LR & cycling

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montero

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 8, 2004
Messages
41
Location
Reading, PA
Do I need to do water changes during cycling with LR in the aquarium?
I don't want to kill all the life that came w/ the LR :!:
 
You wont kill the life.. It will feed off the NO2 NO3 from the cycle proccess. Changing water will only prolong your cycle duration.
 
if you're refering to macro life (crabs, snails starfish etc) then you should just watch your ammonia and nitrites. If those become really high they can kill off the macro life. Lots of folks do suggest small partial water changes when cycling with uncured LR as, depending on the LR and the amount of it, it can create very high amonia and nitrite levels.
 
fishfreek said:
I would perform water changes at an ammonia level of .5 or higher.

Even though hes cycling his tank?

(btw..avitar is a cutie!!!)
 
I've let my ammonia levels go up to 2.0-3.0 when I do a fishless cycle in my FW tanks. That's what I read and it worked for me.
 
Even though hes cycling his tank?

YES. Allowing Ammonia and Nitrite to go sky high all in the name of a shorter cycle at the expense of any hitchikers on the rock is not a valid method IMO. While the cycle may be longer the amount of life that will survive the cycling process with be greater.
 
I probably lost alot of hitchhikers in my years then.. hehe.. but I have always cured LR in a seprate container rather than use my display tank..

I still manage to gain some hitch hikers though..

BTW to the poster. If that LR was shipped to you and wrapped in news paper rather than transported in water.. Most of what was alive is dead already..
 
It came from liverocks.com. Most of the hitchikers are alive.
How do I know what the good hitchikers are and what the bad hitchikers are?

it was completely sealed with some water and damp blue rags.
 
The rock is only shipped in damp rags to cut down on shipping weight. its bad enough the cost to ship 50+ lbs of rock but then add another 30lbs of water to it and iit would be outragious. Having it in water unless you found a way to keep the water up to temp 80F wont do much better than the damp rag method.
 
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