Will I Ruin my Cycle? (Noob Question)

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jabberwock

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What is that gorgeous blue-green coral(?) at the back on the right? The one that looks like terrestrial flowers?
That is actually a macro algae that came on the TBS live rock. It is Caulerpa peltata. It grows like a weed. I have cut it back twice already. Great nutrient consumer and nice to look at. My LFS has asked me for cuttings in exchange for store credit... I am fragging it.

Here is the size when it arrived.
tiny.jpg
 
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Tamberav

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@brandon429

Forget ammonia... I know Paul B says white PVC or white dry rock, white white..... is unnatural to fish and can cause undue stress which can lead to disease..

So can putting a fish in a stark white dry rock + bottled bacteria increase stress and therefor increase the chance of loss to disease?

Maybe waiting for the rock to get some algae to it would be better. It looks more natural to fish.

I am not talking about live rock starts ofc, just dry ones + bacteria.

We could say clownfish are hardy/disease resistant but the aquacultured ones are quite inbred sometimes and defective and ofc clowns are prone to brook. So maybe not as hardy as we would like. Damsels are prone to urenoma. I am talking about random LFS pick ups beginners choose.
 
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brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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I keep no fish but that sure lines up with what Paul says in agreement with Jay in the disease forum

reefbeef also has a podcast on bad quarantine is bad vs skipping it and fish going into a matured tank / hiding spaces and varying light zones
 
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Tamberav

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I keep no fish but that sure lines up with what Paul says in agreement with Jay in the disease forum

reefbeef also has a podcast on bad quarantine is bad vs skipping it and fish going into a matured tank / hiding spaces and varying light zones

I am just saying, it may be better to encourage beginners to wait and let the tank go through some processes before adding fish. Not for ammonia reasons but to give the fish a more natural home and reduce stress.

Mine is usually bottled bacteria/cycle > algae shows up > CUC goes in > starter coral or fish.

I usually end up with coral before fish because it takes time to find the right fish. For example, if I want aquacultured fish, I try to get them before they even touch the LFS water, buy them in the bag direct from the breeding facility. This means talking to the LFS and finding out when the next shipment comes in and waiting and showing up that day and so on.
 

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New rock next to some aged rock. It is actually brighter in person under blue led. It glows.

Now imagine being trapped in a room full of it.


Just sayin.


462494F3-3B80-484F-A7E0-750EAE9FD21E.jpeg


FEEE9C9B-2C94-41BF-A1B5-FCBF8A7803D1.jpeg
 
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jabberwock

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Wow! Does it just look blue because of the lights, then? I'm really digging the effect!
It is mostly green, the blue lights make it looks how it looks. I like it a lot.
 

Brian-222

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I will try to be constructive this time...

My TBS live rock was a smashing success. Very little die off, but I did drive down and do local pickup. They also suggest having a cycled tank to receive the rock.

I purchased 1 pound of live rock from 1 LFS, and a pound from another. Purchased two pounds of ceramic media and Dr. Tim's Ammonia source to cycle the tank prior to adding 20 pounds of TBS live rock. Added a single firefish 1 week later.

My result has been outstanding. I observed the TBS for about a month before adding sand in order to extract unwanted hitchhikers more easily.

October 15
View attachment 2978131

Today
View attachment 2978133
Awesome looking tank! What size tank is that? I'm wanting to start my tank with TBS live rock as well.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Island

This closes the matter, here's tank #2 link from my skip cycle thread, updated, no expiring cycles exist.
 
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TheBear78

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@brandon429 perhaps there is a study on all the fish harmed by incorrect quarantine procedures? All those healthy fish killed by toxic chemical overdoses because the reefers break out in cold sweats at the mere mention of the word "ich".
It's probably a higher number of unnecessary deaths than bottle bac fish in cycling...
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Agreed

But try and find links and forums as exhaustive for anti-qt getting half the success Jay and Humblefish get by doing a decent job... we can't, their method is top science of the day, Paul's isn't. Simple as that

Paul helps niche reefers with fifty year old tanks stocked with ocean materials, Jay and HF address how the masses present, with dry rock cycles

Nobody could run a successful disease prevention forum for the masses any other way than Jay and Hf's way, or they'd be doing it.

Of course Paul covers ideal feed, qt, in his book the masses can benefit from. If the public took time to mature out their systems, listening to him, I'm sure things will get better. But they won't, our society is speed seekers and getters.

They're not listening to ideal means Paul advocates, so the complex tank transfer methods and pre treatment meds for appropriate species simply gets the most retention in the tanks the public shows up with-if this is a wrong assertion I'm open to any links showing pattern outcome alternates

Any proofs linked cannot be one person's reef tank, that's what Paul uses for proof. All proofs must be huge work links of other peoples tanks + fish disease outcomes from a given method
 
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Lasse

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I’m building my first tank and I have everything set up and ready to go. I plan on cycling the tank with live Carib Sea Agra Alive, Dry Rock, Fritz Turbo Start, and 2 Clown fish.

Will it be okay to have the Agra Alive sand and Saltwater running in the tank for a couple days before I add the Turbo Start and Clowns? Will not having the Ammonia source make the batería for dormant (does it work that)?

I want to make sure I get off to a good start so I appreciate the help!
The question that´s have been forgotten in all this post with namedropping technique in the end can be answered with a simple - no you will not ruin your cycle! It will work - just be careful with the food the first weeks. To two clowns - max 5-10 frozen adult artemia a day

Sincerely Lasse
 

92Miata

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Bottled bacteria isn't guaranteed to work. It could have been improperly stored and wound up largely dead, or it could be too old to have much life in it at the moment. Again: there is no harm in waiting until the tank is verified to be cycled. There is no reasonable scenario in which this harms anything.
The only bottled bacteria I've ever seen "fail" is Dr. Tim's. And the failure is almost always in the case where people do long ammonia fed cycles.

I've never seen bottle-then-fish in quick succession fail (I primarily use BioSpira). And I've never seen measurable ammonia doing it this way. And I've put hundreds of fish through quarantine like this while working maintenance/etc.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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well said.

when Dan and Taricha and Dr Reef conducted bb studies they posted, some dead bottles/inactive were found.

the reason I never mention that in my cycle testing threads using a bunch of other people's $ as the test is because they put in two clowns into massive dilution, that isn't going to ammonia burn them unless its a small nano

the events are rare too, dead bottles. so rare I don't factor them at all/ we have zero losses for years running.
 
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IslandLifeReef

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Any further rebuttal without fail example links is absolutely making things up island.
Island

This closes the matter, here's tank #2 link from my skip cycle thread, updated, no expiring cycles exist.


@brandon429, you obviously aren't reading my posts. I have stated numerous times that I never said that cycles expire.

So you use a thread that is less than a month old as proof?

I use to think that you had some good ideas, but your responses to me have left me rethinking what you post. Saying that you are triggered to argue because some people question what you say doesn't excuse it. You really need to get over yourself. What you are posting isn't science, it is anecdotal for the most part. Just because you post a couple of links doesn't mean you are correct and the case is closed.

Show me what I made up or where I said that cycles expire. Otherwise, try to keep your insults to yourself. CASE CLOSED!
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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1673973671800.png


you and me and Garf aren't reading details apparently

does that not say 2020

we got our verification today ~ two years later

its ok if by saying "those tanks are set up short term" you weren't meaning they couldnt run the expo as long as that tank has ran above, I took it that way. Perhaps leading with an affirmative next time will make follow up positions clearer


I guarantee you that if polled, about 90% of all reefers would honestly believe that skip cycle marine convention tanks can't run very long, we have been trained that poorly by the bottle bac sellers at the convention/those who give macna talks on stalled cycles etc.


there are no formal cycling articles written by the reef sages, the published Phd's that discuss pure no doubt skip cycling. They'd lose a valuable revenue stream if that doubt was erased.


*I know some uncured rocks won't mini cycle, but 100% of all aquarium cured rocks won't recycle and for my readers I want just that niche of cycling carved out as testless, can't fail, don't doubt, has been in use since 1989 etc.

I want one form of cycling immune to the doubts Dr. Tim teaches, frankly. Him and about 90% of board peers.
 

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