Necessary to cycle tank?

[Brennan32]

So recently i got a 155 gallon bow front tank that was set up with saltwater fish. So i got all the equipment and some of the guys water and substrate(which i cleaned) also it has 200 pounds of established live rock so i'm wondering if it needs to cycle or if the cycle is not needed


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[Reefing Madness]

If the rock is cured, if he's had it in his tank all this time, and it did not dry out when you moved everything, no your tank will not cycle. Its already got the needed bacteria to support life.

[Brennan32]

Originally Posted by Reefing Madness

If the rock is cured, if he's had it in his tank all this time, and it did not dry out when you moved everything, no your tank will not cycle. Its already got the needed bacteria to support life.

Ok he said he had the tank up for 13 years and the live rock was packed into styrofoam coolers with wet paper inside to keep them from drying out


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[TheTodd]

If you really want to be sure, you can purchase ammonia and dose to 3ppm. If it goes to zero within 24hrs, you are cycled. I've heard that Ace Hardware usually sells it. So does Dr. Tim's.


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[melosu58]

It would really depend on how long it has been in the cooler. Even with wet newspaper on top it will lose some of the nitrifying bacteria and esp. the longer it sits. You might need to test as Todd says.

[Brennan32]

Originally Posted by melosu58

It would really depend on how long it has been in the cooler. Even with wet newspaper on top it will lose some of the nitrifying bacteria and esp. the longer it sits. You might need to test as Todd says.

Ok so as long as my ammonia is good then i can put my clown fish into the tank?


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[TheTodd]

If your ammonia goes down quickly after dosing, it shows you have a good bacteria colony going. Ammonia is very bad for fish, so you need that bacteria to chance it to Nitrite (not good, but not nearly as deadly as ammonia) and Nitrate (not great for fish in high levels, but not deadly at low levels).


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[Brennan32]

Originally Posted by TheTodd

If your ammonia goes down quickly after dosing, it shows you have a good bacteria colony going. Ammonia is very bad for fish, so you need that bacteria to chance it to Nitrite (not good, but not nearly as deadly as ammonia) and Nitrate (not great for fish in high levels, but not deadly at low levels).

Ok so i just did some tests and my nitrate is at 0 and my nitrite is at zero and my ammonia is at about 0.5

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[Reefing Madness]

There won't be any need to dose ammonia, as there will be some die off from the live rock, theres no way it was totally kept from drying out in spots. Those spots will have die off, and will create ammonia, you will have some of a cycle, all depends on how severe the dead spots are.

[54seaweed]

Depending on how long the rock has been in the coolers with damp paper I would bet on die off and cause having at least a mini cycle,
I would suggest new sand