Added some rock!!

[ferretmath]

Its not live, but I have some live fragments around it and hopefully the color will spead.........hopefully, that is......

15 minutes later......

You can see my damsels, Lavern and Shirley

 

[TheRealFF]

I guess ur not gonna return the damsels?

Rock work looks good. Y didn't u buy LR? The base rock will take awhile to turn into LR which means... ur cycle is gonna take longer

Good luck anyway

 

[ferretmath]

My cycle is done.....all my levels are normal. I didnt buy LR because its expensive and this rock was FREE. Gotta love free.......

 

[DragonForce]

I would like to know where you got the rocks. Also the reason your levels are "normal" is becuase those 2 damsels arent going to poop very much and the cycle is going to take a long time. Who knows what kinds of things those rocks could leech into the system.

 

[ferretmath]

Well, DragonForce......it seems to me that you are assuming some things and jumping to conclusions. Instead of being all negative by saying

Who knows what kinds of things those rocks could leech into the system.

you could of said, "Hey free sounds great to me, too. Tell me how you pulled that one off, cause I know a lot of people would like some free rock."

Then I would have said, "All ya have to do is have a friend that had some leftover base rock that he wants to give you."

Your post came off really cold, or maybe it's just me.....

 

[ryguy]

Why do I feel like I need to defend myself??

Don't feel you have to defend yourself. If your readings are zero and you've seen significant ammonia and nitrite spikes, then your cycle is done. Having said that, your nitrifying and denitrifying bacterial population probably isn't great. I think what DragonForce was trying to say is that the ammonia produced by the damsels, (the only source of ammonia in your system) won't have given rise to a large colony of bacteria and therefore, upon future additions, you may cause a new cycle to take place.

To avoid this, stock slowly to give the bacteria time to catch up to the increase in bioload. Adding too quickly, will cause a toxic environment.

 

[ferretmath]

Sorry, edited my post.

I get what you're saying ryguy. Yes, my cycle is complete. I just dont like it when people assume things when they really don't know what has taken place. I'm over it now.

The only thing that I am going to add is a cleaner shrimp - and I'm gonna wait awhile before doing that. I'm not the type of person to overload a tank.

 

[tecwzrd]

The base rock will take awhile to turn into LR which means... ur cycle is gonna take longer

That’s partly true. It is going to take about 6-12+ months depending on lighting, “life” of the current lr, & water quality for the base rock to look like the lr already in the tank.

As far as biological function base rock is usually just as porous as lr and therefore will serve the same biological filtration as lr within a couple of weeks but not look as pretty.

lr is essentially base rock with bacteria and algae already present. I have 60 lbs of base rock and 30 lbs of lr and after 9 months it’s all starting to look like the lr that cost me $7 lbs.

 

[TheRealFF]

I have 60 lbs of base rock and 30 lbs of lr and after 9 months it’s all starting to look like the lr that cost me $7 lbs.

Whoa, i get LR from LFS for only $4/lb. They are cured as the lfs keeps the LR in a running tank for awhile before selling them. Do u get those kind of first grade LR or something? That's pretty expensive.

 

[hackteck]

at my lfs they sell it 7.50 a lb

 

[ryguy]

Whoa, i get LR from LFS for only $4/lb.

RealFF, there are MANY types of LR from various parts. Lots of factors determine the cost of a partcular rock. Colorful coraline growth, potential hitchhikers, density, rarity etc... There are probably several differences between your $4 LR and his $7 LR other than strictly cost.

 

[TheRealFF]

Are you saying my LR sucks?! You want a piece of me?




JK . Ur probly right. My LR only has a few patches of coralline. Not many inverts live on them and the rocks are pretty much very heavy. I probly should start buying better LR hehe

 

[ryguy]