Yaaaaawn....

[troni]

You need live rock to seed your base rock. Live rock has a lot of beneficial bacteria and life in it your not getting any other way. I'm not sure if you can have fish in it yet. Someone with more experience than I will chime in.

[Zoaelite]

Adam have you added any seeded sand, small pieces of actual live rock or bacterial supplements (ZEOvit ZEObak Micro-organism Solution, Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter7 Aquarium Additive or Prodibio Bio Clean)? All of these will dramatically speed up your cycle and ensure you don't have a monoculture of bacteria going.

If you need some sand shoot me a PM, I'm free until Friday then I'm off to the beach!!

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by Zoaelite

Adam have you added any seeded sand, small pieces of actual live rock or bacterial supplements (ZEOvit ZEObak Micro-organism Solution, Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter7 Aquarium Additive or Prodibio Bio Clean)? All of these will dramatically speed up your cycle and ensure you don't have a monoculture of bacteria going.

If you need some sand shoot me a PM, I'm free until Friday then I'm off to the beach!!

yah, other than the Dr. Tim's I started out with, I also added a bunch of prodibio bio clean. buuuuut, if you've got a handful of sand you'd like to share I would gladly take you up on that offer. The more complete my filter system is before my live rock gets here, the better.

ETA: the prodibio that I had was hella old and had been with our furniture in storage since September. There's a really solid chance there wasn't a living thing left in it, which is why I didn't mention it before.

[Snaz]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I've been trying to future proof that by keeping a large supply of rotting shrimp in continuous supply in the sump. I know it's making this take way longer, but I want to create enough of a bacterial base on my dead rocks that I could put in a couple of large fish and already have the waste eating engine needed to support them from day one. On the upside, it's breaking my skimmer in like nobody's business.



I have a sad little 5 gallon pico reef that I ripped off from reef builders. I call it "eco-reef ghetto". However, it is growing two SPS frags pretty well, even with no water testing and 100% water changes whenever I feel like it.


Water test this morning... I clearly have 0.25ppm nitrites! yesterday it was way higher, so I'm on the right end of the curve! I also inoculated the tank with a couple of pieces of seed live-rock that I bought from one of the bigger stores, so I'm getting a pretty fierce diatom bloom too.

But once you stop dosing dead shrimp won't the bacteria die-off cause a mini cycle?

[Seriak]

Originally Posted by Snaz

But once you stop dosing dead shrimp won't the bacteria die-off cause a mini cycle?

He is hoping the large fish he introduces will balance with the dead shrimp removal.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by Snaz

But once you stop dosing dead shrimp won't the bacteria die-off cause a mini cycle?

I'm not sure that could be a problem. Once the source of ammonia in the form of rotting shrimp is removed, The bacterial population in the tank will be as high as it ever will be. Once the food source is removed and some of them start dying off, any decomposition from those cells will only prolong the food source of the others and be instantly consumed.

You only end up with a new cycle if you add more ammonia to the water than there are bacteria to consume, which would likely happen if I were to dump say 20 frozen shrimp in there right now, or add a big dirty fish without removing the shrimp first.

[Madmak]

I almost bought plastic fish and coral yesterday, can't kill them