[Help] Cycling my aquarium.

[Mmbra]

Hi i had posted earlier about my aquascape, and now that i have that dialed in, i need some aditional help from you fine folks.

I have my rodi water all mixed with my salt at a specific gravity of 1.024 and now i believe its time to cycle. I have purchased a raw shrimp and plan on putting it in this evening to start my cycle and start building up amonia. I was thinking about adding a few pieces of live rock from my lfs to my base rock structure this sunday. Is this a good idea? or should i wait to add it after my cycle is complete? how long should i leave the shrimp? i was going to use a bottle of biospira, but for some reason the price on amazon jumped from 11 bucks to 20 over the coarse of 1 day so i think im just going to go regular cycling. Is this ok will i get the bacteria without adding anything or should i bite the bullet and buy the biospira?

Thanks so much for the help, you guys make jumping into this hobby so much easier.

 

[RareEarthCorals]

Simple approach is best when cycling your tank. Yes, you can add live rock, but right at the start of your cycle not during. Start with what you want to from the get go and plan on sitting on it for two months. If you add it after your cycle plan on a mini cycle adding two weeks to your cycle.

Plan on losing most of the life on your live rock since it will breakdown upon introduction and ammonia levels will also help kill off sensitive life. Luckly it will introduce good bacteria to get you on your way. Also dip your live rock in Coral RX or Seachem Reef Dip to reduce the likelyhood of introducing weirdos (hitchhikers) you dont want!!

Patience is key in this game. Things take a long time to get established but can go wrong overnight. Slow and steady wins the race. Best of luck to you.

 

[Virtualbasil]

I didn't do the raw shrimp on my 2 tanks I just put some frozen brine shrimp in it

 

[RareEarthCorals]

One mistake I made was cycling with damsels. That is what I had always done in the past but in larger tanks. It is best to cycle with no fish since dealing with them later is a pain if they are not in your overall plan. You may need to replenish the brine shrimp every few days to keep the bioload up. It would benefit to get your clean up crew to keep the detritus down as the brine shrimp deteriorates. Your on your way!

 

[Russ265]

i cycled my tank with windex and dr tims

 

[RareEarthCorals]

And your aquarium glass was never so clean....

 

[Harold Green]

I'm not going to suggest this but when I set up my 210 I used some live rock along with dry rock. Added a bit of live sand to the refusium. The fresh live rock seeded the tank without any die off and I didn't have to add any shrimp. Added the clean up crew within a week or so and never had a detectable cycle. Gradually added corals and after two months added the first fish. A lot depends on the live rock and how large the system is. Test frequently regardless of your cycle method. There are lots of ways to do this and the trick is to avoid the wrong ways. The old technique was to add something to give you a lot of ammonia leading to a lot of nitrate eventually and a large amount of bacteria to consume ammonia, nitrite, nitrate allowing you to stock the tank with a lot of bioload quickly. Personally I see nothing wrong with starting slowly and adding bioload a little at a time as the tank matures. It just takes more patience.