Cycle or no cycle

[bkoo29]

I am currently downsizing from 70 to 40. I need to house my coral in a 12 gallon frag tank. I saw reef builder vlog where he set up a coral only tank without any cycle. Just add saltwater and then corals on day 1. Anyone have any experience with this? Any advice is welcome. Thanks and hope to hear from you all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bkoo29]

Anyone?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Smite]

Doesn't sound like a good plan to me. Corals need nutrients. Where will that be coming from? Maybe one coral starves or is shocked by the sudden ultra clean water chemistry change and starts to die. With no nitrifiying bacteria the smallest die off will cause ammonia that will cause more die off, ect.... A moth is attracted to your light, flys too close to the sun and lands in your water....ammonia.

You're downsizing, why not take a small pieces of rock for the temp housing of your coral in the 12g? What is the attraction of no rock? Did the vlogger make it past day 7 and what coral was he keeping? What coral are you planning to keep?

 

[reefes pieces]

I don't know about straight tossing corals into a sterile tank but best practices I've seen in situations like this are use as much of your tank water as you can into the 12g frag tank and add a little rock or filtration media to keep the biofiltration going. This is with the intention to minimize any shock to the corals. IMO why risk it to see if it works or not when you can do some measures to ensure it does.

 

[bkoo29]

Doesn't sound like a good plan to me. Corals need nutrients. Where will that be coming from? Maybe one coral starves or is shocked by the sudden ultra clean water chemistry change and starts to die. With no nitrifiying bacteria the smallest die off will cause ammonia that will cause more die off, ect.... A moth is attracted to your light, flys too close to the sun and lands in your water....ammonia.

You're downsizing, why not take a small pieces of rock for the temp housing of your coral in the 12g? What is the attraction of no rock? Did the vlogger make it past day 7 and what coral was he keeping? What coral are you planning to keep?

The vlog was jake from reef builder. He made it over a month. But he only had 3 branching hammer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rareform]

I always wondered how venders would set up tanks at places like rap and not have a ton of loss. This year there was a ton of frag tanks I guess they use old water? Apex had a big tank too full of fish.

 

[bkoo29]

I always wondered how venders would set up tanks at places like rap and not have a ton of loss. This year there was a ton of frag tanks I guess they use old water? Apex had a big tank too full of fish.

Great point! I just need to move my corals ASAP and trying to find the fastest way to transfer if I don’t have to wait like month for the frag tank to cycle.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[joseserrano]

You can do it, you just have to be testing everything everyday. Make sure there are no spikes. Most people fail, because they try to do it cheaply and cut corners.

 

[jessesoto33]

You can but for no more than 3 days


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[reefes pieces]

frag tanks and vendor tanks are set up short term so there's minimal risk and minimal bioload. Fish are barely fed if at all. Also, at least for RAP vendors are provided with plenty of saltwater.

 

[bkoo29]

You can do it, you just have to be testing everything everyday. Make sure there are no spikes. Most people fail, because they try to do it cheaply and cut corners.

If I am not going to have any fish how much can water conditions change from day to day. I plan to spot feed bra reef chili twice a week.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jessesoto33]

If I am not going to have any fish how much can water conditions change from day to day. I plan to spot feed bra reef chili twice a week.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How long you planning on keeping this tank up? Because if it’s long term u gonna need at least 1 fish


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[joseserrano]

You mean having a reef with no fish. I’ve never seen a system do this, and even in the reefbuilders tank you are referring to, he introduces a fish fairly quickly. Idk why/what the overall goal of this would be, but good luck. In my opinion fish serve a purpose, you don’t see any reefs without fish.

 

[bkoo29]

How long you planning on keeping this tank up? Because if it’s long term u gonna need at least 1 fish

Prob 2 to 3 months

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

You mean having a reef with no fish. I’ve never seen a system do this, and even in the reefbuilders tank you are referring to, he introduces a fish fairly quickly. Idk why/what the overall goal of this would be, but good luck. In my opinion fish serve a purpose, you don’t see any reefs without fish.

Jake had his tank for about a month before introducing a small fish. I think it was a dotty.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[joseserrano]

Sounds like you are gonna go for it, so as stated before, best of luck

 

[Smite]

I've never seen it done. If you decide to do it let us know how it goes.

How does feeding the coral work. Feed then large water change next day?

 

[bkoo29]

I've never seen it done. If you decide to do it let us know how it goes.

How does feeding the coral work. Feed then large water change next day?

Trial and error is the best way to learn. I will start with a small frag and post the results after couple of weeks.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JohnsReefIn714]

I did this before with a couple Petco 20 Longs using some of my tear down tank water and a couple live rock i already had in my tear down. Also, i had a Hang on the Back filter that had a builtin skimmer and a separate nano power head. I had it run for a couple months with no issues. I housed my livestock(fish and inverts) in a separate tank again with the tear down tank water. I just did routine water changes once a week all my levels where good on both tanks. No ammonia breakouts or anything out of the ordinary with the Live stock tank either. Just watch your levels and add whatever you can to seed it like live rocks

 

[bkoo29]

I did this before with a couple Petco 20 Longs using some of my tear down tank water and a couple live rock i already had in my tear down. Also, i had a Hang on the Back filter that had a builtin skimmer and a separate nano power head. I had it run for a couple months with no issues. I housed my livestock(fish and inverts) in a separate tank again with the tear down tank water. I just did routine water changes once a week all my levels where good on both tanks. No ammonia breakouts or anything out of the ordinary with the Live stock tank either. Just watch your levels and add whatever you can to seed it like live rocks

Really!! How much rock did you use from the old tank? Like 5 lbs ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JohnsReefIn714]

Really!! How much rock did you use from the old tank? Like 5 lbs ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yea it was around 10 lbs and some smaller ruble rock I had in my old sump. Essentially, you can just get a regular display rock break it up and make it rubble rock. One other thing I forgot to mention if you plan on using filter socks use an old one that’s currently on your old tank and use it to help seed your new one that really helps the beneficial bacteria in the new tank.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk