substituting live sand for regular sand. help!

Discussion in 'Live Rock' started by saltscrub, Jun 6, 2012.

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  1. saltscrub

    saltscrub Bristle Worm

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    It is a 29g long tank. Not a biocube. And I don't realy want damsels. I really want clownfish. But I don't want to risk them dying because they aren't cheap. (Well they are cheap for saltwater fish but...)
     
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  3. cosmo

    cosmo Giant Squid

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    Then just do it right, like I said. Its not the only way but its the safest, healthiest for your fish. If you add fish during the cycle, their gills will be burned, and they won't be as happy. 1/2 the battle of this hobby is patience.

    Put dry sand in and a cup of live
    Get dry rock(1/3rd the cost of LR) and 2 softball sized pieces of LR from the LFS
    add 1 raw shrimp, or add a few pieces of fish food every day, or research the pure ammonia method
    About week 2, start testing every other day and record ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, when amm and trite =0 add a a wad of fish food or a few hermit crabs and some food and monitor for a few days to see if any params spike. If they don't add 2 clowns, or 1 if thats all ya want, if ya want 2 add them together!

    Before adding the fish, get a water change ready in case of a spike, and monitor that for the few days after adding fish

    Good luck;)
     
  4. DevinH

    DevinH Montipora Capricornis

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    You only use Damsels to poop to spike ammonia for the Bacteria. They are temporary and get removed to trade in at LFS. Get 5 damsels, 10 pounds of LR, 25 to 30 pounds of sand. BioSpira. Sad to say if you think $30 is expensive you may need to look into freshwater.

    Also, remember, everyone in this hobby has different advice to give based hopefully of their experience. It is your choice whos to go with.
     
  5. cosmo

    cosmo Giant Squid

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    You don't need their poop!
    It is painful for the fish!
    Its a PITA for the tank owner to have to tear down the tank to remove fish that shouldn't be there
    A shrimp costs .25 cent, 5 damsel cost $15-25
    I've dropped $200 in pods for my tank so yeah not worried about the $30, but why burn $30 on unnecessary fish that will suffer, when you can spend .25 cents and accomplish the same thing, or .25 cents worth of fish food? Thats $30 towards your fish!;)

    so yeah, possibly kill fish or harm them and spend unnecessary money, or save yourself money, do it humanely and properly so that when you do add fish, the tank is ready for it and they will be less prone to disease.

    like stated, a lot of opinions, its your tank, do as you like!;)
    happy reefing

    Edit, get a lot more than 10 pounds of rock, get about 20 of dry and add a few pounds of live rock
     
  6. Biocube

    Biocube Giant Squid

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    Your method is correct, you can use a fish to cycle a tank... IMO it's cruel and not humane to put a hardy fish in a tank to cycle it.

    There are many different ways to cycle a tank but using a fish is not the path you want to take. Just use a .33 cent piece of shrimp to cycle your tank, this will create the same results and everybody will be happy.


    Happy cycling. :)
     
  7. DevinH

    DevinH Montipora Capricornis

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    I said 10 pounds of LR cause damsels are a PITA to catch and you dont wanna remove all 30 or so pounds of rock to catch them.
     
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  9. cosmo

    cosmo Giant Squid

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    thats why you don't use them in the first place then, ya can have all your rock in and growing into live rock!
     
  10. DevinH

    DevinH Montipora Capricornis

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    Valuable argument, haha. What amount of ammonia would cause burns? IIRC..mine never went above 30PPM checked daily.

    30 pounds of DR(? He had it out of.the tank with NO light, only in water that wasnt heated with aeration, was alive at some point but I assume it died...) He said for.about 6months

    20 pounds of LR, 10 being rubble in sump. 10 pounds live sand sump.

    Two bottles BioSpira added.
     
  11. cosmo

    cosmo Giant Squid

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    To each their own, however, Id be willing to bet that if polled 99.9% of 3reef members wouldn't use the fish method to cycle. There's just zero reason to do it!;)
     
  12. saltscrub

    saltscrub Bristle Worm

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    Ok so i will use the Bio-spira. how long does that usually take to cycle?