Following on from the previous from the previous blog post, I do want to touch a bit on what type of equipment should be turned on or off during the cycle, and the reasons why. After all, this is a frequent query that people have.
To be frank, if we consider the purpose of a cycle, then the answer is quite straight forward. And that, will also be my approach to answering this.
Let's consider now, why we cycle. The purpose is to grow a healthy population of bacteria, that can meet our filtration demands. Towards that, whether or not to use a piece of equipment are not is very simple.
I will divide the possible equipment set up in terms of the cycling process, and the post-cycling process.
During the Cycle
During the cycle, we want to focus on growing bacteria. There are two factors we want to especially consider here:
1.) We want to retain bacteria in the aquarium.
2.) We want to maintain enough food for the bacteria.
And so, let's cycle through the equipment list (pun intended).
Heater/Chiller
Yes - Contrary to popular belief, a heater (or chiller, but usually just the heater) turned on during the cycle is good. What temperature though? If you have live rock in with organisms besides microbes, then set it to around 27 degrees celcius (80 degrees fahrenheit for you Americans). If you've started off 'bare' then set it to 33 degrees (91 fahrenheit). Optimal growth rate for many nitrate-reducing bacteria is around 29 degrees, whilst others are more so at 37 degrees. It would be good to set your temperature to be somewhere around there, so that whilst it not quite optimal for any one species, you're getting good growth of all. Just make sure not to go above 37 degrees (98 fahrenheit), as some bacteria will stop liking it by then.
Hydor Theo Heaters, a brand of heater suited for bigger tanks. Set it to higher temperatures and see your bacteria bloom!
Mechanical Filter Media
No - Don't worry about mechanical traps initially. You are not trying to remove anything. In fact, you definitely want any food particle to disperse as evenly as possible throughout your tank and sump. Remember, you want to grow bacteria, and it's not just about having food in the tank, it's about getting the food to your bacteria.
Poly-Filter, which also acts (mainly) as a chemical filter media. This is an extremely effective product capable of removing ammonia and so much more. Which also translates to DON'T.
Biological Filter Media
A MUST! - Where else do you think bacteria can grow? They need their own lovely home.
Marine Pure, one of many types of biological filter media. Live rock is actually also a type of biological filter media. Don't forget, you NEED a biological filter media of some kind. Bacteria need a home too.
Chemical Filter Media
No - Carbon, GFO and the likes are not recommended. Once again, think about what we are doing here. We actually WANT what we normally consider as 'waste products' to be in our aquariums, to feed bacteria. There's no point taking these out. Chemical filtration are useful in taking out certain toxic chemicals. But then the question is... why are those chemicals in there in the first place? If you need to, run these BEFORE the cycle. :) Then take it out once you begin.
PhosBan, one of the many types of ferric chemical filter media out there. This product in particular is mainly used to remove phosphates... which is not quite what we want to remove. There are bacteria that sequesters phosphates after all. Basically any by-product of biotic processes is probably utilized by some species of bacteria.
Skimmer
NO JUST NO - Skimmers takes out practically EVERYTHING you want to retain, including bacteria and their sustenance. This will massively slow down your cycle. Just, no. Don't. Don't do it.
Need a compact skimmer? Tunze Comline is a good choice. Just remember, DON'T have it running until your tank is cycled.
Reactor
Maybe - It really depends on what type of reactor you are running, but most won't really aid in any way. Biopellet reactors, in theory, are good, but otherwise it won't be contributing much. Certain reactors that run carbon or the likes are no different from chemical filtration (because they are chemical filtration). See above for my opinion on chemical filtration.
A Deltec Calcium Reactor. Now let's think hard about this. We are slowly dissolving calcium into the water. What for? Sure it probably won't harm the bacteria, but it's not like they need the amount of calcium corals do, eh?
Water Circulator
A MUST! - Be it pumps or water circulators or the new awesome Maxspect Gyre, you need something to circulate your water from the getgo. That's the best way to ensure distribution of bacteria (and food) to where they need to be.
This is an Eheim Compact 1000. Many smaller (nano) tanks can actually get away with just a return pump, such as this one, and not need a water circulator in the tank itself! Hurray for limiting 'artificial' products in the display. :)
Lighting
No - At this point light will grow algae, and not much else. Bacteria don't need light to grow.
Wowwwww, the colors from this Illumagic ComboRay! Corals would look great underneath it... if only my tank doesn't take months to cycle... oh wait!
Honorable Mention
Don't do a water change. Coral supplements/food are not necessary. Do feed fish food, or better yet, just purchase some seafood mix from the grocery store and feed the tank. I personally would recommend pureeing it and distributing all over the tank.
Post-Cycle
You can now run equipments as you like. Lower the setting on your heater/chiller to something more suited to what animals prefer.
Conclusion
In the end, I might have missed something (if I did, please let me know), but in general, you just have to consider this - 'what will affect my ability to propagate bacteria?'.
So long as it helps, I'd recommend it. If it doesn't, then don't have it. In essence you can definitely cycle a tank with all equipments on, but it will just take a long, long, long time. For comparison, I cycled my 36L nano in 7 days, and by day 10 I fully stocked it with 5 fish and a lot of corals. Not a single issue occured, in relation to my biological filtration capability. In the end, all I had in my aquarium was Marine Pure and coral sand (biological filter media), heater (set to 25 degrees celcius, I did forget to set it higher) and the return pump running.
As always, be flexible though. There may be times that you NEED to do something I don't recommend. But in general, stick to it and you'll see that your aquarium will cycle much faster. :)
Have fun!
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