Cycling FOWLER tank and seed live rocks question

[mvallee]

Two questions for you all tonight,

I have had my tank filled and cycling for over 9 days with 125 pounds dry Marco Rock and 120 pounds marco sand with 4 Krill that I normally feed to my FW fish, is that enough to start a cycle? I added a raw shrimp over 24 hours ago just to see if that will give it a boost but so far 0's across the board for ammonia nitrate and nitrites. I thought I was getting a bump in Nitrates last Wed but that was it.

is it possible adding approximately 40 pounds of real live rock 4 days ago is a enough BB to defeat the cycle? is that bad or good if it was.

2nd question I bought 12ish pounds of premium fiji live rock from Krystal clear in auburn and I picked the most live looking rocks with stuff growing on it out of their bins (slim pickins) but it has a lot of algae, is there such a thing as bad algae, it looks real healthy and I am hoping it will be good to propagate through the tank. I am keeping the lights on because I bought about 25 pounds of live rock from someone that had nice coraline growing already and wanted to keep that going.

Should I put the rock with algae in my fuge hoping for die off because I have no light in there yet or will it be be beneficial in main tank?

Sorry for the boring pics but I think pics are the only way to explain how the algae looks

this one has the most flowing algae

This one has quite a bit too the white specs are from when I put it in the sand when I first got it.

And this is the coraline I am trying to keep going

And the whole tank to get an idea of the ratio of dry to live rock

Opinions on the algae would be greatly appreciated as well as what I can expect for cycling in this scenario
Thanks

 

[Shawnburg]

Ya it's hair algae. I saw those rocks the other day. You should be seeing some type of rise in ammonia or at least 1 of the tests. I started a 90 gallon fowlr tank for my boys. I used 80 lbs of aragonite for bottom and about 8 lbs of lr and 20 lbs of dead rock. I started the tank with 2 clowns and 4 damsels last Saturday and the ammonia went to .50 ppm and today it was .25

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

 

[mvallee]

I hope so I am watching and waiting. coming from fresh water my tank would be cycled and fish added by now LOL but all the reading I have done slow and steady wins the race when it comes to salt water. Luckily I have 2 tanganikan tanks and a fry tank going to keep me in the hobby while I wait for this to be ready.

 

[ro_nicu]

I would not have gotten that algae covered rock, just one more thing to worry about and deal with. In fact I saw it in the store the other day and thought "how the hell do you get mess your system up so bad that algae grow in a tank that theoretically has no phosphate or nitrate input"?

If you want to test your tank for cycling the simplest way is to get some unscented ammonia and dump a .2ppm dose in the tank. It should be gone in the next 1-2 days. If you are around Worcester drop by - I have a full gallon I got at some point and little to no use for it.

 

[mvallee]

I will have to start keeping a list of mistakes, I have a feeling I will be making lots of them,
Should I pull them? I paid good money for them and from what I have read tangs can keep it in check and planning on getting one or two but I do not understand the risk.
So should I pull it now and either put it in fuge hoping it dies off or pull it and basically kill the rock or is it a minor risk that it will become a nuisance and keep it in the tank to get things started?

 

[ro_nicu]

depends on the type of algae. some will die off on their own if put in the dark (sump, plenty of circulation), others might go sexual and release spores only spreading even more.
Tangs do not do too well in fresh tanks, they require a stable environment, at least something fully cycled and good maintenance.
Dumping the rock will make you feel bad as well so I would not do it.
most of the algae on rock issues that I had were dealt with by turning off all the pumps and dispensing some Hydrogen peroxide on the algae via a turkey baster. leave the pumps off for another 15-20min then turn them back on, the algae that I had would die off slowly in 2-3 days.

Here is the best I can think about it:
- go online and find a ammonia dosing calculator (there was one online I just don't have the link handy, somewhere on the first page of search results)
- get some unscented ammonia from hardware store (notice concentration stated on the bottle, make sure no other additives, just ammonia and water in the bottle)
- calculate dose for you tank volume (account for rock in the tank)
- dose a .1 or .2 concentration of ammonia
- see how long it takes to get back to 0
- make sure the cycle goes all the way through (meaning you sea nitrate and not nitrite spike)
- If the tank is cycled (should not take more than 2 days to get back to 0), get yourself a cleanup crew , hopefully that will take care of at least some of algae or at least contain for the time being until you can put in more livestock that will eat it.


Advise for the future:
if you plan on getting something ask around before getting it; think about which way you want to go with your tank, what you already have, what you would like to have in the future, how things might interact in between; there are a lot of knowledgeable people on this forum and you are bound to get at least a pointer into the right direction.
if you find yourself in the position of buying something on impulse ask yourself if you are getting the deal of the lifetime, if you are not than restrain and research before committing to buy.
Most of us made the same mistakes or worse, I know I fulfilled my quota and more, I am still making stupid mistakes and buying things on impulse but at least my planned purchases are not too out of line with what I want to achieve with the tank.

Maybe somebody with more experience will chime in as well; there might be other tricks that will help you solve this.

 

[mvallee]

Thanks for the detailed response ro_nicu, lots to digest but will give these a shot.

 

[Marshall O]

Don't worry about the hair algae. You will see it soon enough on all of the rest of the rocks either way. First diatoms, then hair algae, then cyano (usually). First 6 months of a new reef are not pretty, but it is worth it!