Aquarium start-up - a sensible change

The books and LFS don't tell what I'm going to say here.

The idea of cycling a tank is not sensible any more. There is no longer any need to see nitrogen compounds rise to dangerous levels and then fall. There is no longer any need to buy cheap pugnacious damsels to cycle a tank and then experience the hassle of trying to remove them later.
The idea that LR must first pullute the tank in order to filter it, is an antiquated idea.

Let's look at a simple but better idea. Imagine or visualize in your mind that reef life can start out small and grow to fill the aquarium. If we make this a principle of tank set up, there will be no need to see organism dieoff nor any need to wait months for the tank to be in full operation.

Week 1)
Start any size tank with clean sand and a good portion of base rock (up to 75%) and as much LS as possible. 10-20% LS is an ideal amount, placed in a depression or two in the new substrate. Also add about 10% of the LR that will eventually fill the aquarium and 10-50% water that was discarded during an existing tanks water change. Also add Caularpa macroalgae early in the first week. During the first week, add soft coral frags, several Green Chromis Damsels and begin to feed all the organisms. Run the lights about 10-12 hours daily.

Week 2)
At the second week, double the amount of LR in the tank so there is now 20% of the desired final amount. Try to get LR from another local tank or LR that was transported in water. (Always try to transport LR continually submerged, never removing it from a container of saltwater). Add some of the cleanup crew (more snails and a few small hermits), more coral including larger pieces if desired, and an algae eating fish. More than double the level of feeding. If the water is turning green, it causes no harm but is good clam food. Add a decorative clam of less than 4 inches in length.

Week 3)
Again double the amount of LR in the tank so that now there is as much as 40% of the final LR. Add lots more coral and 1-2 more fish (depending on fish and tank size) and some other inverts(not stars or urchins), but hold off on strictly carnivorous fish. Double or even triple the feeding. Look for worm trails in the sand or bristleworms at the base of rocks. These worms are necessary and beneficial. Add more of the cleanup crew, snails mostly.

Week 4)
Again double the amount of LR so that now the tank has 80% of the final amount of LR. Add more coral, inverts and a few non-carnivorous fish. Increase feeding. Add a different type of macroalgae.

Week 5)
Add the finish amount of LR and coral. A carnivourous fish may now be added and feeding increased accordingly. Add more Hermit Crabs and a few more snails if necessary.

Based on years of observation and experience, I believe this is a sensible way to set up a reef aquarium. There are details that can be added, but the process of starting small and allowing a tank to grow, makes biological sense and works in actual practice. The process should not be shortened, but may be lengthened if needed.

Sounds like it may work, but here are some changes that I would make:

a. Why wait to add your live rock? Every time you add live rock, you are adding more ammonia if its not cycled. I perfer to get fresh live rock since it has the most live and see what lives. With that in mind, I would add all the live rock from the beginning.

b. I would wait until week two to add any chromis or corals. They may live in first week, but why risk it.

I agree pretty much with the other steps.

This is what I did for my new 25 gallon with 10 gallon sump/refugia:

setup - Drilled tank and built overflow and sump. Rinsed sand through strainer in the shower to remove dust. Placed and leveled tank. Plumbed system.

week 1 - Filled with fresh water and ran to check for leaks. drained about 25% of the water. Put sand in. Adjusted water level appropriate level and added salt. Ran over night and then tested salinity. Added salt to appropriate level - 1.025. Ran over night again and tested in morning. Added all live rock. Added substrate from existing 5 gallon hex to refugia and added small pieces of live rock and caulerpa to the refugia. Added a few small corals from 5 gallon to the main tank. Turned on temp lights (until I can get a MH). Turned on skimmer and adjusted.

week 2 - Stared until continual yelling started from significant other.

week 3 - Added 4 green chromis. Doing great so far.

I'll keep you all posted on the progress.

I really need to get some pics posted. Just for the record, I think Mark's way will work, but not everybody does things the same.

Edited by Marcus

I like domino damsels. They even play in anemones. But they get big and mean.

Adam,  What's schetchy about a tank cycling?  This could be an interesting disscussion (not an argument).  I think tanks do indeed cycle.

When I start-up a tank I rely on ammonia and nitrite test kits.  I prefer to add all the live rock at once.  Periodically test for ammonia.  When the ammonia test shows zero, I test for nitrite.  When nitrite tests at zero I slowly add fish and coral.  It's worked many times for me and it takes anywhere from 2 - 8 weeks depending on factors I don't fully understand.

Won't human ritalin work?

Also, I know the chemistry behind cycling, but I just don't see it happen all the time.  Here you go.  You start with a 1,000 gallon tank.  You put three pounds of live rock in it, and you start with 100% water from another tank.  I don't ever see the nitrate test recordable, nor nitrite.  The whole cycling theory is based on two main principles (in my mind) 1- stuff must be added that dies 1- the bacteria must be absent and need that dead stuff to grow.  But what if you already had tons of live sand and huge amounts of water and frequent water changes?  I guess I don't think that initial spike is inevitable. 

I also think of a cycle as getting back to somewhere from before.  What part of "cycling" takes place in our tanks.  Wouldn't it be better to say they "mature"?  I would be fine with people saying "it takes 8 weeks for your tank to mature to the point where you could add fish" or something along those lines.

Adam

Yeah I know what you are saying.  I understand the arguement, I'm just not convinced.  What kills the sharks?  I mean they incorporate a LOT of nitrogen and organic compounds into their blood.  And where would the toxins come from.  I think you could add the sharks and they would live for several weeks before they starved to death.  They would live in a 5 gal bucket with a powerhead for days even.

I know I'm probably wrong on this one but so far 20 years in the hobby and I haven't seen any good evidence.

Adam

Adam, the things you've mentioned are ways to speed up the cycle.  1000 gallons of someone else's tank water with 3 lbs of live rock will still cycle, but we can't see it with test kits.  And it's really a moot point as the spike caused by that small amount of rock is not high enough to cause any harm.  Tanks do indeed cycle.  Stuff doesn't neccesarily have to die to add nitrogen to the water.  Ammonia is a natural byproduct of living.  In a sense, your tank is always cycling nitrogen.  What we call "cycling" is actually the process of kicking off that cycle.  Hmm, I can't possibly be telling you anything you don't already know.  We need common ground...

Is your tact on this thread from a population density (bacterial and others)perspective?  That's really what happens when you add sand or water from an existing tank.  You jump start the population of bacteria.  This lessens the cycle time and magnitude of the spike.  Plus it has the added benefit of introducing other organisms that help to mature the tank.  IMO, there is a difference between a cycled tank and a mature tank.  Kicking of the nitrogen cycle takes weeks to months, while maturity takes months to years.  The nitrogen cycle is only the first "cycle" or balance that takes place.  After the nitrosoma/nitrobacter populations are more or less stable, the "cycle" moves to other higher lifeforms such as cyanobacteria, turf algaes, copopods/cepopods, and other unknown organisms.  Ever wonder why fish die in a fairly new tank even when there is no testable ammonia or nitrite?  I think it's due to the cycling of other "toxins" that we can't test for and probably don't even know what to test for.

No, only like 2 days. There wasn't any livestock in the tank. It was just after I took the sharks out.

Excellent, Stylaster.

Banana Tropics, That's the beauty of Utah Aragonite or any other aragonite rock or substrate. Once the dirt is cleaned from it, it's ready to go immediately!

Marcus wrote: a. Why wait to add your live rock? Every time you add live rock, you are adding more ammonia if its not cycled. I perfer to get fresh live rock since it has the most live and see what lives. With that in mind, I would add all the live rock from the beginning. b. I would wait until week two to add any chromis or corals. They may live in first week, but why risk it. I agree pretty much with the other steps. ...I think Mark's way will work, but not everybody does things the same.

Thanks Marcus and so true. The way you have done your tank certainly works for you and millions of hobbyists. But this post is to show new hobbyists that there is another way.

The reason I posted this procedure is because I am still hearing from too many people that the LFS said they must wait about 5 to 8 weeks for the tank to cycle, before adding significant coral or fish. Or "all the books I've read tell me to add some damsels to cycle my tank." These statements are not untrue, but...

With the widespread availability of LS and the benefit of having so many other hobbyists in this area connected through this board, I see the need and opportunity to discuss sensible ways of setting up a reef.

My guess is that half of all new hobbyists don't have the money to add all the LR at once. When LR is added in steps, there is no such thing as the well-known "cycling". When LR is added in steps, there is no reason to live with an "acceptable die-off".

Neither is there reason to worry about high nitrogen levels, because the water never becomes polluted. So it's not necessary to wait for the water to be cleaned up before adding a fish or coral. This gives the new hobbyist an operating and beautiful, albeit sparse, tank in the first week. at significantly less cost.

Also, I want new hobbyists to know that, contrary to what they hear in some of the LFS and read in some of the books, coral is hardier than fish and can be... no, make that "should be" added before fish! In my experience, coral (and algae) actually makes a tank more habitable for fish!

The five week procedure does not have to be done that quickly. If one is not comfortable with adding fish in the first week, no problem. I just want it to be known that it can be done quicker and at lower cost, if sufficient care and proper set-up is done at the start.

More education is also needed regarding fish compatability, the benefits of algae, the microscopic algae eaters, detritivores, and the value of waiting for tank maturation before adding carnivorous fish like Wrasses, Mandarins, and etc.

Further, it seems reasonable to me that the advantage of adding LR in steps versus adding it all at once is that water quality rarely drops below acceptable healthy levels. The life on the small amount of LR is surrounded by water of acceptable quality. The LS and LR can then provide a healthy, growing bacterial population that is hungry for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates , whereas an immediate large load of LR not only overtaxes the relatively small initial bacterial population but may initially retard it's growth. The poor water quality might be viewed as temporarily maintaining a progressive pollution of the tank as continued stress and mortality produce a domino effect, progressively killing organisms on the LR!

Good discussion. Keep it coming.

Edited by Mark Peterson

Marcus said "...the little excess nutrient might go unoticed."
Jon said "What we call 'cycling' is actually the process of kicking off that cycle."

Maybe looking at the actual process of life would be beneficial here. Here is how I understand it.
When a piece of rock that has been exposed to air is added to a tank, no matter how much it is twisted and shook to remove all air bubbles, some cavities in the rock still experience conditions that cause organisms to die. The small organisms that remain alive or are already in the tank start to eat the dead stuff and resulting dissolved nutrients.

In a new tank, the LS and "old" water "innoculation" brings in these organisms. They are such animals as bacteria, bristleworms, grammeras, protozoa, etc. and they live on the rock, in the water and in the sand. The resulting excretions are then eaten by the same and other organisms. As long as the amount of dead stuff entering the tank is not too much more than the existing orgaisms can consume, excessive nutrient levels are never reached.

It's a beautiful act of Creation that these organisms can grow and reproduce extremely fast. That's why within a month or three, the immediate large load of LR that was introduced into the tank does recover and nutrient levels return to normal. But at what cost to life?

My point is that if we add LR gradually in steps the "cycling" organisms grow and reproduce fast enough to keep up with the introduction of dead matter that LR inevitably introduces. Lethal or even stress levels of nutrients are not reached so the tank can be fully operational almost immediately for a small number of inverts, coral and fish.

An amazing thing to me is that since bacterial growth is exponential we can add increasingly larger amounts of LR and coral.
5-10-20-40-80
Do you see the five week steps in those numbers! If you want 80 lbs of LR at five weeks, simply start with five lbs. and double the amount in the tank each week!
This way the bacteria and many other organisms can keep up with the certain introduction of dead matter on the LR! In actual practice though, I personally would stretch it out further, just to be on the safe side.

To be on the safe side, fish and inverts should not be added as quickly since, as Jon said, there are other processes going on that we as yet do not understand.

Of course, in an ideal world the LR would never touch air and we would only experience die-off as a result of organisms not getting enough proper food, etc. rather than die-off by suffocation! If I understand it correctly, Adams question also makes us think of an ideal world which we might strive for, "But what if you already had tons of live sand and huge amounts of [old] water..?

Isn't it interesting that the best LR now comes shipped in saltwater, rather than wrapped in damp newspaper!!!!!! Most people are probably willing to pay for the water knowing that they are getting more life on their LR because of it.

Another thing, anyone who has seen the difference between moving damp newspaper wrapped LR versus moving LR from one tank to another by never letting it get exposed to air, keeping it constantly submerged in a bucket of water, probably experienced what I am saying here.

Edited by Mark Peterson