cycling?

have any of you all cycled your tank with a piece of a dead shrimp? I have never heard of this. It sounds to me like a rotting piece of flesh does more harm then a damsel.....

Aquarium Advice :: View Topic - Cycling a tank

 

I believe the purpose of the "rotting piece of flesh" is for it to do just that -- rot, thence kick-starting your cycle. Using a damsel would do the same thing -- you feed the damsel, the damsel digests the food, nitrogen is entered into the system for the cycle to begin. The question is, do you really want that damsel in your tank when the cycle is complete? I hear they're a pain in the arse to get out. There's also the ethical question of forcing that damsel to live in sub-standard conditions for the length of the cycle.
That all being said, I cycled my tank using "cured" live rock from Premium Aquatics. My 20 gallon was through the cycle in just over 2 weeks, give or take. Of course, I still waited a month or so longer before I put a fish in there.
Hope this helps and best of luck...

 

I have heard of the shrimp cycle, many try it. I cycled my tank with liverock and I would never do the damsel thing because good luck getting it out and they are bullies. I would recommend doing it with LR and just be patient.

 

I read that on another forum, and most of their "methods" were odd. I have never tried the shrimp.

 

I have heard of the shrimp method but I prefer to cycle a tank with one yellow tailed blue damsel. I have never had one of these fish get overly aggressive, however, I wouldn't consider using any other type of damsel, especially a domino because they are pure evil

 

I didn't read the thread but I've put a prawn in a piece of pantyhose many times to jump start a cycle. When I take down a tank, I dry out my LR and store it in tupperware totes. When I set up a new tank, I boil the rock for a bit in RO/DI water. As a result, there is very little rotting that can occur to start the cycle. The rotting shrimp will help with that.

BTW, be real careful of pointing out the flaws in another forum. I'm very good friends with both administrators and several mods on Aquarium Advice. I now hate you. JUST KIDDING!!! ;D

In this case, this is a legitimate method of introducing Ammonia to a tank when you don't want to chase down a territorial damsel, clown, etc. that has had the tank to itself for a while and your LR is not going to have rotting polychaetes, algaes, etc.

 

I am currently cycling a tank, but decided not to use a damsel. I took old fish food that was stale and un-usable and dropped some in every day for 2 weeks. Wow what a spike. Waiting for the tank to settle down now.

 

That works well too. In fact, if you are keeping a QT tank running full time, adding a small amount of old fish food once or twice a week is all that you need to do to keep your biofilter alive.

 

Well if one understood totally how the de-nitryfing bacterias came and went and how they equalized themselves once they have established a colony then they would not use a dead hunk of meat its totally do-able and I have tried it several times but there is no way to control and or maintain the established bio load to keep the needed bacteria at a constant level.
Ask these same people if they would leave a dead fish in their tanks ? But the dead rotting shrimp is fine.. You can also dump in Household cleaning ammonia and or just urinate in it if you wanted to. So as to just kick start start a cycle . But as these artificial kick starters themselves start to bio degrade and diminish in volume due to the bacteria doing their job the bacteria started to also diminish as there is not constant and level demand for their services .. I have never seen or found a more balanced method to keep the bacterias at their optimum levels then with using a single yellow tailed damsel not 2 or 3 or 5 but just one and only one of them.

But again there are other way to kick start a cycle and I mentioned a few But i have yet to find any better way then a single fish IMO. Bottom line in this hobby there is no substitute for patience and time and keep it as natural as you can KISS method has always worked for me myself..Like with anything take your time and build it properly and build it to last. Again IMO only and we all know what is said about opinions LOL

 

Actually we are agreeing but saying it in a different way. I keep my shrimp in a pantyhose so I can yank it out easily without gagging. I don't let it completely rot. As soon as Ammonia hits zero, in goes my first fish. Nitrites don't have the same effect on saltwater fish as they do on freshwater so I don't wait until they go to zero and the Nitrates get bad.

This method works well for me because a population of nitrifiers is already built up. I don't try to maintain a level of nitrifiers with shrimp. My first fish will do that for me. In my method, they don't have to deal with excess Ammonia though while the biofilter builds up. That's just my preference.

FOOTNOTE: Again, this is because adding my LR won't trigger a bacterial population explosion. Cycling with LR with dieoff is quite sufficient. I just happen to have a lot of dried LR around and have set up many others tanks with it.