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Speed Cycling? ^.^;

Well I finaly got the 120G today, set it up... I'm going to call it

Day 0
There is a very slight layer of sand in the tank at the moment, seeded sand taken from my current tanks, a very thin layer about 1/2" maybe 1/4".

The tank is full of sea water at a specific gravity of 1.021 , have more salt to add of course to get it up to 1.026 .

I imagine the temperature is around 60-65 at the moment, the majority of the water I used was rather cold. I'm starting to heat it up to 82 for the cyclying, then when I'm done I'll drop it down to 70

Currently there is no live rock, just about 30-40 lbs of non seeded agrocrete, there should be some bacteria and algea growing on about half of those rocks.

The water is really cloudy at the moment, and I'm only running powerheads and lights so I dont see it clearing up any time soon, maybe over night I guess I'll just have to find out.

I plan to goto the lfs tomorow and buy some live rock, probly half cured, so thatl give me some good bacteria die off and really help cycle the tank. Also have to buy a few bags of live sand(live because I HATE having to wash the other stuff out). Leaving lights on for a few days just to get it started then I'll put them on a 10hr timer.

Going to start doing vodka shots tomorow :smile: I expect it to move fast once I get going! I'll keep you guys posted weekly if your still interested, I would still appreciate tips and suggestions!
 
That sounds awesome, I'm gonna do the vodka thing too, when I finally get to filling my tank next year. Im interested to see how it goes. Are you running your skimmer yet?

You could do parameter tests every few days just to keep track, it would be great info for others who want to speed up tank cycling - like me!!! I'm impatient too :biggrin2:

Your setup is remarkably similar to mine, I've yet to make my oystercrete, I plan on possibly "livening" it up in the ocean during the curing process. As we cant even buy live rock in NZ, only place to get it is off others!!! I cant afford that anyway so oystercrete it is.....
 
I'm not running a skimmer yet... teh tank is really a huge mess at the moment so I imagine any reading I take wont really show anything significant... I'll be finishing up the substrate and adding a few live rocks to add the bacteria to seed the agrocrete tomorow. I'll dose vodka in the middle of the day and take a reading that night.

Right now its in that really ugly, white milky cloudy water stage... I think I might run the skimmer just to clear up the water then turn it off for the cycling.
 
Well the water is still cloudy so i broke down and put TWO skimmers on the front of the tank, when the water is crystal clear I'll take them off for two weeks.
 
Update.

Well its day 10 now. Algea seems to have been growing since day 5. I added alot of hermit crabs yesterday to help keep things under control. theyll also serve as dinner when the octo is introduced :nyah:

I acctualy think it might be done cycling completely in a few weeks, although I'll still give it time to mature before I add my octo.
 
That vodka is an awesome idea, have heard about it before but never seen the dosing ratio before.
Cheers!
I think by far the quickest way to cycle a tank is to put a filter that has been established for a long time on another tank onto the new one.
The quickest way to mature is samples from lots of other tanks. Bits of live rock or handfuls of substrates. Can bring in unwanted things too but worx for me.
vodka is an awesome idea... heaps better than sports drinks.
 
i wanna get my octopus wasted. i need a video of that. i wonder what the effects are to an octo, but youd need to use good vodka to lighten the hangover.
 

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