New Guy...need more cycle advice

[Rob74]

Hi,

Well the new (to me) 40 gal. FO w/LR tank has been running for a week now and is doing good. I tested my water the other day and the Ammonia is 1.0, Nitrate 5.0 and Nitrite 0.25 Fairly common from what I have read this early on. I am doing the cycle process with LR and a small piece of raw shrimp. I had a few more questions regarding the cycle.

1. Should I run my skimmer during cycle???? I don't get that much junk yet, just a little yellowish water in the cup overnight. I also have an Aquaclear hang on filter and a powerhead sponge filter. (yeah, I know old school...but I was given this setup for free and don't have a million bucks to spend)

2. How long should the lights be on during the cycle process? I have 3 50/50 bulbs right now and have them on approx. 3-4 hrs daily and have not had any algae bloom yet (very minor brown algae on sand) Will keeping them on only a few hours a day help me prevent a bad outbreak? Sorry, I guess that was a two part question!

3. Can dried live rock "come back to life"? The previous owners of the tank took their setup down and kept the rock (probably about a $70-80 chunk new) stored for about a year in a RubberMaid container and didn't bleach or scrub it. Can it have any value in the tank other than just taking up space? Live rock is so $$$$ I can't beleive it! I was thinking of using this fairly large chunk as a base rock to my "live" rock

Thanks for taking the time with the questions for us new guys! ----Rob

 

[Anonymous]

Run the skimmer.

Get rid of the sponge. The HOB filter can be used for circulation.

3-4 hours should be ok for the lighting for now.

The old dried up rock can come back to life. If you have a good piece of LR in the tank it will seed the old rock.
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hash

 

[ChrisRD]

Just to add to what Rob said...

...the ammonia is getting up there - you might want to consider pulling the piece of shrimp or doing a large water change to get it back down. Generally when curing live rock there is more than enough decomposing organics to kick off the nitrogen cycle and the shrimp is not really necessary.

 

[Simon1]

As for your skimmer, it requires a couple days to break in...at least mine does. After that time, it will produce a muck darker frothier goo.