ghost feeding

[BigMike81]

When should I start feeding my tank to get my nitrogen cycle going? What should I feed it and how often?

 

[Tahoe61]

For a 40 gallon tank I did a smaller pinch of dry fish food every other day.

You can also go the straight ammonia route.
How to do a Fishless Cycle with Ammonia, How Much etc. - YouTube

Or you can use a raw table shrimp.

 

[BigMike81]

For a 40 gallon tank I did a smaller pinch of dry fish food every other day.

You can also go the straight ammonia route.
How to do a Fishless Cycle with Ammonia, How Much etc. - YouTube

Or you can use a raw table shrimp.

Thank you, we'll try it out:wink:

 

[Reefing Madness]

Get a jumbo shrimp from the grocery store, put it in a net, lay the net in the water. this will keep your cycle going strong, and keep the shrimp in the net as it detiorates. Also makes the system strong in bacteria if you keep that in there the whole cycle.
You add the ammonia source right away.

 

[BigMike81]

Get a jumbo shrimp from the grocery store, put it in a net, lay the net in the water. this will keep your cycle going strong, and keep the shrimp in the net as it detiorates. Also makes the system strong in bacteria if you keep that in there the whole cycle.
You add the ammonia source right away.

When you say ammonia source, do you mean the shrimp or a shot of straight ammonia?

 

[Tahoe61]

He means the shrimp will decay thereby producing ammonia which will initiate the nitrogen cycle.

 

[BigMike81]

He means the shrimp will decay thereby producing ammonia which will initiate the nitrogen cycle.

Raw, uncooked shrimp, right?

 

[Tahoe61]

Yup

 

[BigMike81]

So i fed the tank for the first time and now my live rock has a red growth on it. Any idea what it is or what it could be?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Gotta pic?

 

[BigMike81]

Not yet, I'll try to get one today.

 

[BigMike81]

All right, got them up there. What do you think it could be?

 

[BigMike81]

It seems to be growing very rapidly.

 

[Pete polyp]

Looks like cyano

 

[BigMike81]

Looks like cyano

What do I do.

 

[Pete polyp]

Its something that usually goes away by itself over time. Lots of people manually remove it, some use bottle bacteria to try and starve it, some use chemiclean or red slime remover.

 

[Reefing Madness]

You can just wave it off the rock, or use a powerhead to do so. Happens in most all new start ups. You'll notice brown algae on the substrate in a bit also, those are diatoms, and those too will go away by themselves.

 

[BigMike81]

Thank you so much guys, I was able to use a turkey baster and suck it off with that.

 

[BigMike81]

Well i think I see the brown algae now is that a wait and see item as well or are there steps I can take to prevent it.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Theres no reason to mess with Diatoms, they will eat the silica out of the tank, then they will die off.