needing some advice

[SH4N]

i am very confused on what i should be doing so someone please give me a hand and not critisize me!

i currently have a 45 gal reef tank thats up and running for a year. i have just purchased a 2nd hand 290 gal tank with a sump, i was told that i can add fish in 2 weeks after it runs for a bit. the thing is i dont totally understand the cycles. at the moment in my 290gal all i have it sand and live rock in the sump. i want to add about 40kg of live rock this weekend to the main tank, will this muck up any cycles? ive tested my water nitrate/nitrite/ammonia is currently at 0, (tanks been running for 5 days)
i dont have any filter media or anything in my sump at all, its my first sump so im a little confused, the chambers are so large i dont know what to put in there (3 dividers in the tank) what can i put in these?


i have read cycles on articles online and still dont totally understand it. i need one of those "cycling for dummys" books hehe

[Gti_Leo]

have you added any sort of ammonia source to see if the rock has it nitrifying bacteria.

adding live rock might start a mini cycle if your tank is already cycled it will all depend on the conditions the rock was in before and how long the rock was out of the water for.

rushing this hobby isn't really the best thing to do so i would say add your rock (atleast 1lb per gallon) and let it sit for a few weeks, keep an eye on the perameters add a bit of flacked food to see if it gets broken down into nitrates and if everything is good then slowly start to add fish

[SH4N]

no i have not added any sort of ammonia source. all i have added is sand in main tank, 8kg of live rock in sump and it had a deep sand bed in the sump.

im really confused is there 2 different types of cycles? a live rock cycle and a new tank cycle?

[Gti_Leo]

no there is a curing process with live rock, which is time to let the bacteria die off time to be broken down.

a full cycle is more for dry rock when you are trying to start the bacteria colony so we add a frozen shrimp with will start to decompose and start an ammonia spike. this will eventually start a growth is bacteria that will break down the ammonia into nitrites, then another group of bacteria will be formed to break down the nitrites into a less harmful nitrate

[SH4N]

okay that makes sence!
so this is what ive done so far...

day 1: set up tank with ro salt water, added sand and 2 peices of live rock to sump.

its on day 5 now, should i buy 1-2 shrimps from the deli and add to my tank?

[Gti_Leo]

add as much rock as you want to add and then add the shrimp

[SH4N]

i just rang my lfs before and he told me the opposite =/

[Gti_Leo]

curing is lettign all the dead stuff decompose and get removed from the rock, where as a cycle is going through the different stages of a bacteria colony bloom and system start up. the curing process is essencially part of a cycle but you can also add cured live rock to an already started system

[SH4N]

ok thank you for your help

[Gti_Leo]

no problem, happy reefing we'd all liek to see pics once that monster is up and running

[SH4N]

sure ill upload pics when its done just to be clear

on sunday 1 week since its been running i can add all my live rock

then a few days later i add some frozen shrimp

test for ammonia etc?

[TLTGF]

Raw shrimp work best, the ammonia may take a day or so to show up on the test. Also some people dose with pure ammonia to ensure that the ammo spike reaches at least 2ppm, that way they have a more controlled test to verify.