SWC order

[Delphinus]

Thread is getting a little eclectic, whew!

Kim, the flight is due in at 5:20. This means livestock in our hands no sooner than 6:30 - 7:00 (half an hour to unload the plane, half an hour to drive home, etc.)

Six months of age is the number I like to throw out as a measure of when a tank hits "maturity" (I guess the equivalent of reef tank "puberty"??? :eek: ). That does not always mean that things can't be put in the tank sooner than six months, just that up until that point, things tend to swing from one extreme to the other rather quickly. A good "balance" takes about 6 months IME/IMO, and certainly, there are many things that should not be attempted in an unbalanced, not-yet-mature tank, but the flip side of the coin is that six months is an awfully long time to wait with a tank with nothing in it to look at. There are some things that will do just fine after the initial ammonia/nitrite/nitrate cycle is complete (some fish, for example, hermit crabs and other cleanup crew) and those are the things you can start looking at within a few weeks, or after the first month, or so. But you have to watch your levels, if you have any ammonia or nitrite it of course will be best to wait until those are undetectable before plopping anything in. Snails in particular, I have found through my own experience, tend to be rather sensitive in an immature tank, and they'll drop like flies in such a situation. This is all just my $0.02 of course, and since every system is a little different, YMMV.

[MitchM]

My guidelines for water cycling quality issues are:
New tank with cured live rock and 50/50 old water/new water and bare bottom is 2 weeks
New tank with uncured live rock and the same is 4 weeks
New tank with uncured live rock and all new water with a bare bottom is 8 weeks.
ANY of the above set-ups WITH a DSB is 4 MONTHS.
These times are my minimums and you must test before adding critters, and don't add them all at once.
Live rock and a piece of krill is all that is needed to cycle a tank.

It's just not worth rushing if something winds up dying as a result of impatience.

If you want to see some life in your new tank with live rock,......get a flashlight with a red lens and explore it during lights out!.......it's pretty cool!

Mitch :D

[ 08 July 2002, 15:57: Message edited by: Carpentersreef ]

[Seriak]

I will take all your advice into account. My tank was cycled with live fully cured rock with all new water. I didn't see that on your list though.

How do you tell if she's a witch?

You burn her! Or see if she weighs the same as a duck. Whatever works!

[MitchM]

Originally posted by Seriak:


You burn her! Or see if she weighs the same as a duck. Whatever works!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Bingo!
:D

Give it a few weeks. test your water and get a flashlight! I did that, and it peaked my interest enough so that I wound up taking an invertebrate and zoology course.

Reef tanks are cool! :cool: :D

Mitch

[Delphinus]

All new water, obviously, will make things take longer as bacteria needs to establish itself. However, if you're prepared to wait four months, I doubt you're really going to notice a huge difference at that point either way.

Generally speaking, I find the "amount of time" guidelines to be just that (guidelines). The parameters are the ultimate indicator.

You need to question your parameters though, if you see things happen that seem to be outside those guidelines. A zero nitrate reading, for example, does not indicate a tank has a complete NO3 to N2 cycle going. It could be that the nitrates are being consumed by something (caulerpa, for example -- that is why sporalation or "going sexual" is not always good for a tank -- it can take your tank from 0ppm NO3 to 60ppm NO3 in a matter of hours ... shocking the heck out of tank inhabitants.. been there, done that...)

And as I've discovered, a tank can be as old as two years and not have a proper NO3 to N2 cycle going. :mad: (Case in point, my carpet anemone tank. Which is currently sitting at 40ppm.. :eek: )

[ 08 July 2002, 16:28: Message edited by: delphinus ]