Cycling uncured live rock with or without skimmer
 

I figured I would add uncured live rock to my 120 and let it cycle. I had planned on skimming from day one to avoid excess buildup of ammonia/nitrites/nitrates which might kill off some of the life on my live rock, and also to try to minimize an algae bloom at the beginning.

I will be delayed in getting a skimmer perhaps a month or so until the EuroReef I want is available in stock. Everything else will be ready except the skimmer.

Will there be a problem in starting the live rock cycling without a skimmer? I want to do things optimally so I have no problems waiting a month if that is best.

Also I have been advised to cycle my live rock before adding sand, to avoid buildup of gunk in my sand. However I figured if I cycled the live rock with sand in place, this would help get more living organisms in the sand bed, any thoughts on this.

On my next tank I plan on establishing the sand bed first,with planted refuge,and skimmer in place before adding the rock.The theory is the sand bed will bio filter with the skimmer and refuge chem filtering,along with water changes.When the rock is cycled I'll stop skimming to see if I need it.Thats the theory anyways I hope it works.
I think if you cycle for a month before skimming you may have to do alot of water changes if you want to preserve as much life as possible.

without a skimmer, I would do lotsa flow and lotsa water changes.

personally, I would cure the rock without sand... if you want to have sand in the tank, add it after you remove all the crap from the rocks...

jmo

Ok that is what I'll do I'll wait for my skimmer then put in the live rock barebottom once the skimmer is running.

Some problem with getting Euroreefs now with the wrong pump that is why my skimmer is delayed and it is holding up my whole tank.

:eek:

Can you please elaborate on this? I just bought two replacement Euroreef pumps and they are Dolphins.... :confused:

According to a thread on RC (do a search of Euroreef and Dolphin), EuroReef had trouble sourcing Sedra pumps from their supplier. So they temporarily substituted Dolphin pumps, which they claim are functionally equivalent but just with a different label.

The Dolphin pumps actually have a higher gph rating than the Sedras, I don't know if the actual gph is higher or if they just rated them higher.

Anyway I was looking for a CS-6-2+ which is basically a CS-6-2 with a higher rated pump (Sedra 5000 instead of Sedra 3500). So my evil plan was I would order and pay for a CS-6-2 but since it has a higher-output Dolphin pump I would essentially get a CS-6-2+ for the price of a CS-6-2. I'm waiting to hear back on my inquiries about exactly which Dolphin pumps come with these skimmers before I order one.

My replacement pumps I recently bought (outside of warranty) came invoiced as Sedra pumps. Since I have the original Sedras, I can clearly see they are different.

I love my Euroreefs, no question. And the new Dolphin pump seems to work well. It also doesn't leak voltage... :confused:

Which size Dolphin came for which skimmer? Does it work as well as the Sedra? And is it as quiet as the Sedra?

They are both DP-800, so 800gph vs Sedra's 500gph. The skimmer is just cranking....I don't notice any noise.