Live Clams to Start Cycle

[redfishbluefish]

I'm currently curing my rock on my rebuild of my 90 gallon tank. Rock and water are in the tank with a couple powerheads....no heater or lights or sump running.

We've all heard about dangling a dead shrimp in the tank to get the cycle going. However, I was kicking around the idea of starting my cycle with a couple live clams from my local fish monger. Figure they'd do better in unheated water (in the 60's), and at the same time supply the necessary biology to hopefully get the cycle going.

Have you ever heard someone doing this? Do you think it will work? I'll most likely wait 2 or 3 weeks into the cure before I add the clams.

 

[link81]

clams are essentially filter feeders, i think they'd die and rot, which would be effectively the same as dangling a dead shrimp in there.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I actually was also thinking about feeding pulverized flake food (Reef-Roids) to keep them alive.

 

[link81]

might work, worth a shot.
worst case you can just steam them up, and add butter. lol

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I've had clams sm.8, cherry stone 3, 80 hardy oysters in refugiums. I think one key to their survival was, using plastic mesh bags and putting clams in bag. I tied nylon string so I could pull out of water see if any died. Just a thought
There's another one next to it, left side

 

[HotRocks]

I'm currently curing my rock on my rebuild of my 90 gallon tank. Rock and water are in the tank with a couple powerheads....no heater or lights or sump running.

We've all heard about dangling a dead shrimp in the tank to get the cycle going. However, I was kicking around the idea of starting my cycle with a couple live clams from my local fish monger. Figure they'd do better in unheated water (in the 60's), and at the same time supply the necessary biology to hopefully get the cycle going.

Have you ever heard someone doing this? Do you think it will work? I'll most likely wait 2 or 3 weeks into the cure before I add the clams.

Interesting concept. Following to see what the conclusion may be.

 

[brandon429]

Its certain to work, but even better the claim can be tested

clams import nitrifiers, they can't disassociate from doing so.

they respire/make ammonia when living, or, in decay do the same.

how you test matters we show in our cycling thread, but the claim certainly can be vetted

this way:

do whatever you want to do to a stewing sample of water for 30 days. change out all the water or polyfilter it to the same clean levels, zeroes

then dose using liquid ammonia to the first increment of free ammonia indication your test registers
not 1 ppm

or 2

but the first increment up from zero that your test kit registers.

wait 24 hours, see if its back down/proof.

that's the right way to arrange ammonia testing so that you can tell if a cycle completed within a certain submersion time period, don't test the wastewater. What wastewater registers after everyone thinks they're at 2 ppm varies wildly, yet cycles don't stall ever if you test them this way above. they always pass at day 30, sometimes even if you added nothing but just the water

adding a shimp, bottle bac and raw ammonia to exacting or guesstimate levels, sticking your arm into the new tank, giving it sausages, all the same after 30 days and a reset test. no wastewater testing if you want a clear picture of what bac do
B

 

[brandon429]

ammonia is the only signature that matters after 30 days not nitrite and nitrate. so in a tank that big, at 30 days ish, do whatever you need to do to make the ammonia zero or the lowest to zero your kit will register.

*not with prime, adulterates the testing* I know Red already knows that part

get to zero ammonia either by waiting till its zero or by polyfiltering w zeolite

when legit zero, oxidize test ammonia we'll link it to our cycle thread.

All cycling charts online, all of them, show compliance between ammonia and nitrite after day 30 that's why only ammonia matters-nitrite is inferred. nitrate is assumed as well, there's no other mechanism that could be at work to reduce ammonia naturally after thirty days or thereabouts. Whether a test kit or tester reads it accurately is what varies...nitrate therefore isn't needed in cycle assessment its for algae and coral color tuning.

the only time wastewater matters is if you don't have 20-30 days to wait, and, Dr. Reef's microbial testing thread shows bacteria adhering to surfaces and passing the exact test above in under 4 days when dosed by bottle

there is no need to keep testing all three in reef cycling, its dated, and allows for 3x mistesting and 2 million claims of stalled cycles that aren't stalled. they're wastewater variation testers, not deposition cycle testers. to test a living layer of organisms, drain off all the crazy topwater and re expose them to an exact amount of ammonia.

they'll perform, says every industry of the modern world from wastewater production to food production etc