Dry Rock
 

OK, so I have had the 75 gallon with a 25 gallon sump up and running now for a month now and I'm hoping to get some assistance about cycling dry rock times.

I have 60lbs of dry rock in the main display with 60lbs of new sand. I have another 25lbs of rock from my solana in the sump. The pumps have been running for one months time. The skimmer has been running for 9 days, and last friday I had placed in a few Chromis.

I have been using Seachem Stabilizer in the tank for 9 days as well.

So far, I have yet to see any ammonia spike, and nitrates and nitrites are at a minimum. I was gone away for the first two weeks of the tank running. for the last two weeks i have noticed the following occurrences in my tank

1) a thin brown layer of algae film covered 85% of the tank
2) that died off and cleaned up
3) now I have little tuffs of green hair algae.

So for anyone else that had used dry rock in a new tank with new sand, how long did it take to cycle?

Umm
Why did you put the chromis in the tank?

Thanks Naesco,

Please don't ask a question with a question. I didn't ask about ethics.

Using 50/50 base rock/live rock, it took me about a month to cycle. Took about 6 months to cover the base rock with coralline, dusters, and pods. Hope those Chromis are doing fine.

Thank you, did you add anything to the tank like the seachem or is this stuff just a gimic.

The chromis are doing just fine, thanks for asking

Yeah I dosed half a bottle of Purple Up using their recommendations but I think that product is a gimmick as well. I think I also dumped in some/lots (can't remember) of Hagen Cycle. Dunno if either product was really needed.
Guess I was a bit wet behind the ears when I started the SW hobby.

Thanks again

I do not believe purple up to be a gimick. When I Was dosing I noticed a huge increase in coraline growth. that being said steady constant kalk water dosing works too. and cheaper.

personally I love Seachem Stability...some say it's snake oil, but I've had nothing but success in setting up a tank quickly with it. You'll need to "seed" dry rock, which is essentially what the Stability has done. What you witnessed was a diatom outbreak and now seeing some hair algae...all normal stages in cycling a tank.

Thanks Rogue & Rbacchiega!