Is cycling neccesary?

[spoonie]

Do I have to wait for any reason to get a fish or 2. When I am going to just have a fish only tank? Everything is setup. Sump, powerheads, ugj system, heater, proper temp and salinity, and lighting. Am I forgetting anything. I know I don't have skimmer yet but will have one in less then 3 weeks.

 

[Anonymous]

Without an adequate population of nitrifying bacteria the waste the fish produce will remain in the water as Ammonia. This is very stressful for fish. Stressful enough to kill them.

What's a UGJ sustem?

 

[spoonie]

Under gravel Jets. It keeps the fish waste off the bottom. It's nothing more then a few pvc pipes ran under the sand or gravel powered by a power head or pump. Each end of the system sticks out of the sand a little bit and blows a stream of water over the sand bed causing it to be pushed towards the surface. My is running off a mag 5 and does very well. Here is an image before putting in the sand.

Some pics with sand in. It is also awesome when filling the tank with water because it doesn't stir the sand a whole bunch. the first time I filled the tank with water the it was clear after only 45 minutes.

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent. That looks great.

I have two suggestions:

1 - Find a source of marine bacteria like a piece of live rock or some live sand.

2 - Feed the tank the same amount of fish food that you would feed your first fish.

Once the ammonia level drops to zero again your tank has enough bacteria to support your first fish. I'd still wait a week or so for the tank to stabilize a bit.

 

[Anonymous]

Do I have to wait for any reason to get a fish or 2. When I am going to just have a fish only tank? Everything is setup. Sump, powerheads, ugj system, heater, proper temp and salinity, and lighting. Am I forgetting anything. I know I don't have skimmer yet but will have one in less then 3 weeks.

with plant life established right from the start, the usual ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes are much reduced, and even avoided altogether. Once plant life is thriving and in control, not only are algae blooms avoided but the first fish added results in a nitrate spike instead of the ammonia, nitrIte, then nitrate spikes. But in order for the system to behave in that mature manner the plant life (even the algae on the live rock) must be in control.

But I would wait at least three weeks to allow fish borne parasites (like ich) to die off from lack of a host fish.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a suggestion, too. Run that third pic through Photoshop to remove the reflection

Or, hey, just leave it there for my amusement :twisted:

 

[Anonymous]

Spoonie - welcome to RDO and check out the Sump sometime.
Andy

 

[Anonymous]

8O

 

[Anonymous]

Hey, look at the bright side....his shorts are on!

Sorry Spoonie, couldn't resist!

:twisted:

 

[Anonymous]

Gwen how many times have you checked out this post? :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

I can't seem to stay away! Dunno what it is, perhaps it's the shimmering white sand that's catching my eye

 

[Anonymous]

Do I have to wait for any reason to get a fish or 2. When I am going to just have a fish only tank? Everything is setup. Sump, powerheads, ugj system, heater, proper temp and salinity, and lighting. Am I forgetting anything. I know I don't have skimmer yet but will have one in less then 3 weeks.

with plant life established right from the start, the usual ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes are much reduced, and even avoided altogether. Once plant life is thriving and in control, not only are algae blooms avoided but the first fish added results in a nitrate spike instead of the ammonia, nitrIte, then nitrate spikes. But in order for the system to behave in that mature manner the plant life (even the algae on the live rock) must be in control.

But I would wait at least three weeks to allow fish borne parasites (like ich) to die off from lack of a host fish.

Spooner, there are legions of people who disagree with bob's theories that Macro cures every ill, and for many sound reasons. Here is a typical thread outlining just how wrong he is:

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... hlight=ich

I'll paraphrase 20 pages for you in a paragraph, however. bob relies heavily on misquoted experts, skewed "facts" and outright ignoring his own tank's failures (posted on the many boards he has been banned from) and his outlined method is scientifically unsound. He, of course, will deny this.

As a prime example of bad advice, exclusive of his Macro fixation, he posted above that 3 weeks time is enough for parasites to die off from the lack of a host.


Exerpt from Reefkeeping.com article by Steven Pro:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.htm

. . .

The lifecycle of the parasite is interesting and important to understand when evaluating a treatment. The stage where the parasite is attached to a fish is called a trophont. The trophont will spend three to seven days (depending on temperature) feeding on the fish. After that, the trophont leaves the fish and becomes what is called a protomont. This protomont travels to the substrate and begins to crawl around for usually two to eight hours, but it could go for as long as eighteen hours after it leaves it's fish host. Once the protomont attaches to a surface, it begins to encyst and is now called a tomont. Division inside the cyst into hundreds of daughter parasites, called tomites, begins shortly thereafter. This noninfectious stage can last anywhere from three to twenty-eight days. During this extended period, the parasite cyst is lying in wait for a host. After this period, the tomites hatch and begin swimming around, looking for a fish host. At this point, they are called theronts, and they must find a host within twenty-four hours or die. They prefer to seek out the skin and gill tissue, then transform into trophonts, and begin the process all over again (Colorni & Burgess, 1997).

Many hobbyists are fooled into believing they have cured their fish of the parasites, only to find Ich present again on fish a few weeks later;
. . .

That's just for Ich, there are a few more species that can infest our fish like "fish lice" which can live 6 months without a host.

To get back to your original question, yes your tank needs to cycle, Guy's advice to seed it is excellent. The "good bacteria" need time to multipy and if you overload your tank too quicky bad things will happen, just do a search on the BB here and you will see how many people have problems when the tank hasn't cycled enough to support itself.

Another great article from reefkeeping.com (on filtration really) but has a good overview of the cycling process...

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/dw/index.htm

 

[EmilyB]

 

[Anonymous]

I was gone for a few days and still see Bob is up to his same antics :roll: ... Now back to reality

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

You could skip cylcing first if you're using ozone. Ozone will convert ammonia to nitrate very effectively. This is the sort of thing you might do in an emergency situation.

 

[spoonie]

Wow I feel really stupid. Sorry for the porn show. Pic will be removed.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow I feel really stupid. Sorry for the porn show. Pic will be removed.

No problem, really...did you get an answer to your question?