If You're Cycling Rock To Cycle, Does It Need Light ?

427HISS · Oct 9, 2024

I have many pounds of the BRS type rock and very cool Tonga Finger rock that I want to turn into great bacteria loaded rock for any tanks I want to set up. I've used the Dr. Tim's on one small tank and it worked great, but my main DT is 125g, 90g cube, 55g holding tank. I have a large round chemical tank used on farms or golf coursers that I bought as the bio container for our pond, but never used it. It has a round threaded cap about 12" wide, I'm thinking about cutting it out to make a much larger hole and put a lot of rock in it to cycle. I wish I could put it downstairs or in the garage, but that's out. The SP will be in the living room wall and the back was a bedroom turned into the fish room. But, that chemical tank is really big, so it would tank up a lot....of space. Late fall and winter is coming up, so it'll be too cold to put on the deck, I think ??? I live in Ne. I don't know how many and type of heaters that would keep up with the cold ? How low of temperature does marine bacteria need to be in ?

reefsaver · Oct 9, 2024

Marine bacteria do best between 24C to 29C (75F to 85F) If it gets colder than 21C (70F) the Bacterial colonization slows down and they can even go dormant or completely die off below 15C (60F).
If you want to do it outside, Being in Nebraska you'd probably want to use something like multiple high-wattage aquarium heaters and figure out how to insulate the bio container, then that would work really well I reckon.
You could just wrap it in some tarp to help insulate it, or use some foam insulation or cover it.

427HISS · Oct 9, 2024

reefsaver said:
Marine bacteria do best between 24C to 29C (75F to 85F) If it gets colder than 21C (70F) the Bacterial colonization slows down and they can even go dormant or completely die off below 15C (60F).
If you want to do it outside, Being in Nebraska you'd probably want to use something like multiple high-wattage aquarium heaters and figure out how to insulate the bio container, then that would work really well I reckon.
You could just wrap it in some tarp to help insulate it, or use some foam insulation or cover it.

I have thought of setting it up on the deck and wrapping it with with house roll insulation then wrap it with a tarp. We don't get as cold as we used to or snow. I sold my snow machines years ago because of that. I wonder if those cattle water tank heaters work ?