Marine Aquarium Cycle

Pardon me if it's a stupid question, but at what point does a system become a new system that requires cycling? Ok if I may elaborate... we bought a tank that has been actively running for over a year. Drained it into containers and transported it home where we put the substrate, rocks and water back in. (No fish) The corals all survived. The tank ran for a week and then we decided to replace the substrate from black to course crushed coral. (We added seachem stability) So...was I supposed to cycle the tank? We have 10 little corals in there that all seem to be thriving, but now I'm concerned that I had it wrong. We have not added fish yet but are hoping to start adding the cuc this weekend after testing the parameter.
 
What you did was basically a tank move. Same as what loads of other guys did before when they move houses. Nothing wrong with what you did.

Thereafter replacing the substrate could alter the system, but as you got no fish, you are not reliant on any bacterial colony to quickly breakdown biological waste. The coral rubble could have some long dead critters in there and that might start another cycle, if any. Take into account that coral rubble do have the tendency to hold and trap detritus and generally guys do not use it due to that. Depending on how fine yours is.

Test the parameters, especially ammonia.
 
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Ok I have noticed today that we have some brown algae growing on the rocks and surfaces. The coral crushed coral is course grade (blue treasure) going to test all the parameters on Saturday.
 
Still very boring, I know, but it's early days:) already planning the bigger version in our heads
 
The coral sand is #3, the next one down #2 looked much finer and if I look at how the current coral sand occasionally shifts (on or two small pieces) the finer version would have ended up climbing out of the tank due to pump and wave maker flow...
The coral sand was dry, gave it a few rinses.

So ya let's hear the good, the bad or the otherwise I in-sequential news...?
 
TamJub said:
Ok I have noticed today that we have some brown algae growing on the rocks and surfaces.
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You've more than likely got a mini-cycle going on, using Stability is a good idea, it will help especially if you have livestock in the tank.
 
Thanks Viper good to hear someone is keeping us in check.

We don't have the luxury of test kits yet... But someone very, very kind will help us out there this weekend (yo'all know who you are...)
So once we have that, is the aaaany way we have a definitive baseline as this post originally started to tell us where we are in the "two spike" process, if not i guess we will have to wait till the levels reach the 0 mark in balance?

I guess once we get the test kits we could record the data over a few days to see if there is any action in the tank and then we may well know.
 
@Myck I'm a bit confused lol :p, I was replying to Tamjub, I'm guessing you guys are together?
 
Myck said:
i guess we will have to wait till the levels reach the 0 mark in balance?
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Irrespective of who, what, why, where or when :p You must ensure Nitrite and Ammonia are zero before adding livestock. However, with you doing a tank move and using Stability I'm pretty confident you will only experience a mini cycle and the tank should be safe, but get a test or two done just to satisfy yourselves.
Myck said:
I guess once we get the test kits we could record the data over a few days to see if there is any action in the tank and then we may well know.
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It would be better to get the tests done by an lfs every couple of days if possible, as Ammonia and Nitrite test kits will only be used a couple of times and are a bit of a waste of money in my opinion as you don't get to use most of the kit.
 
Besides the potential "mini cycle," (most likely alleviated or averted with the bac addition) another thing often overlooked is a probable alkalinity drop with addition of new calcium carbonate based substrate. Not really relevant to the cycle thread but relevant to the previous few posts....

The reason for the precipitation, and potential drop in pH, is due to the super saturated state of seawater.
Calcium and carbonates from the water will precipitate onto the new surfaces


addition of calcium carbonate to seWhen you add finely divided calcium carbonate to seawater, you are suddenly adding a large surface area for new crystal growth. As soon as it is added, calcium and carbonate begin to precipitate onto the surface, lowering both the calcium and the alkalinity. The potential danger in the precipitation of carbonates is that a certain degree of buffering against pH drops is lost. As magnesium also precipitates onto the calcium carbonate crystals, its ability to dissolve in the event of a pH drop is significantly reduced.

Another concern is prcipitation coating of PO4 onto the caco3 surfaces... it wont dissolve easily back into the water column (thats a goid thing yes), but algae and cyano have the uncanny ability to "mine" this for their growth. ... not a good thing.

As a newbie that really seems to want to do things right, with a fair dose of caution evident in your posts, the above probably scared you just a tad.

Dont worry too much about it, I am just bored and delving through the phosphates in my own brain to see how much of this i remember..
The fact is that the precipitation is not ongoing, a few carbonate, calcium, magnesium, strontium, etc. ions has been lost to the new substrate.... very unlikely that any harm would have been done, as we have no onowledge of the parameters pre addition, but be prepared to employ a tad of bicarb of soda at the very least after getting your alk tested....
its cheap, and its easy to rectify.
 
irie ivan said:
The fact is that the precipitation is not ongoing, a few carbonate, calcium, magnesium, strontium, etc. ions has been lost to the new substrate.... very unlikely that any harm would have been done, as we have no knowledge of the parameters pre addition, but be prepared to employ a tad of bicarb of soda at the very least after getting your alk tested....
its cheap, and its easy to rectify.
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Bicarb is not an issue... (once you get to know us TamJub and I) you'll laugh about it.

And yes you now have upset the Phosphate in my brain and made it spike with confusion...
 
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RiaanP said:
What you did was basically a tank move. Same as what loads of other guys did before when they move houses. Nothing wrong with what you did.

Thereafter replacing the substrate could alter the system, but as you got no fish, you are not reliant on any bacterial colony to quickly breakdown biological waste. The coral rubble could have some long dead critters in there and that might start another cycle, if any. Take into account that coral rubble do have the tendency to hold and trap detritus and generally guys do not use it due to that. Depending on how fine yours is.

Test the parameters, especially ammonia.
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What about a full tank move with livestock?

I possibly need to move my tank to another location in the house
 
When a tank cycles with dead rock and substrate and is establishing its biological filtration for the first 6 weeks to 2 month should I use chemical filtration.

Or should chemical filtration only be added after the cycle.

I am using Stability when I started the tank.

Also have added a vial of Bioptim and Biodigest.
 
Seabass said:
When a tank cycles with dead rock and substrate and is establishing its biological filtration for the first 6 weeks to 2 month should I use chemical filtration.

Or should chemical filtration only be added after the cycle.

I am using Stability when I started the tank.

Also have added a vial of Bioptim and Biodigest.
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I'm doing the exact same Bacteria and got a bacterial bloom 10 days after starting the cycle, havent got any filtration in at all at the moment, only diffs is i used cured rock
 
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