Gentle cycling?

[lmetcalf]

this might be a dumb question, but is there such a thing as gently cycling a new tank?
The live rock i bought has a bunch of corals and anemone on it, and I'd hate for them to die. Is there a way i can keep the ammonia and nitrites etc, low(ish) so they'll live through it?
I'm doin partial water change every few days as it is. This is day 4, here's my params:

Temp: 79 F
Ammonia: 1.0ppm
Nitrate: 5.0ppm
Nitrite: 0.25ppm
pH: 8.1

 

[mdaniel2882]

Sort of. but it will be SLOW. It will only work if the LR is already cured. most hitchhikers are pretty resilient. with uncured live rock they have already been through a lot. out of the ocean, onto a boat, back into the water into a tank or into a warehouse, shipped to you....Just let it go and see what happens. you will be pleased.

 

[lmetcalf]

Some of the rock is cured, mostly not. We'll see what happens :S

 

[melosu58]

Most of the time if there is something live and you want to keep it alive during the cycle then you need to do PWC`s to keep the ammonia down. This will prolong your cycle but it will keep the livestock alive.

 

[thincat]

The only "gentle cycle" is a slow cycle. That is limiting the amount of ammonia by doing PWC's and sucking off detritus on the uncured LR.

 

[lmetcalf]

yea, sounds good. That's about what i've been doing so far, we'll see how it goes.