cycling methods...which is best?

[TBD420]

I'm just setting up my 55gal with a 75 gal wet/dry sump protein skimmer combo with actinic lighting and moonlight leds, 60lbs LS, I have 11lbs of lr at my LFS that I need to pick up..I have ordered 30lbs of deadrock from hirocks.com and it should be here over the weekend(however I'm goin out of town Sat and will return tues) I"m also wanting to get some quality LR from online, and was wondering where to go for that as well as what I should do as far as cycling..I was going to use a raw shrimp, but saw that some people like to just use LR.. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...
also, will it be ok for my system if I were to wait till I get back next tues., to put the lr in?

 

[Len]

Just use the LR. It has plenty of nutrients to kick start the nitrogen cycle

I buy my live rock from my closest vendor. In my case, it's either Marine Depot or Jeff's Exotic Fish. If you're buying them by the box, they really are all the same. These vendors obviously don't go out and collect the rocks themselves

 

[TBD420]

hehe.. ok.. so basically anywhere.. I've heard that lr.com rocks have alot of life in em so I may do that..

 

[Anonymous]

11 lbs of liverock doesnt sound like enough to jumpstart the tank too quickly! Especially in a 55. One of the best ways to jumpstart the cycle is to throw in a raw, uncooked unpeeled shrimp! It's true!
It will spike the ammonia pretty quick.
Put the LR in! No sense in waiting any longer than you have to...the tank will cycle for a while anyway-anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month. To quicken the pace, use the shrimp.

Just remember, no matter what you do, do NOT adda ntyhing for a while until your ammonia, and nitrates are at 0, and your trates are lower than 20.

 

[Anonymous]

I've found the best way to be uncured live rock with lots of water changes to keep ammonia below 0.5ppm.

Cured live rock is fine but feed the tank fish food just like you had a small fish in there. That will allow the bacteria and critter populations to stabilize so there's no ammonia spike when you add your first fish.

Adding a raw Shrimp boosts the Ammonia too high too fast IMO and unneccessarily kills off some of the critters in your live rock.

The bottom line is NOT to be in a hurry. The more stable your system the better your chances of success. The longer you wait before adding livestock the more stable your system will be.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

I noticed you mentioned using a wet/dry with a skimmer combo. If the wet/dry came with bioballs, toss them and put some LR rubble in there instead. Bioballs tend to trap detritus that will, over time, cause an increase in your nitrate level.

BTW...I totally agree with Guy's comments. Especially this one:

The bottom line is NOT to be in a hurry. The more stable your system the better your chances of success. The longer you wait before adding livestock the more stable your system will be.

 

[ChrisRD]

IMO, the notion of forcing a "cycle" by adding shrimp or other organic matter to the system is left over from the days when we started tanks with inert biological filters. IME, if you start a tank with live rock and/or live sand, all the necessary bacteria (and decomposing organic material to feed them) are present already.

 

[Anonymous]

Thats whats good about the boards...you get a lot of input...take the advice of the more experienced keepers and skip the shrimp then. I never tried it myself, but only passed along some success stories I have read and that a moderator on another board has in a sticky for newbies. I never heard anything bad about that method until now

 

[Anonymous]

The Shrimp method does work, there's not doubt on that. It has been used a lot. I just like keeping maximum diversity in my system and I believe a high ammonia spike kills off some of the population.

I personally use uncured live rock mostly for the critters but it takes a lot of water changes and amquel to keep the critters alive.

With cured live rock I have found that feeding the tank completely eliminated the ammonia spike often associated with adding a fish. I believe this means that the new occupant will be less stressed.

 

[TBD420]

kool.. thanks for all the input.. I went to Disneyworld this weekend and didn't have time to get good LR.. so I put what I had in(11lbs).. plopped in a shrimp the plan is to put some LR from liverocks.com in after a couple of weeks.. ( I hear that LR.com has alot of life on their rocks)My ammonia is at.50 and the shrimp has a gelatinous goo all over it..