Cycling w/ damsels

[steelrain]

I have a 55gal tank w/ a Tetratec PF500 filter and a Fluval 4Plus filter, that I am starting up within the week, My question is how many damesels do I need to cycle the tank, 25 lbs of live rock is out of the question since I am a little short on funds thanxs to christmas, But I may buy around 5 lbs when I buy the damsels.
thanks for the help

 

[mr . salty]

Two or three would work fine.But you should get CHROMIS instead of damsels.Most damsels will get very territorial and aggressive.And removing them is a pain.Chromis don't have these aggressive traits...

 

[y2says]

It's going to be a bitch to take the damsels out too, especially with rocks in the tank. You'll tear the whole thing apart. I'm starting a 55g tank for my brother and I'm probably going to use chromis or just use raw shrimp.

 

[thor]

just go to your local supermarket and grab some shrimp pop one or two in there and that starts the ammonia

 

[ocellaris_keeper]

Step away from the Damsels!!! If you plan on feeding your new fish frozen food go ahead and buy some brine shrimp and drop 1/4 of a cube in the tank.
Get yourself some tank raised Percula clowns after the cycle peeks and your ready to go. I actually cycled my tank with Live Rock - one week after I put the rock in the tank I added my percs and if I had made an error 3 months later would still have those guys.
Try to get some Live Sand fro your substrate and the tank with cycle itself.

 

[karlas]

since you cannot afford the lr right now go with the table shrimp method of cycling because using any fish for cycling is very hard on them and some might not make it anyway. it can cause long term damage of the gills if they live. i wouldn't put any fish in the tank until amm, and nitrites were down to 0 then u know it is safe to add a few fish. also if u just throw some food in the tank that will help with cycling to all you need is the ammonia started