Started a new 14 gal nano today. On the live rock there are small polyps. DO these little animals need food while the tank is cycling? If so, what to feed?

Thanks for the info.
SAS

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Well I don't do much with salt water but I would think that adding "live rock" to a new tank is not a good thing to do since coral polyps are very sensitive.

I would take it back to the place you got it and ask if you could come back and get it when you tank has stabilized.

and agin I might be wrong.

My understanding is its OK to cycle with live rock and sand. Atleast according to all the research Ive done.

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You should cycle your tank with Live Rock, and the little Hitchhikers will be fine while doing so. The Trace Elements in the water will take care of them. No worries.

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Exactly,,,Thanks for replying.

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Just for those reading:
Typically after live rock is collected from a reef rubble area, it has to be transported to a dealer,an aquarium store, and then finally to the aquarists.. The problem is that during each of thetransportation or storage periods less than ideal conditions are provided for the live rock.

Many of the organisms become unduly stressed by stewing in their own wastes for extendedperiods and lack of light.

It is likely that many will even die. Additionally there are species that cannot even survive withina reef aquarium for various reasons. Cycling allows the dying animals and plants contained onthe rock to die off and the resulting products from the decay of the tissue to be further processedinto relatively harmless compounds.

The cycling period gives an aquarist an opportunity to see evidence of the ammonia cycle, ornitrification which is the conversion of ammonia to nitrate.

During this cycling period the ammonia level rapidly climbs as heterotrophic bacteria process thedead organisms. This high level of ammonia, with ammonia being toxic to most marineorganisms, can have a synergistic effect and cause more organisms to die. Which will then inturn produce more ammonia. The populations of bacteria involved in the converting ammonia tonitrite quickly build up to sufficient numbers to process the waste generated and the ammonia levels go down to undetectable levels (by aquarist test kits).

Nitrite then becomes the dominant toxic species present, which another group of bacteria feed onand convert to nitrate. The nitrite to nitrate bacteria take a bit longer to build up a sufficientpopulation to handle the waste, but then the nitrite levels will become undetectable by aquarist test kits. This is the important part at this point but later denitrification can start and remove thenitrate which starts to increase in concentration.

It is possible to buy live rock cycled, partially cycled or almost straight from the reef. If the liverock is going to be utilised in an existing reef aquarium then cycled live rock should be used.This will minimise the peak in ammonia and nitrite caused by the addition of the rock to thesystem as there will be very little die off. In a well maintained tank it is even possible to add some additional live rock to the system without any visible adverse effect to the inhabitants.

It is preferable to cycle the live rock in the target aquarium, not in the collectors, dealers oraquarium stores tanks. What this will allow is; greater control over the cycling period, thepossibility of more organisms surviving this highly stressful period, and minimise the loss ofmobile organisms that can leave the rock.

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Part 2:
The current general procedure for cycling live rock is to throw it into a large container, either thetarget aquarium or a large cycling tank, have a skimmer operating on the system, add largeamounts of circulation and provide no lighting.

It is left there for about 2-4 weeks and the ammonia and nitrite levels are monitored.Thecirculation is required to allow good nutrient and waste exchange between the live rock and thewater, to assist in the removal of any dying organisms from the rocks, and to minimise any areasthat may go anaerobic.

Areas may become anaerobic because of a large organism dying and the large oxygen usage bythe bacteria processing the tissue. No lighting is provided to avoid any excessive micro algaeblooms in the system while nutrients are at an elevated level.

The length of the cycle takes around 2-4 weeks, from the time the rock is placed in the vessel towhen the nitrite levels drop to undetectable levels.

Longer periods are possible, and in some rare cases the cycle seems to get stuck after theammonia levels drop. The reason for this is still unclear, but may have something to do withinhibitors for the nitrite to nitrate bacteria (which are more sensitive to environmental conditions and slower growing than the ammonia to nitrite bacteria) being introduced into thesystem via some mechanism.

The 'dark' technique of cycling of live rock is seen by the author as an out of date technique. Itreally should be avoided because there is no effort made to make the cycling period less stressfulfor any of the organisms present.

There is a much better way to do it which will provide a higher survival rate.

The idea is to; provide enough light to photosynthetic organisms such that they can survive andlow enough such that micro algae cannot bloom during this period of high nutrient levels, andremove as much of the waste from the system before it becomes converted into a pollutant orremove the pollutant from the system.

The best type of lighting to use is actinic as it is typically of the correct wattage and it suppliesdirectly the wavelength ranges that the photosynthetic organisms utilise. So far as a rule of thumb around 0.14 W/lt (1 W/gal) is a sufficient level to use.

The lights are operated on an increasing length of time during the cycling period, starting at around 6 hours per day, then increasing an hour every couple of days until the full day length is reached. Note that this is based on the authors own experience and that of another aquarists usingthis technique that the author has communicated with.

Further experimentation in this area could be done to further clarify this, but in the cases where it has been use there has been a good survival. Once the cycling is over, then the other lighting can then be gradually phased in. Need to avoid any sudden addition of light as this will stress any photosynthetic organism as they take time to adjust to new lighting levels.

In addition to the lighting used, continuous operation of a skimmer, activated carbon, and regular water changes should be implemented. These activities are used with the idea of transporting as much of the waste and pollutants from the water, therefore reducing stress in thesystem.

The use of the skimmer and activated carbon removes compounds before they can be broken down by the heterotrophic bacteria. Water changes remove compounds before they can breakdown, but also remove some of the toxic ammonia, nitrite and other pollutants from the system.

There is no reason to worry about substantially prolonging the cycling period by using waterchanges because the amount of nutrients for the bacteria has been reduced. This is a myth.

Bacteria will grow and multiply at a exponential rate, with all environmental factors staying constant, until there is a high enough population to process all of the available nutrients. At this point the population will stablise.

A change in the nutrient level, which will change the end population required, will make a very small change in the time frame required to reach this point because of the exponential growth rate. Additionally at the end of the cycling period, all of the dead organisms have been processed so there is now a reduced amount of nutrients available.

The bacteria population will adjust to the level to process the amount of nutrients now being generated in the system by living organisms. This will most likely result in a reduction in the population from a peak during the cycling period. There is no way that initially an operating system will generate as much nutrients as is generated during the cycling period. Therefore reducing the amount of waste and nutrients will not influence the final bacteria population or thetime frame to any large extent.

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