Getting Started with Salt Water fish

mperez

mperez

Member
I have started a new 50 gal tank and I have justed added LS to my 50 gal tank and have been running my protein skimmer for about 2 days now. I was woundering if I should put in LR now to help the system cycle? or is their a better way to help the system cycle?. Also how long does it take for the system to cycle through. I have also heard that putting in raw shrimp from the store helps as well, is that true? and the last questions is how long to i have to wait to put in damsels?
thanks
Mike
 
feixjai

feixjai

Active Member
the sooner you put in your live rock the better. all tanks are different and the cycle time is also different. some tanks will cycle for 2 weeks and other would go about 3 weeks. patience with help you out a lot in saltwater. just wait until your ammonia, nitrate, and nitrites go down to 0. yes putting in a raw shrimp will also help but you could just put in some damsels. what are you water paraments now? im pretty sure you would be able to put damsels in now.
 
joker_ca

joker_ca

Active Member
add the LR now it'll help your tank cycle faster, and test everyother day you'll see your readings go up and then come down to acceptable levels when that happeneds your tank is done cycling
 
jjlittle

jjlittle

Member
Get the LR in there it will help very much. The shimp deal works well the perpose is to build ammonia so when the shimp decays it builds your ammonia getting the cycle process started. You will then see nitrite & nitrates as well . I hope you have gotten test kits for Ammonia/Nitraite/ Nitrate/ ph/ phosphates for you will need to be checking these offen to see how you cycle is going.Once the ammonia / nitraite / phosphate are zero reading tehn you will be able to add fish of choice just make sure you do it slowly and dont add alot of fish at once.You will want you Nitrates to be below 20 as well. No 2 tank cycle alike so it hard to say how long but the LR will shorten the time for sure.Welcome to the hobby....
 
S

sinner's girl

Guest
You should wait untill your cycle is finished before adding damsels or any other fish. When you see am and Nitrites are zero, then you'll have nitrates, do a water change to bring these down (below 20), make sure everything is stable, temp, sg, ect...then you can add fish.
Add one at time (unless it's a pair), and wait 3-4 weeks before adding more, this lets your tank adust to the new bioload.
You can add your clean up crew (inverts) when your cycle is finished.
Good luck!
 
monalisa

monalisa

Active Member
Mike,
Welcome to SWF.com!!
Please don't put any fish in your tank until levels are all zeroed out. That's a very cruel thing to do to a fish and may cause you considerable headaches down the road. The raw shrimp method is a great way to jump start your cycle. I agree with the previous post, turn the skimmer off while cycling.
Best of luck to you. See you 'round the boards.
Lisa :happyfish
 
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