Cycling question?

[allendavant]

Do I need to have the lights on during the day on a tank that's cycling? Also will a tank cycle with just live sand in it or does it need live rock too?

[Jessemac]

You dont have to have the lights on while cycling. But its not going to hurt to do so. And your going to want to put the rock in now and let it cycle along with the sand. Otherwise, with a tank that size you will likely see another cycle when adding the rock, depending on where it came from and whether or not it is established rock.

[allendavant]

Well the problem is that the rock that is going to be going into the biocube is in my 90 right now which is still up and running and will be until 6 weeks from now. The rock that is going to be transfered is also covered in coral so I don't want to put it in there until it is done cycling. Oh, and its all SPS so I want to be really careful!

[Preuss Pets]

Can you get to any of the rock in the 90 underneath the rock that has the sps and put in the the new tank now? Having the rock in the tank is what's going to really get the cycling process going.

Alternatively, the other approach is to leave the new tank empty and simply move the rock, water, corals etc from the first tank to the second in one day just like you would if you were moving your tank from one place to another. You're simply putting the stuff in a different glass box.

There's details still to work out like the sizing of the two tanks, the age of the sandbed and whether it can be moved etc.

A 'cycle' really starts when some kind of live organism or former life organism (like dried out live rock) is added to the tank and the processes of decay occur along with the growth of beneficial bacteria.

Steve