Ammonia and new tank cycle ..

Hello everybody , Im new here and i wanna start by saying thanks for having such a helpful site .

Well today is my 4th day of cycle , I have a 30 gallon tank with live sand and uncured live rock. Two days ago I tested ammonia and was 1ppm , today I tested it again and was about 2ppm this seems to be right ( I guess ) but the guy at the LFS told me I have to put a small fish in the tank in order to get the bacteria started , I've done a lil research online and when cycling with live rocks nobody seems to use fish .. so Im kinda confused about whetheror not to put a fish in the tank to start the bacteria.

Please let me know what you guys think , and thanks to all in advance ..

 

you should be fine! How much uncured live rock?

i would not use a fish! MEAN! tell your LFS that too! no sense in buying a fish to maybe kill it!

You can buy bacteria in a bottle, look at Dr. Tims stuff!

Or put a raw shrimp in a some pantyhose and throw it in!

 

Thanks for the quick reply ..
I have about 30 lbs of rock and 40 lbs of sand , I dont like the idea of killing a fish either . I do have a bottle of MicroBacter7 , should I use that ?? dont knoe much about that product tho ...

 

You can use the Microbacter7 that will be fine.

And yes to no fish until fully cycled, dang fish store guy!!!!!

Welcome to 3reef and congrats on the new tank.

 

Read up on the cycle a bit! Should take 4-8 weeks! ammonia should spike and drop, then nitrite, then nitrate! Its a good idea to write those down with dates! Then add a hardy fish and watch the levels for a week or so! Then another, and watch! etc etc! Make sure you research what fish you want and that it fits in your tank and will be compatible with everything else in there!

Welcome to 3reef and enjoy the addiction!

 

Thank you Corailline , Im gonna start to use MicroBacter7 then ..

 

Your welcome.