Cycling tank question

[ciao]

I'm sort of curious if the following trick would help speed up the cycling of the tank any quicker. A while back when I was into fresh water aquariums, I learned a trick where you would pour a good amount of ammonia into your empty but filled(with water) tank that had been seeded with the proper bacteria in a regular established tank. The large amount of ammonia would provide the bacteria with the needed nutrients and would imitate a large bio-load as being present. You would then let the tank go through it's conversion process of converting the ammonia into nitrates and then do a water change. Once that is done, you can put in a large bio-load since the tank would be primed for it already since the bacteria levels are already at a high level.


Would this also work on salt water set ups???? Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[reef18ster]

In my experience (about 22 years) and observations with this hobby, a very important thing in keeping a healthy and prosperous saltwater set up is patience.

 

[roscoe]

+1 on that!! Patients is your BFF i nthis hobby.

 

[Myteemouse]

SLOW GO
Add a cocktail shrimp of a couple dead silversides to kick start the cycle..
You could also PEE in your tank LOL

 

[apollothesun]

cycle with live rock

 

[ciao]

my plan was to add dead sand and rocks with a couple of good pieces of live rock to seed the sand and rocks. Then I was going to add some regular ammonia until I get 5ppm levels and then wait until the tank cycles.

Would this work? I was planning on making my tank 85 percent reef and the rest fish

 

[roscoe]

You don't need to seed anything. Your dead rock will become live in time. The term Live Rock is just based on the denitrifying bacteria within the rock itself and nothing more. Now if you are wanting all the sea life such as stars,pods, sponges ect. ect. then you can add an established "Live Rock" for them to populate your dead rock. I myself don't trust "live rock' unless it is from a source that I know is free of any pest. I started my 270g with all dead rock because I'm paranoid of getting pest into that system.

 

[returnofsid]

Any die off from your live rock, dead sand, dead rock, will produce ammonia. If you're putting "sterile" sand and rock into the system, you'll need to introduce an ammonia source. Here's where the idea of adding a frozen prawn, shrimp, etc. comes from. However, your idea of adding ammonia is the same thing. With a sterile set up, without the addition of some source of ammonia, no cycle will ever begin to take place.

I agree that your idea will work just fine, but won't speed anything up.

 

[Chichas01]

PBITAWA :lol::lol: