Hi folks,
I'm not new to keeping tanks but im new to this idea im going to present and need to bounce ideas off people.
Im coming up to my senior year of undergrad and will be conducting an independent research project. I plan to test heat tolerance in difference species of zooxanthellae. The methods of my experiment is not necessarily important - more so of how I plan to set up my tanks. My advisor has explained that in research you set up tanks in a way to eliminate all "distractions" to get the best results for the experiment. In this case, this means setting up the tanks bare bottom with no live rock. I have never done this before and im nervous the tank wont cycle correctly and the whole thing will get messed up.
The tanks will be 5g with bare bottom, a stand to place the coral, a pump and a hang on the back filter. I plan to put carbon pads, regular filter floss pads and a little bag of bio balls in the HOB. Will this be sufficient enough for bacteria to be established? I plan to use nite-out II to cycle the tank. I plan to use some species of acropora. Will it be ok to put the coral in just days after it is cycled? Im relatively time restrained for this experiment so I will need to put the coral in the tank ASAP. I used nite-out II for the first time on my 15g invert tank and it was cycled in a matter of days - which is exactly what I need for this experiment.
(side note - I put a full stock of inverts in my hobby tank a week after it was cycled. I put a feather duster, ricordea, stylophora, snails and tuxedo urchin. The urchin ended up dying a month later for whatever reason [it was super strange. the thing was cruising around fine then one day it dropped all its spines and died, not sure what I did wrong] along with the stlophora [which i believe died from STN?? stared "bleaching" at the bottom and slowly crept up till it was fully white. The guy I got the stylo from is a lil sketchy and most things ive bougtht from him have seemed to die/have diease/have mold so im not blaming myself?]. The ricordea has trippled its head, the duster is doing very well and the snails are perfect. SO, I feel as if im dosing the tanks with enough phytoplankton - which I did for my tank before adding all these inverts- the acropora will be ok?)
I have never kept sps corals before - I plan to buy some this summer and put them in my 15g invert hobby tank so I have an idea of what im getting into with this experiment.
Sorry for this absolute WORD VOMIT.
Bascially, im asking if cycling a tank bare bottom with no live rock will be the same mechanism as cycling a tank with live sand and rock? AND will there be a sufficient enough established bacteria for an acropora species to thrive (until I decide to kill it by bleaching it LOL)?
Im going to put a more detailed post in the experiment forum incase you want more info abt my project
I'm not new to keeping tanks but im new to this idea im going to present and need to bounce ideas off people.
Im coming up to my senior year of undergrad and will be conducting an independent research project. I plan to test heat tolerance in difference species of zooxanthellae. The methods of my experiment is not necessarily important - more so of how I plan to set up my tanks. My advisor has explained that in research you set up tanks in a way to eliminate all "distractions" to get the best results for the experiment. In this case, this means setting up the tanks bare bottom with no live rock. I have never done this before and im nervous the tank wont cycle correctly and the whole thing will get messed up.
The tanks will be 5g with bare bottom, a stand to place the coral, a pump and a hang on the back filter. I plan to put carbon pads, regular filter floss pads and a little bag of bio balls in the HOB. Will this be sufficient enough for bacteria to be established? I plan to use nite-out II to cycle the tank. I plan to use some species of acropora. Will it be ok to put the coral in just days after it is cycled? Im relatively time restrained for this experiment so I will need to put the coral in the tank ASAP. I used nite-out II for the first time on my 15g invert tank and it was cycled in a matter of days - which is exactly what I need for this experiment.
(side note - I put a full stock of inverts in my hobby tank a week after it was cycled. I put a feather duster, ricordea, stylophora, snails and tuxedo urchin. The urchin ended up dying a month later for whatever reason [it was super strange. the thing was cruising around fine then one day it dropped all its spines and died, not sure what I did wrong] along with the stlophora [which i believe died from STN?? stared "bleaching" at the bottom and slowly crept up till it was fully white. The guy I got the stylo from is a lil sketchy and most things ive bougtht from him have seemed to die/have diease/have mold so im not blaming myself?]. The ricordea has trippled its head, the duster is doing very well and the snails are perfect. SO, I feel as if im dosing the tanks with enough phytoplankton - which I did for my tank before adding all these inverts- the acropora will be ok?)
I have never kept sps corals before - I plan to buy some this summer and put them in my 15g invert hobby tank so I have an idea of what im getting into with this experiment.
Sorry for this absolute WORD VOMIT.
Bascially, im asking if cycling a tank bare bottom with no live rock will be the same mechanism as cycling a tank with live sand and rock? AND will there be a sufficient enough established bacteria for an acropora species to thrive (until I decide to kill it by bleaching it LOL)?
Im going to put a more detailed post in the experiment forum incase you want more info abt my project