Perculas to Cycle a new Tank?

[aquarius 1]

I've stripped down one of my 75's and now I'm starting from scratch. Would I be able to use my pair of Ocellaris Clowns to cycle the tank or should I go with something like Tomato Clowns or Damsels? Is there any species of damsels that are less aggressive then the others, besides chromis?

 

[pmauro]

damsels, they are hardier and cheaper, It is bad enough putting any fish through that, I recommend using frozen shrimp or better yet live rock but it's your tank your choice.

 

[newreefers]

use a raw shrimp and that way your fish won't die

 

[reefersx2]

Using just live rock and live sand will cycle your tank without needless losses.

 

[entice59]

i used rawshrimp, and in 1 week it finished cycling, though i found it very odd, the ammonianitrate did spike and dropped and now the nitrates are at 20ppm, just put them in a mediabag so that you wont have to clean shrimp chunks off the rocks/sand i did this in my friends tank and it took an hour cleaning it out. I learned my lesson
I used 40 lbs live sand and 40lbs live rocks to cycle

 

[dfishh]

sry if i seem inhumane, but i cycled my tank with my ocellaris (false percs) they did not show any odd behavior, and they r healthy and growing now. i guess the idea to use somthin like froaen or raw shrimp didnt really occur to me. one guy at a fish store told me that he heard sum customers speaking together, and one of them sed that he put a FRESHWATER guppy into his SALTWATER tank so it would die and cycle the tank. correct me if im wrong, but i believe thats is a very inhumane way to cycle ur tank
DAVE

 

[entice59]

my friend used four clowns to cycle, they ended up getting some type of purple fungus that looked exactly like coraline and just ended up dead in a week.

 

[jumpfrog]

Another vote for the frozen shrimp. Works and you don't have to worry about killing any fish in the process. Don't put yourself through the stress of worrying as well.

 

[entice59]

dont kill any helpless animal thats just bad karma

 

[demosthenes]

Yeah, I'm definitely one for the Dead Shrimp method. Also, look at it from a practical standpoint. With the damsels, you have to go buy them ($), acclimate them, feed them through the process, and then remove them (Aahhh), re-bag them, and then take them back. With the shrimp, you buy it (Less $), then it's done (No Aahhh). Looking at it from an ethical or practical standpoint still yields the same results.

 

[entice59]

not to mention the rocks you have to take out trying to catch them, then waiting for the debris to settle and then hurting your fingers and getting fustrated trying to set the rocks like before and never getting the same results.... all that happened to me
plus if they get ich becaue you tried to catch them for so long from stress.. you basically have to wait a month for the ich to die off.. leaving you with a fishless tank for one whole month maybe longer.. then you will probably have to put another damsel in and then it wont have ich and then when you add another fish in it will attack it all day.... also happened to me
look at my misfortune, dont let that happen to you
total it took, almost 2 months.. if you use shrimp.. you would already have had the fish you wanted by now , well maybe not the exact fish but atleast it wont be a damsel