Fish meat..??

[KapoKidd]

Hi,

Im starting to cycle my tank... so can i use fish meat from market to make the cycling faster and how many days should it be in there?

[terryansimon]

market prawn/fish meat/anything that can decompose and kick start the nitrogen cycle.

leave it there until it disappears by itself. de-shell the prawn, de-scale the fish first. (=

and get some test kits to monitor the water parameters.

[SBS_Transit]

how to know when the water is ready to put in the fish ?

[terryansimon]

urh

test kits will tell you so?

test kits that are a must to get are

pH

NH4

NO2

NO3

once NH4, NO2 are at ZERO and NO3 as close to ZERO as possible, your tank is more or less safe to have livestock additions

[shiraz]

when ammonia and nitrite is zero..

[scarab]

Once ammonia and nitrite is zero, do a water change 20% to reduce your nitrate, then buffer your pH (should be around 8.3) and carbonate alkalinity (should be 4-6 meq)

Then you're ready. Got this advice fr someone. worked well for me.

[terryansimon]

oh yes the water change. VERY IMPORTANT!

dilution of nitrate. (=

[SBS_Transit]

but i have seen people cycle their tank with out test kit ? how is this so ?

[terryansimon]

if so, how would they know when NH4 and NO2 is at zero.

you can't test this out without tasting or visual appearence.

unless you're a real pro. even so, I wouldn't advocate the absence of test kits.

[SBS_Transit]

what does NH4, NO2, NO3 stands for ?

[terryansimon]

NH4 = Ammonia

NO2 = Nitrite

NO3 = Nitrate

[SBS_Transit]

for cycling tank can i just put, 1 powerhead, sand, and prawn, later after 1 week than add filter and 2nd weed add skimmer. can anot ???

[terryansimon]

and where are you going to get the beneficial bacteria?

if I were you I'd add everything in at one shot.

[SBS_Transit]

some people say cannot add cured live rock while cycling ?

[terryansimon]

and why not?

cured liverocks basically mean that there isn't any organisms like worms and snails and crabs. without rocks, how on earth are you going to start yout bacteria colony responsible for the nitrogen cycle break down?

if thats the case, lots of people who buy Fiji rocks from Coralfarm have screwed their cycling process up. (=

[SBS_Transit]

u read this http://www.fishwhisperer.homestead.com/articles.html, it says not to put cured LR while cycling

[terryansimon]

I hope you read its disclaimer.

there are MANY WAYS to cycle a tank.

the reason why he said not to use cured liverocks is because there are too few dieoffs within that tank to kick start the nitrogen cycle. thats why even with cured liverocks, a dead market prawn is a must. the decomposing action of the prawn actually provides the ammonia needed to kick start the cycle.

like I said, if that is the case, a lot of people like Benz and roidan would have screwed their systems up with the Fiji CURED liverocks from Coralfarm.

[SBS_Transit]

well than how did u cycle your tank ?

[terryansimon]

everything up and running with water at 1.021.

rocks in, market prawn in, and et voila. cycling begin.

mind you one batch of my rocks has been curing at Marine Life for over two weeks already. the advantage of semi-cured/cured rocks is that the bacteria colony has more or less been built up. therefore the cycling time is normally reduced quite substentially. mine's still no way near completion yet, although my ammonia reading is perversely low, and so is my nitrite. my nitrate on the other hand, is at 100ppm. ouch.

[SBS_Transit]

everything up and running with water at 1.021.

rocks in, market prawn in, and et voila. cycling begin.

mind you one batch of my rocks has been curing at Marine Life for over two weeks already. the advantage of semi-cured/cured rocks is that the bacteria colony has more or less been built up. therefore the cycling time is normally reduced quite substentially. mine's still no way near completion yet, although my ammonia reading is perversely low, and so is my nitrite. my nitrate on the other hand, is at 100ppm. ouch.

do u on your power heads , skimmer, filter ??

[terryansimon]

yes. my rocks are semi-cured. there are still living things inside that rock. the amount of waste they produce, plus the fact that my sand is not washed, was one of the reasons why I turned my skimmer on. you should see how dark and smelly my skimmate was during the first week..

powerheads must be turned on during cycling to give the water turbulence. if not, you can say hello to the familiar smell of hydrogen sulfide.

filter. I'm using a sump. I can't on it or off it coz the sump is the filter itself. I did use wool to trap detritus, and carbon and phosguard to polish the water up and remove phosphates.