Marco Rock Cycles

[Blom]

Tanks been running for about a week now and with today's H2O test I found that my tank had cycled. Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates were all zero. Last time I measured these values I saw a spike in Ammonia, but that was only a few days ago. I know there isn't a lot on the rock to die off, but there would surely be some. Just curious on what others had found.

[Bloodasp]

Are those just dry rocks you put in there or were there any live rocks?

[apexifd]

I still think 1 week is too good to be true. Although you may be ready for ONE hardy fish.

but, it's probably safer to throw in a raw shrimp to cause another ammonia spike and start another cycle.

[freezetyle]

Originally Posted by apexifd

but, it's probably safer to throw in a raw shrimp to cause another ammonia spike and start another cycle.

I would go with this. I started my last tank with dry rock and ended up sacrificing about 4 orange striped cardinals because i thought the tank was ready.

[fishytime]

like I said......dead rock, is dead rock...marco rock has been dead for 10000 years......dust cant decompose...it is not ready to sustain a bio-load!.......man......you get tired of seeing people starting tanks with all dead rock, or 100#s dead 20#s live in a 120g, or 30#s of live in 120g, cuz they're going for the "minimalist look" (aka the "Im too cheap to buy rock look"(j/k)) and then see them back on the board later with a bunch of fish, starting threads like..... " I have cyano"......"I have high nitrates".......I have hair algae....."I have dead fish"......start a tank with 100% LR and your supposed to exercise patience......start a tank with dead rock and.......well .....you get the point.....I suppose you could use some kind of bottle to speed up the process if thats what you want, but to me, nuthin will beat good live rock and some patience

[Myka]

Originally Posted by fishytime

like I said......dead rock, is dead rock...marco rock has been dead for 10000 years......dust cant decompose...it is not ready to sustain a bio-load!.......man......you get tired of seeing people starting tanks with all dead rock, or 100#s dead 20#s live in a 120g, or 30#s of live in 120g, cuz they're going for the "minimalist look" (aka the "Im too cheap to buy rock look"(j/k)) and then see them back on the board later with a bunch of fish, starting threads like..... " I have cyano"......"I have high nitrates".......I have hair algae....."I have dead fish"......start a tank with 100% LR and your supposed to exercise patience......start a tank with dead rock and.......well .....you get the point.....I suppose you could use some kind of bottle to speed up the process if thats what you want, but to me, nuthin will beat good live rock and some patience

Post of the day! I agree 100%.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by fishytime

like I said......dead rock, is dead rock...marco rock has been dead for 10000 years......dust cant decompose...it is not ready to sustain a bio-load!.......man......you get tired of seeing people starting tanks with all dead rock, or 100#s dead 20#s live in a 120g, or 30#s of live in 120g, cuz they're going for the "minimalist look" (aka the "Im too cheap to buy rock look"(j/k)) and then see them back on the board later with a bunch of fish, starting threads like..... " I have cyano"......"I have high nitrates".......I have hair algae....."I have dead fish"......start a tank with 100% LR and your supposed to exercise patience......start a tank with dead rock and.......well .....you get the point.....I suppose you could use some kind of bottle to speed up the process if thats what you want, but to me, nuthin will beat good live rock and some patience

couldnt have said it better doug, ok so dead rock is dead its that simple using only dead rock will result in dead fish....seeding takes time a lot of it infact, and you wont sustain a bio load worth diddly...it takes time.using dead rock is great to add some shapes or save some money but you have to have the right amount of liverock plus the right bio load or your just gonna upset the balance and as doug said high nitrates,amonia spikes, algae and phosphates.liverock is often found cheaper than dead rock i mean it goes for 2/lb now lol start off a new tank with all lr,add dry rock to an existing set up is my advise....i wouldnt start a tank with dry rock unless having plenty of experience and patience in the hobby not saying you dont just throwing it out there for anyone to read.dry rock is def good but it needs to be seeded and that takes a fair bit of time the lower amount of lr you have the longer amount of time it will take

[Blom]

[quote=apexifd;634099 it's probably safer to throw in a raw shrimp to cause another ammonia spike and start another cycle.[/QUOTE]

I like it, the wee bugger can go for a dip right now.

[Bloodasp]

Was going to say. The spike you got would probably have come from critters and insects that got into the rock during transportation, or the water itself. But the amount of bacteria they produced would not be enough to support any fish you put in there at this point. You leave it the way it is and it will never cycle. You really need to add live rock and wait, probably do what a lot of people do to speed it up a bit, get a shrimp from the grocery store and put it in your tank and let it decompose, and wait, much like most people here I am not a fan of using live fish to cycle a tank no matter how hardy they might be. Even with all live rock setup a seasoned reefer will wait for a few months before adding any livestock into their tanks. But just like I said if you only have marco rocks in your setup it will never cycle.

[Blom]

Ok ok doug... very feisty. Not once did I say anything about fish. I was just looking into why I have had a spike in Ammonia followed by Nitrites and Nitrates in the tank after a week. And I disagree about the dead rock being "dead", there would be quite a bit of "life" on it as it did not come in sterilized bags for shipping. No doubt nothing close to the live rock, but just in transport and through the people handling it. I guess that is obvious due to the test reading. All I was looking for was some past experience with the marco rock.

So far though I like the dry rock. Very easy to scape, fairly porous. You cant beat the price (and for a student that is a big deal when it comes to rock). It will of course be slower of a process before it turns into the filtration device that is needed, I was hoping seeding it with some sand from an established tank would help with this. We shall see.