substitute for market prawns during tank cycling?

[Siaokia]

My tank is currently under cycling...i`m using live rocks and some sand and water from my other tank....the problem is that i do not haf any market prawns at the moment...can i use other stuff like fish food, invertebrate food or small pieces of fish for cycling?..currently i`ve been adding cubes of brine shrimp, bits of fish food pellets and liquid food for invertebrates..will these work?

[clownman]

As long as it will decompose and produce ammonia.

[ryz]

yep. otherwise you can feed your bacteria with sugar, a far more efficient food source for them. will multiply very fast.

[weishun]

Hmm... really ah? Can add sugar to a cycling tank ah? Will it make benificial bacterials grow faster? How much suger shall i put?

[ryz]

yes can add sugar to feed the bacteria, it's a more efficient food source. I personally do not have any dosing intructions. it's very efficient so I can only say dose sparingly.

The reason I cannot ascertain how much sugar to add is because of several factors:

1) depends on amount of LR/total biological filtration media used

2) depends on how much denitrifying bacteria already on the filtration media

3) depends on efficiency of usage

4) depends on water volume

haha think there are definitely more reasons why dosage amount is hard to advise.

[weishun]

Hmmm how much is your sparingly? How much do you add usually for a 3ft tank with around 16kg of liverocks running on a 2ft sump system?

[ryz]

haha add one teaspoon see see loh.. many products like nutrafin cycle(If I'm not mistaken) work the same way. they feed the bacteria. others add live bacteria strains into the water. dun think u need too much lah.. once the bacteria colonized the LRs, and your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are in order, then think you can add a fish or two to ensure continuity of the nitrogen cycle. then it will strike a balance liao.

[tigershark]

if u really cant find anything.... ur urine will do the job as well.....

[ryz]

haha indeed. urine has ammonia content and many other nitrogenous waste. but it might contain some unwanted pollutants though... can't imagine reefers peeing into their newly set up tanks... hahahhaa

[Siaokia]

LOL..alright thanx broz.....oh yeah..i found a snail on one of the liverocks in the cycling tank and its alive~!..haha...the tank currently only in day 3 of cycling and has got very very low salinity level coz i did not buy enuff salt....will get more later....will low salinity levels affect the colonisation of the bacterias?

[Navyblue]

Sugar can speed up cycling, but it is only a carbon source. You need to also provide nitrogen source such as protein in meat to feed the nitrifying bacteria.

Though if you are relying your LR die off as nitrogen source you can do away with meat. But sugar can not be used to replace meat.

[Navyblue]

Reasonably low salinity level should not affect bacteria. Otherwise it can kill those SW nitrifying bacteria.

[ryz]

yep... to get all the different types of denitrifying bateria you have to use a wholesome decomposing food source for the process.