So, I have a 135 gallon tank that I am putting my L2 scrubber on. I will be posting a thread with growth updates on it. However, I was wondering when is it best to start the scrubber. Do I need to cycle the tank first? Do I start it right off the get go? Any water parameters I need to watch first before I start it? The tank has all base rock and all argonite sand. I plan on putting some bacteria as well as a cup of live sand from my other tank. I want to make sure the tank is running smoothly from the get go. Thanks! (Hope this is the right spot for this question.)
You may not get much growth for a while though, if starting from a bare screen it will take a few weeks, and from then it depends on the rock you put in, will it be live or dry? If live it will have a die-off no matter what you do, etc. Either way I would not put any fish or corals in, just let it cycle with the scrubber on it, that will take care of the ammonia spike and you should have an "invisible" cycle, as long as you get algae growth. Watch the flow on the screen - not too much initially, you don't want to wash the algae away, and you might want to have a series of short photoperiods initially so as not to overpower the algae growth. If you're not feeding anything, I would do 4 or 6 30 minute photoperiods with 30 minutes in between each. Something like that for a start.
The rock is all dry rock (roughly 175 lbs) in the display and sump. There is also 120 lbs of argonite sandbed (also dry). I was thinking about adding a cup of sand from my currently running tank to seed the tank. I was hoping to add some good bacteria to speed up the cycle a bit. Once I added the bacteria, I was going to "ghost feed" the tank. Does that sound like the appropriate steps for the tank with the scrubber? Thanks for the heads up on the flow and the photoperiods. Do I need to feed it kind of heavily with the scrubber running?
You're really feeding the bacteria and the algae at the same time. Adding the bacteria is correct, via sand. Dump it all over the tank, on rocks and all. Make sure the params are matched though (pH, alk, temp) as bacteria are easily shocked. One thing that I would do is use your new SW to do a water-only PCW on your existing tank (don't siphon gravel, etc) and put the water you pull out into the new tank. Kind of like a transfusion. What this does is brings the parameters a little closer together, especially the ones that you really can't test for. Ideally you would have an equal blend of water from each system. Like if you rigged up a common sump and ran them as one system for an hour, you would essentially have duplicated water conditions. But, I may be overthinking things here. It's what I do. What can I say
Cool. Thanks! Once I have enough RO water, I will be making the saltwater up and transferring it to my tank I am setting up.
