Proper Cycling techniques for marine / reef tanks

Probably the first thing you come accross when setting up a new marine aquarium is how do you cycle a tank.
Lets start with the basics.
You will first need to fill your tank; there are two options,
made up salt water or
natural salt water,
If you live near the coast use natural salt water - it is after all what fish live in. Just make sure there are no boats around dumping oil into the water when you are collecting. If you go down the salt water make up path, have a look at www.serenitygroup.110mb.com/water.html to see what you are putting in there.

No fill the tank and Wait! this process takes about a month, sometimes longer, do not put in a raw prawn or a sacraficial fish, the first will stink out your house the second is just plain cruel!
Now start monitoring you tank - check Amonia and nitrate weekly (at least), these need to spike and generaly take 2 or 3 weeks, as the spike starts receeding you can add live rock if you want(a bit at a time) again, wait. Keep checking your amonia and nitrate levels untill they are undetectable.
Once the cycle has finished, do a large water change and you are ready to start stocking - slowly!

Remember, things happen in a reef tank slowly, dont rush and everything will be OK

Aiptasia Control

At one point every marine Aquariust will become an aiptasia casualty, so how do you control or eradicate it?
A few years back I picked up some cheap live rock from a fellow reefer, unfortunately this rock also had a significant amount of aiptasia (although it was removed before I saw it) so have since been trying to control it, I have tried the following methods with some success...

1. Boiling Water
2. Joe's Juice - available at most aquarium retailers
3. Kalkwasser - a mix of hydrated lime (builders lime) and water into a paste
4. Biological Control
   

The Boiling Water method,
Use a syringe and needle (bigger the better here) and squirt boiling water into the mouth of the aiptasia. This seems to work OK, however it is hard with the smaller pests and they tend to close up and retract into the rock when you get close. Also you often get the needle into the mouth and then out one of the sides making it difficult to get them every time

Joes Juice - This method is identical to above but with a commercial product, it seems effective and the aiptasia don't appear to be coming back in the areas where I have used it

Kalkwasser - while this can also be used with the syringe it may block the needle. I have used a differing method that works well for large infestations. Mix Kalkwasser into a paste and press over the location that the aiptasia live. Important: Don't disturb the rock once done, move water flow away from the paste and ensure you don't use too much, maybe mix a typical dosing quantity of Kalkwasser that you would normally use...

Biological Control - now this appears to be the most efficient method for controlling aiptasia, but I have to base these findings on the opinions of others as I am unable to source the required specimens locally (due to their efficiency in control they are snapped up quickly at the aquarium stores) Peppermint shrimp and Copper banded butterfly (CBS) fish appear to be the most efficient, but there are cases where the CBS wont eat aiptasia. This does not appear to be the case with the pep shrimp (peps) - now Ive just got to get hold of one....

There has also been talk recently of Nudibranch a small (barely visible) critter that lives on aiptasia, these guys will quickly mow through a farm of these pests, but will quickly die when the aiptasia runs out. therefore I wouldn't recommend its use


Each of the methods above have their place;
for small infestations I have succesfully used the Joe's Juice or boiling water method (different tank)
for larger infestations Kalkwasser and or biological control is the way to go

Regardless of the method used, this is one pest that you will have to get used to, because there is no magic bullet.

Formulae for Determining The Weight of Salt Water for Marine Tanks

Ever wondered how heavy salt water actually is, or have head myths of salt water weighing up to 2.2 times fresh water? well it may in the dead sea, but that's no good for a marine environment

When adding salt to water you add the following quantities of each product per 100 grams of water;

Sodium Chloride = 2.721g
Magnesium Chloride = 0.381g
Magnesium Sulfate = 0.166g
Calcium Sulfate = 0.126g
Potassium Sulfate = 0.086g
Calcium Carbonate = 0.012g
Magnesium Bromide = 0.008g

Which equates to 3.5 grams or 35 grams per litre! don't believe me? Have a look at a box of salt that makes marine quality salt water, now divide the weight of the product by the capacity that it makes up. 35 Grams Per litre.