[AlexS!]

heard of:
yellow tangs
blue damsels
grene chromis
what did u use?

[Emperator]

None, why sacrifice fish (or subject them to misery) when curing can consist of a little time and a piece of dead shrimp from the grocery store?

[AlexS!]

ok, i was prepared for the flaming:
well why don't u use live rock?
well why don't u use stress zyme?
why would u use a fish?
JUST TRYING TO FIND OUT WHAT PEOPLE HAVE USED!

[ranaman]

I have always used ammonium chloride to cycle a new tank. You use a 1/4 teaspoon per 20 gallons and wait for both ammonia then nitrites to go to zero.
The advantage of this method is more of the right bacteria colonise the tank, rather than having to compete with other bacteria that are eating the dead shrimp.
Most store bought cycle aids don't do much to speed up a tank cycle. The only one that can help is the packaged "live sand" . This doesn't have all the life of real live sand but does have active bacteria. I used the carib sea brand with ammonium chloride and had the tank cycle in two weeks compared to a normal cycle time of about 4 weeks.
Curing live rock in your tank will cycle it also. The worst method is using tank starter fish, search any message board and you will find people having trouble getting damsels out of their tanks. The only reason I can see for using tank starters is people want to see some fish in their tank. Cheap marine fish like damsels can introduce disease into a tank right when it is getting started and not that stable.
The most important thing is to have patience, I remember reading on a website that NOTHING GOOD happens to a marine tank fast. Words to live by.

[thezookeeper]

I agree to the statements made above. I cycled both of my saltwater tanks with live rock.


Joanne

[MarkS]

I cycled my first 10 gallon nano reef with live rock. I cycled my current 10 gallon nano reef with a piece of dead shrimp simply because I could not afford live rock. I am hoping to add about 15 pounds of live rock this week sometime (Scott, you have mail ...).

I would not recommend using fish for the reasons stated by ranaman.

Mark

__________________
I lost about ten pounds over the last few months.... Where'd they go?..... Bill Clinton

[gramma royale]

I pulled the newbie maneuver when I started my first reef tank. I used the packeged live aragonite sand and 15 lbs of "cured" LR in my 18 gallon. I thought that was good enough. I put in my first fish, my gramma, ONE WEEK after i set the tank up . Guess what? Both my gramma and my dwarf angel died of ich. Now I'm being bombarded by cyano, big time. I agree with ranaman, patience is the greatest virtue with reef tanks

[icemark]

No fish not ever!!!

LR yes.

LS and LR from another tank yes.

No fish!!! Not ever!!!

[Bughead]

I cycled my first tank with damsels. Six months later they caused WW3 in the tank. I finally had to remove all the rock to get the little devils out--after a multitude of schemes, including traps.
Live rock or dead shrimp is probably your best bet.

[SPasse]

AlexS!,

The method of cycling that I use depends on the system that I am using in my reef.

For my last Ecosystem/Live deep sand bed hybrid, I used the following approach:

1 Dead sand, “miracle mud” and fresh mix salt water added to system.

2 Ammonium Chloride used to establish initial ammonia cycle bacteria.

3 Cured Live Rock added to Main tank, after ammonia and nitrite at “zero”

4 Fauna starter kits added to DSB and mud bed.

5 Sand and bud bed fauna communities slowly “ramped up” by gradually increased feedings.

7 Caulerpa added to algae filter/refugium

8 Cautious introduction of corals after system has been in operation for approx. 6 months. Expect significant growth of calcareous algae by this point.

If you are using uncured live rock, the ammonium chloride step can be skipped as uncured live rock provides plenty of fuel for the nitrogen cycle.

Regards,

Scott Passe