[ckg4445]

is it necessary to quarantine a damsel if i am using it to cycle my tank

thanks

[Ninong]

It's isn't necessary to use a live fish to cycle a tank. It is truly unfortunate that this advice is still being given out by ignorant LFS personnel.

As far as whether you need to quarantine a damsel, the answer is that it is best to quarantine everything before putting it in your tank. Most people don't, but that's the correct answer.

If you are using live rock, then the live rock will cycle your tank without any sacrificial fish. If you want to speed up the process or if you are not using live rock (hard to believe since this is the reef forum) you can throw in a couple of dead shrimp, the kind you find at the supermarket. But it is absolutely, positively unnecessary to use any live fish, damsels or otherwise, to cycle an aquarium and people who work for pet stores who give out such advice should go to work for Tetra where they would fit right in with all the other morons.

None of this is directed at you personally because you obviously are trying to do the right thing by asking questions in advance. It's just that I am about 99% certain that some idiotic LFS employee sold you a damsel for the specific purpose of cycling your tank and that's ridiculous.

Good luck,

[ckg4445]

i havent bopught a damsel, so that's good news. When i start adding a cleaning crew do they have to be quarantined, are they pron to disease

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by ckg4445

i havent bopught a damsel, so that's good news. When i start adding a cleaning crew do they have to be quarantined, are they pron to disease

Good. Damsels are evil anyway and extremely difficult to get out of a reef tank once they are in.

No, you don't have to quarantine your clean-up crew. Wait for your tank to cycle first before adding a clean-up crew. You can start adding a clean-up crew and some good live sand after your ammonia has dropped to undetectable and your nitrites have dropped to almost undetectable. It is OK if your nitrates are still in the 50 ppm range or even 100 ppm as long as they are falling and not rising. I purchased a lot of clean-up crew stuff from www.reeftopia.com and I got detritivore kits from both www.inlandaquatics.com and www.ipsf.com I got live sand from those sources and from www.palmettoreefs.com to add to my plain old Southdown sand. It seems to have worked out well.

Good luck,

[Poseidon]

I'll second Reeftopia, they pack the snails extremely well, double bagged and in a sealed Styro container... I haven't ordered from the other sources mentioned but when Ninong mentions them by name they CAN BE TRUSTED!!!

[Tattooedlife]

I,ll second the staying away from the damsels. There hell to get out of a tank full of live rock. I found that out the hard way.