate in the water column.

Dry rock can be cheaper and not likely to get pest but really once you start adding livestock your probably going to end up with some pests anyway. Pretty much unavoidable.

Dry rock can save money but also may end up with some extra algae headaches until everything settles and matures ( usually around the 6-12 month timeframe ).

 

[Rigwald]

Thanks for the replies!:bow:

It is my understanding that, during the process, I:

- should not have the lights on (to prevent algae).
- should have powerheads going.
- should have heater going.

Should I have the sump running? Skimmer? Refugium?

 

[Myclang]

Some say you don't have to. I personally ran mine. My skimmer was new. So I figured it would be best to use that time to break in the skimmer, so it would be adequately operating by the time I got livestock put in.

 

[kheebl]

I also ran my skimmer during the cycle to break it in.

 

[David Grigor]

Just a powerhead that's all that's really required.

Skimmer and heater, circulate the water through the sump are all optional.

Bacteria really don't care about temperature being spot on. So as long as you keep your house temp around 68-70 heater isn't required. For sure not required in spring/summer/fall months.

Running skimmer and sump would be mostly to just test things out. Not required for the process itself.

So you can make this as simple as you want or run the whole system and anything in between. Your choice.

 

[mpageler]

I just filled my tank this week and cycling with in-tank dry Pukani. Also did a lot of searching/reading on the national forums on cycling dry rock. Some thought that while Pukani looked “clean”, it actually holds a fair amount of dead matter. And that this will extend the cycling period, until you get water quality under control. Several claimed tremendous phosphate levels during in-tank Pukani curintg. With the amount of dead material, some didn’t see the need to add extra sources like scrimp.
Appeared that a popular way to “seed” the dry rock as it cycles, it to add some small pieces of live rock but then you have the pest introduction aspect. Will start ammonia and nitrite testing shortly. Did order a Hanna phosphate tester to see if the elevated phosphate levels clain is valid. It it is, I guess that raises the merits of using a phosphate binder.

So you can actually get live culured bacteria at LFS? So do LFS order it with livestock shipments quite often, since it has to have very limited shelf life?
I come out of water garden/koi ponding hobby and a lot of discussion there on “bottled bacteria”. Unless you can get live cultered bacteria, which is almost impossible, the “bottle bacteria” in the pond marketplace is just sludge eating bacteria such as you find in septic tank treatments.'
Mike

 

[yell0w]

You should looking into acid/bleaching the dry rock before you start to cycle them. Had a buddy just used the dry rock without bleaching/acid washing his rocks and had a major algae issue.

 

[David Grigor]

Really as long as you do a near 100% water change after the cycle, both nitrate/phosphates from the water column would be removed. While impossible to really know, there could be phosphates still bound and slowly released over potentially years of time, using a phosphate binder during cycle will not change that so I don't see any purposeful use. Just keep the lights out so no algae will grow in the meantime.


There are plenty of bacteria cultures in a bottle available and might help the cycle a little bit but still will take at least a week or more. In the grand scheme of things, you only really have to cycle rock once. From then on, you can use to seed others as long as you never get out of the hobby completely and start from scratch again. So with that in mind, waiting 1-2 weeks vs. 4-6 probably isn't that big of deal and just using good ole' mother nature vs. some bottle is what I'd recommend. If anything like me, I can buy stuff and months go by before ever firing it up so 4-6 weeks seems even less important to me.

I've switched tanks, added new ones, taking down old ones and never had to deal with cycle since I had rock ready to go from sump or somewhere and not adding 100% dead. Only exception is the very first time so do it right and be patient and probably won't ever have to do it again.

 

[Jas0r]

I have also just started the dry rock curing process, just added some bottled bacteria I picked up from the counter at SWE last night. I'm a little hazy on where things go between here and adding the clean up crew to the tank as most of my research has been done through forum posts and a gigantic reef aquarium book. I've been wondering about water testing and "feeding ghost guppies" along with the general timeframe. From what I understand I am adding two vials of bacteria and one vial of food weekly for three weeks...and then watching for an ammonium spike to come and go?

 

[David Grigor]

Cycle will consist of ammonia, then nitritie, then nitrate. Do NOT test for nitrate until all nitrite is 0. Nitrite interferes with the test and makes it worthless. Once you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, you should be done. Best to do a 100% water change before adding livestock to rid the high nitrate levels. If you don't, algae will have plenty of nuturients and all that open rock with no competition and can get out of control quickly.

What you feed, how much you feed during cycle. That's all up to you. There are no real rules on it.

The main thing is patience. Trying to skimp a week or two isn't worth the headaches and lost $ it could cause.

 

[Jas0r]

How often should one test for these things during the cycling process? I'm cool with daily, but if it's unnecessarily burning testing supplies I'd prefer not.

 

[lorky]

I usually wait for minimum of at least a month of cycling than test. But varies person to person and depends on which route you choose.