cycling using Damsels and applied logic

One of the considerations is the damsels do get aggressive.

that's why I prefer to use mollys to cycle a new tank. Besides most newbies are amazed you can do that. And if they can acclimate a FW molly to salt then acclimating an expensive marine fish would be easier for the newbie.

One thing on the cycles IMHO that most overlook is the effect of plant life like macro algaes. By simply starting the tank balanced out with macros (in a refugium) the ammonia->nitrIte spikes can be avoided altogether and replaced with a nitrate spike of a few weeks. What happens is the macros prefer to consume the ammonia directly preventing the dangerous spikes. Then as aerobic bacteria builds up the macros will start consuming the resulting nitrates. Which is reflected parameter wise and the drop in nitrates.

Just some random thoughts.

worth at most .02

From this really really old guy.

 

yes i think you could use 10 damsels but why would you want ten damsels besides maybe chromies lol.

originally when i started out i did lose a yt to cycling a new tank due to rushing every thing very fast. the next fish i got with was a yellow tang, 2 weeks later. but i guess the real animals i used to cycle was hermit crabs and i just feed the crap out of them. got them after losing the yt a couple days later because i was unsure about putting anything above 5 dollars in the tank(these where my new salt days when i saw a 20 dollar fish as rediculous, i remember looking at the rare plecos and thinking who would pay 30-50 dollars for one, i would now if i had desire for a pleco).

 

Reason I say to use just one YT Damsel is first off they stay small and are very non aggressive unlike all the others and they are not bad to look at and are seldom seen anyways so I have no problem just leaving the one in there.
I hate to mess with my tanks I set them up with the rocks and all I want the way I want them add the single fish and let it be I tend to never move or mess stuff up thats the problem many face just can't leave stuff along always wanting to tweak and try to improve ion the wheel so to speak until they kill the tanks out . Problem with adding two fish is they tend to pair off then they become aggressive . My Damsels just go i do the job for me and I allow them to live out their lives totally taken care of for doing that job well.

Once tank is cycles I start to add my other fish one at a time with at least two weeks and most time 3 weeks in between any other additions to allow the bacteria to build up.

 

I started my 70, 16 months ago with 2x YTBS , I like YTBS and in all honesty never considered the pairing off potential , they are still with me, dive bombing each others turf on an infrequent basis, not paired off
so I will admit I got lucky in that respect


Just in case anyone missed it - I dont have a 300 gallon tank, I have no plans to have a 300 gallon tank and if I ever do

I will cycle with 1 YTB - just in case my luck runs out

I posted the question purely to get a better understanding of the principles of cycling a new tank

if 1 x YTB can survive in the water conditions created by its waste in a 30
then 10 YTBS could in theory survive ina 300 gallon tank (as spikes should be similar in both scenarios)

Steve

 

this is a great question

i'm not smart enough to answer completely, but here are my thoughts:

the number of damsels per gallon is actually based on the number of bacteria stimulated to grow by that damsel, the speed of cycling demanded by the aquarist, and the speed of growth of the bacterial populations.

so, in a 30 gal tank, a single damsel may develop a population of ammonia reducing bacteria, nitrite reducing bacteria, and nitrate reducing bacteria to bring all levels back to 0 within - for example - one month.

part of answering the question is knowing how quickly each of these bacterial populations double. assuming they double quickly (hours rather than days), once you stimulate growth of each population by "throwing in the damsel" - you probably won't notice a significant increase in "time to cycle" with increasing numbers of damsels.

in other words, i'd bet one damsel would cycle 300 gal as well as 300 damsels.