Cycling a 29 Gallon Tank!

[Go Hooter Go]

Ok, I have done my research and talked to many people. Heres the problem. Everyone says something different.

So here is what the advice I have been told.

Advice #1

Add Carbi-Sea Live Sand and Live Rock to your tank and may have an "Instant Cycle".

-I've had some people tell me the live sand from bags are usally dead any how and using Live Rock to cycle a tank will kill off the rocks and make the whole purpose worthless.

Advice #2

Just add Live Rock and it will kill off the bacteria on the rock to create ammounia and then so fore.

Advice #3

Using Bio-Spira and adding Live Rock.

So can the great people of RC help me out? If you don't agree with any of these methods, just post your own simple Cycling. I know the whole cycling process for a FW Tank, but not SW...Advice #1 Advice #2 Advice #3

[theatrus]

Most important question: is this cured live rock, and how are you getting it?

[Go Hooter Go]

Cured Rocks from a Dealers Tanks...

[RickL]

LSB and LR is what I used to cycle my tank,
(along with fritzyme #9 )

The LR I bought was cured

IMO, this helped launch and speed up the process
the ammonia peeked in about a week and then stablized the next week
my 120 gal took over 2 weeks to cycle.
Best advise I have- take your time : "Be patient"
dont add any $$$ fish during this process (maybe except for damels) remember Damselfish are hard to catch in a large tank with rock if you dont want them later,

[Mykayel]

Option #4, just add sand (not the type with bacteria as it doesn't matter), then mix your salt water and add that. Then add some raw cocktail shrip and let your tank cycle. The cocktail shrimp will decompose and become an ammonia source. The bacteria colonies will grow and consume the ammonia and nitirites. Then you can add your live rock and not have to worry about a big amonia spike that will kill anythign benificial on your live rock.

However, if you are buying cured live rock from someone local, you should be able to add it immediately to a new tank and not have any cycle as there shouldn't be any (or very little) die off to cause the ammonia spike, that and the live rock will have the benifical bacteria that you need.

[Scuba Oz]

Just put the sand in the tank along with the rock and let it cycle it self

[Big Amish]

The trick is that all 3 methods will work, they just require differing levels of patience. So... how long do you want to wait?

I personaly used the cocktail shrimp method to cycle my tank, but I did not have any live rock at the time. Took a few weeks. Cured live rock should not have much die off and will already hold bacteria colonies to jumpstart your cycle. Don't know exactly how long this takes as I've not used this method. Uncured live rock will have significant die off and will require some time to stabilize. You can use Bio-Spira or Stability to get much more instant results. ( ie. Add fish on day one )

Hope this helped.

[Sheol]

Adding cured LR from the dealers tank cycled my tank in a little over 18 days. I cannot speak for the other methods, but they should all work from what I've read..

Matthew

[Go Hooter Go]

Thank you all for your opinions.