Starting a cycle

[vanreefer]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

Never understood the dead shrimp thing. All you're doing is delaying the presence of ammonia (ergo, the presence of bacteria which can metabolize the ammonia) until the shrimp decays. Skip all that and just add ammonia til you get a .3ppm reading. Seed with some bacteria via product or liverock. From here, you have two options:

1. Wait and test til good. 90% water change - GO!
2. Hit with a ton of VSV til you get a bacterial bloom, then wait for it to go away. 90% water change - GO! (this is a bit more advance but sets you up for an algae-less cycle)

Either way, it's bulletproof.

Any sense on how much ammonia needed to get ~ 40 gal to .3ppm? Was thinking this makes more sense than adding a rotten shrimp

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by vanreefer

Any sense on how much ammonia needed to get ~ 40 gal to .3ppm? Was thinking this makes more sense than adding a rotten shrimp

I just wing it. Add .5mL and start from there.

[Madreefer]

You left out taking a wizz in your tank.
I read about some quacks doing it years ago. I couldn't imagine my wife coming home and catching me pi$$ng in my tank how'd you explain that?

[vanreefer]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

You left out taking a wizz in your tank.
I read about some quacks doing it years ago. I couldn't imagine my wife coming home and catching me pi$$ng in my tank how'd you explain that?

Think that fits in "other" ...

[Myka]

I hate dry rock. When I have to deal with it I use Prodibio Start, and use some tank water from one of my own tanks.

[Jpower]

I used live sand, dry rock, some live rock and prodibio start up. Im starting to wonder if because of this I wont get a cycle? Amonia and Nitrate are steady at 0 and nitrate has been at 10. Nothing has changed in a week.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Jpower

I used live sand, dry rock, some live rock and prodibio start up. Im starting to wonder if because of this I wont get a cycle? Amonia and Nitrate are steady at 0 and nitrate has been at 10. Nothing has changed in a week.

It depends what kind of dry rock you used. Though if you haven't seen any ammonia in a week I'd be inclined to say you won't. Did you check ammonia arond the 2-3 day mark too? Nothing then?

The branching type of rock has nearly nothing on it, so it doesn't seem to cycle. The shelf stuff isn't too bad either. The Pukani stuff is horrendously dirty and causes a crazy cycle which can be lessened if you powerwash it, bleach it, and acid bath it. I've found dead starfish in it, big dead worms, large chunks of dried algae.