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[Oxymoron]

Originally Posted by naesco

Oxymoron
The idea of using cheap, brackish or hardy marine fish to cycle a marine tank is dated 1980s thinking.
Today with live sand, live rock and proper test kits it is no longer necessary to stress or kill live fish.
Tell your friend most conciencious reefs would never do that today.

Im sorry to hear this and will talk to him about it. It is not my intention in any way to harm any lifeforms in any way whatsoever. He told me that the fish would be ok and as it stands they have been alive and feeding well for 13 days. It's apparent that I have more research to do.

[naesco]

Originally Posted by Oxymoron

Im sorry to hear this and will talk to him about it. It is not my intention in any way to harm any lifeforms in any way whatsoever. He told me that the fish would be ok and as it stands they have been alive and feeding well for 13 days. It's apparent that I have more research to do.

Hey, I am not blaming you. What is the size of your tank?
As well as this board, a great website to get info on fish, coral and inverts is www.wetwebmedia.com
Take a look and see what it says about triggers.

[Oxymoron]

I have a 90 gallon with 30 gallon sump. Thanks for the info ill check out the site.

[naesco]

That is a nice size.
The best advice any reefer will tell you is to go slow: lots of patience is key to success and avoiding all the problems

[moldrik]

Based on what I've read so far, Naeso sounds like he can be a bit abrasive. However, from everything I have read, he is very, very right. There is little sense in risking killing fish. When placed in an environment that is still cycling and there is a decent amount of ammonium it stresses out the fish and there is potential for death.

I've heard it before, and it's just hard. I mean, everyone just wants to get some marine friends in their their tank asap. I had mollies before when I had my freshwater tank. I think i'm going to pass on as much as I can, I'll keep my focus on first of all, getting the 30 gallon that I need setup.

I heard someone talking about putting in a dead fish in the tank, like a shrimp or something from the supermarket. I guess that this idea is to raise the ammonium levels to be higher so that it helps the cycle come to fruition. Is this a better way of going about it? Should I buy a dead shrimp from T&T and help the tank cycle?

Should I just leave it alone and let things just do their thing.
________
GSX650F

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by moldrik

Based on what I've read so far, Naeso sounds like he can be a bit abrasive.

Not unless you harrass his friends, the Tangs!!

seriously though, cycling a tank with live rock is all you need. There is enough dying matter to feed the bacteria and there is no need for fish, dead hamsters or anything else.

And for Oxymoron, if you put a fish in a tank that has fully cured rock, he probably hasn't suffered at all, so don't beat yourself up about it
Using rock, once you have no detectable NH3, you're good to start slowly adding things.

[Aquattro]

And does anyone mind if I rename this thread to Tank Cycling? I keep browsing and thinking we're gonna talk bikes!

[Oxymoron]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

And does anyone mind if I rename this thread to Tank Cycling? I keep browsing and thinking we're gonna talk bikes!

LoL
I think on that note perhaps a title change is in order.
Im happy to hear that I didn't stress out the molly's and we did make sure that our ammonia was at zero and our nitrates were minimal before adding them into the mix.

[Marlin65]

Originally Posted by moldrik

I do have a cheap plastic hydrometer by the way, did you mean that it reads on the high side or on the low side? Does it mean that 1.021 reads lower than it should, meaning that it's actually ~1.024, or do you mean that it reads on the high side and it actually means ~1.017.



I'm using RO water, but it's not RODI. We buy it at work and it's ozonized ( I asked questions about this earlier and it seemed like it wouldn't be a problem ).

Hydrometers can read 1.024 but actually be 1.028 so better to keep it a bit on the low side untill you buy a refractometer they are a lot more accurate.

[Marlin65]

Originally Posted by moldrik

Based on what I've read so far, Naeso sounds like he can be a bit abrasive.

On some of the other forums they don't put it that lightly.