cycling rock question

[isnyc300]

i bought a large 12 pound pukani rock from brs and i have had it in a tub for about 3 weeks.there are 2 powerheads and a heater in the tub. i have done at least 3 water changes and it still has the same cycling rock smell to it. my question is if the water needs to breath, i have had it covered the whole time with a lid. i have cycled dry rock before with no lid and it has never taken this long.

 

[al0ha]

hath u seeded thy rock with live ones? i think it expedites the process. not too sure

 

[isnyc300]

yea i forgot to mention i put some rubble from my fuge in the tub

 

[al0ha]

some rock are more porous than others and may take longer to cycle. if u did everything right, i'd check the parameters n see if ur done/almost near done. i know my marco rocks took a long time to cycle.

 

[skene]

have you fed that "bucket" with food... sure you could have started a cycle, but when there is no food present.... the bacteria will die.

 

[SPotter]

pukani from brs are filled with lots of dried up organic matter. I bet if you test your po4 its pretty high. I spent nearly two months curing 150 lbs of pukani and used phosfree to help with the removal of po4.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[thirty5]

have you fed that "bucket" with food... sure you could have started a cycle, but when there is no food present.... the bacteria will die.

You beat me to that question...

Gots to feed the bacteria!

 

[andylee]

To answer your question, it does need air for cycling. Not necessarily a fan or anything, but a sealed container will get you a nasty anaerobic smell and improper cycling.

 

[isnyc300]

thanks guys i will open the lid and find a way to feed the bacteria.

 

[ixTCxi]

What do you feed bacteria?

 

[STHILL]

Yeah i would open lid for sure