cycling a new saltwater tank

joshuashih1 · Feb 19, 2013

can I cycle a 10 gallon tank with a bangi cardnal (sorry about spelling) instead of a picece of shrimp?

11f150 · Feb 19, 2013

You are probably going to kill the fish once ammonia starts to show in the tank, which you shouldn't do imo since we are in the hobby to keep fish alive. Ammonia is very toxic to pretty much anything living you put in your tank. The right way to do it is add a ammonia source ( piece of shrimp that will decay) and let the natural cycle take its course. You could also get some bacteria in a bottle to speed it up.

joshuashih1 · Feb 20, 2013

filter for this tank

I posted in a diffrent forum and I said that I took my filter that was on my freshwater fish tank and cleaned it out VERY good but they said that even if it looked clean it still may have some stuff in it and that is why I hade amonia in my tank. based on that is would I still need a shrimp or can I just wait and it will cycle?

Reefing Madness · Feb 24, 2013

Cycle th etank using Live Rock and Substrate, thats all you need. The Nitrogen cycle will more than likely kill fish. The filter from a FW tank won't do anything, as the bacteria between the both are different, and also a filter is not needed in a SW tank. Making sure that you have a minimum of 1lb of LR per gallon and adequate water movement, being minimum of 10x your water volume. Cycling will take between 4-6 weeks. No need for dead shrimp, the die off on LR will take care if this for you.

mike007 · Feb 24, 2013

I always use the live bacteria that is sold at the fish stores. I know seachem makes a excellent one and makes cycling a tank much faster. If you are using goog live rock that will help also.