Cycling Live Rock

[JollyGreen]

Hey, I'm new to all this, what should I do to cycle the Live Rock I bought?

I have a 26g with ~30lbs of Live Rock. Half the rock was put in the tank 1/24/2006, the other half on 1/28/2006. The Power Filter has been on the whole time.

I bought an Emperor 280 Power Filter, should I have that on while cycling?

What about the heater (Ebo Jager 150W) and power head (Maxi-Jet 600)?

Let me know
Jeremy

[MOX]

i am new as well but from what i understand youll want your heater on keep it at approx 80 some say higher some say lower

also want to have your power head on u might consider geting another flow is important

as for your filter i am unfamilar to it so i cant realy say

also what for lighting do u have on it
lighting is also very important

[fishesRdelicious]

just let it sit and run. test for amonia and nitrate spikes, when they are at zero your tank cycled
depending on the rock it might take a week or a month to cycle

[JollyGreen]

Here are my test results.

pH Ammonia Nitrate Nitrite Temp Salinity
1/24/2006 Added 15lbs LR
1/28/2006 Added 15lbs LR
1/29/2006 8.1 0 10 0 80 1.025
1/31/2006 8.1 0 10 0 80 1.025
2/2/2006 8.2 0 10 0 80 1.025

I didn't start testing the water right away, but I feel like I never saw an ammonia spike.

Does this seem standard?

I'm not sure if the pH changed, the kit I have has color charts and it's difficult to tell which pH color matches the test tube pH water the best.

Let me know

[fishesRdelicious]

it hasnt been very long, just wait and your nitrate is already going up
it may take a while for everything to die off, then your ammonia will go up

[zooqi]

MOX and FRD got everything covered. What I would do with the light is I won't keep it on long because it will grow algae. I would run it with not much light and after everything die off (mean sponges and other algae on the rock) I would do a water change to get the disolve nutrition out and then turn the lights on the way it should. Here is an example

I had rocks I put in Loyalsock High School 3 Months ago
I put sand in there too and the tank was running with no light

Water is kinda yellow now and I know if I turn lights on algae will grow on the rocks. I'm waiting to get a chance to do a water change (Majore) and then turn the lights on. I will still have algae and had that in Montoursville High School in the past but it was a matter of adding three tangs and algae was gone overnight. I did not add tanks right away and added them after algae grew. I did a water change the day after adding tangs.