3 Great articles Every Newb Should Read

and it would not hurt the experts to read them either!

Interesting myths that even experts believe!!
Reefkeeping 101 - Bogus Information - by Tom Murphy (aka WaterKeeper) - Reefkeeping.com

Take care of your water !
Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Avoid disasters that could wipe out your tank!
https://www.livingreefs.com/marine-aquarium-disasters-and-prevent-them-t20514.html

 

Good reading Sen! Thank you.

 

Thanks for the links .....I need all the help I can get

 

Important information. Thanks Sen.

 

Thanks for the links!

 

I like how the #1 Myth breaker is that you should do water changes during the cycle And it makes perfect sense! Most of the bacteria is not in the water column but the filtration. Who cares if you give up 1/60th of the bacteria population during a water change if it keeps all of the live critters on your rocks, well... Alive!
Funny how I had all that information all along just never put 2 and 2 together... I guess I figured there were more free floating bacteria :/

 

It matters if you are cycling with animals in your tank. Which you shouldn't be doing. If you don't have fish or inverts, then it doesn't really matter that much. The bacteria on the rocks are tough enough to survive a cycle.

 

Yes but a lot of Live Rock comes with so much more on it than just those things

 

Even the LR I got shipped to me in the beginning whose coralline was all already bleached out still had some live critters hid up inside of it... For instance amphipods, which I don't think they had any trouble surviving the cycle but what else could there have been?:dunno: Could be bristle worms, pods, starfish all kinds of good stuff that will help create a mini little ecosystem. Or you can just bank off killing everything so you know you have no pests... but whats the fun in that? You can inherit pests hitchhiking on anything

 

Just by virtue of being a hitch hiker, hitch hikers such as the ones you mentioned are tough, and can usually survive a cycle without a problem. It's the stuff that we intentionally add that has problems surviving ammonia and nitrites.

 

i agree 100% with biff on this one. You don't need tobdo 25 percent water change daily during a cycle to savesome bacteria. even your hitch hikers will survive.

your wasting your time doing the changes

 

I think you have it backwards... the discussion is not about doing water changes to save bacteria.

 

imo, if your gonna pay a buttload of money for "Live" Rock it would be beneficial to keep it "live".

I'll add a few more to the list, crabs, stomas ect.

Ordering from TBS I would think would be a great example of trying to preserve life on your rocks.(seems how your paying extra for all the goodies that come with it)

 

This is true. And when you buy live rock from TBS, their instructions say to do water changes throughout the cycle because the rock contains so much stuff. But most live rock does not come with all that stuff. The live rock I've always bought has had hardly any hitch hikers on it. Those hitch hikers have had to spend days (weeks? months?) in boxes with little to no water, and extreme temperatures in either direction, and big pressure changes. Hitch hikers are tough and hardy. I'm not saying doing water changes during the cycle is a bad idea. Just that there usually isn't much on the rocks that most people get that is going to be harmed by the cycle.

 

we should promote buying base rock then and save $ from buying "live"

I guess it should all be based on individual situation/preferences

moral of the story: "Water changes hardly prolong the cycle, but could save any 'life'"

 

my point wasnt only the bacteria ulta, i was typing quickly off my phone. But as biff said, hitch hikers are tough. They survive a lot. There are some that will actually need it, if they were packaged properly. But especially with the rock i get, I have had no hitch hikers, which does kind of suck.

oh well. I agree, it wont hurt to do water changes but 25% a day is a lot of work during the cycle and doesnt feel worth it to me

 

I disagree slightly with myth +1.

I just recently setup my 214g. tank.Like I'm going to do a 25-50% water change everyday during the cycle.You can kiss my ass!

 

Yeah it does depend on the size of the tank. Good point. When I had my kalk overdose I was doing 60 gallon changes on my 90 every day for two weeks (the total system volume is about 150 gallons, so I was doing slightly less than 50% daily). It was a ton of work and it was expensive. But if I didn't do it, everything in my tank was going to die. There would be little to no motivation for me to do that for a cycling tank that didn't even contain any livestock yet.