Interesting thoughts for my tank

[icefreeze57]

So I think I want to think to my plan of adding about 25% LR going with my watchman goby and pistol shrimp (maybe even a 3rd fish). Then thinking of adding my cleaned dry rock to the tank as my other 75%.

But I'm also thinking about adding ATM's colony to help with my cycle, I've read that if I add the bottle in about a week my cycle will be complete, as I already have cured LR in the tank I think this plan would be a good idea.


BTW I'm all sure you hate this product because its new and says "instant" but let me know anyway

[travie]

So I think I want to think to my plan of adding about 25% LR going with my watchman goby and pistol shrimp (maybe even a 3rd fish). Then thinking of adding my cleaned dry rock to the tank as my other 75%.

But I'm also thinking about adding ATM's colony to help with my cycle, I've read that if I add the bottle in about a week my cycle will be complete, as I already have cured LR in the tank I think this plan would be a good idea.


BTW I'm all sure you hate this product because its new and says "instant" but let me know anyway

I recommend getting all the LR you plan on putting in the tank before you buy any fish. No chance of a mini-cycle this way. It will be cheaper to just have some patience and let the tank cycle on its own rather than buying a product that says it cycles a tank faster. Typically the less additives/chemicals added to the tank the better.

If you do use the product, you will still be better off adding all the LR before fish.

[barriosman]

+1 to what travie said. I thought about adding my LR in stages to spread out the cost....not a good idea. Each time you add rock, it cycles. To travie's point, if you add fish before you have added all of your rock, you run the chance of killing the fish.

[icefreeze57]

So either go with all LR or wait until the Dry Rock is good to go and add all the rock at the same time?

The reason I was thinking of adding the watchman and pistol is because if I go with 20lbs of LR, that is "enough" for like 20G tank, which is enough filtration for those two little guys, and it would also help cycle the rest of the tank.

Like regardless of how big a tank is if I don't have enough BB for the fish's bio-load then it dosen't matter (and other way around too should be true, which is what I want to do).

[Cliff]

Here is what others have been trying to recommend, add all of your live rock at once. Do not add any live rock later on once you have stocked the tank. You can add dry / dead rock at any time without risk to the fish, Or you can add all of your live and dry rock at the same time.

I think you might have confused others into thinking you were adding more live rock later on.

Just as a reminder, wait about a week after putting the live rock in your tank before adding any livestock. Test every day and make sure there is not ammonia and/or nitrites in the water.

[icefreeze57]

Yeah I think I'm more talking about what Cliff is saying. The only thing I would add later would be the extra dry rock (which I will clean first and wait, maybe I confused you guys when I said I would add it later)

[travie]

I would recommend putting in at least 50% of the planned amount of LR. Even if it is split between fully cured and cycled and dry dead rock. Cycling as much dry rock as possible before adding livestock will give you a lot more stability.

[icefreeze57]

Will I get a mini cycle when added my "cured" DR? (Not sure if cured is the correct term, I'm referring to cleaning it and letting it sit for a while)

[Cliff]

No, dead rock is dead, its has nothing alive on it to die. No die off = no ammonia

Soaking dry/dead rock has nothing to do with cycling it. You are only trying to leach out the nitrates to help aviod adding nitrates to your set-up

Just take your time with your first step-up and do not rush things if you are not ready