starting a cycle?....

[jb clown]

Do you have to have a fish to start a cycle? Or could you just have a shrimp to start the cycle and then add fish? I would like to do that because my local fish store does not return any fish after you start the cycle(live in a very small town). I have added my live rock to my tank and i am waiting for the ammonia levels to go down so i can add fish.
Thanks
:yes:

 

[saltymist]

Go to your local grocery store, and pick up a jumbo raw shrimp (dead of course and ready for human consumption) and a womens short nylon stocking. Put shrimp in stocking and tie closed, put stocking with shrimp in tank and let it sit 48 hours up to a week (monitor your amonia levels, they shoudl rise fairly quickly), when amonia has spiked between 4 and 8, then remove stocking and discard in outside bin.
Then just wait till the cycle completes (amonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 10 to 40) and your done. No fish harmed during this type of cycle.
I believe you can also start a cylcle with uncured liverock, and just plunk it into a tank and wait till the cycle is done.
The old school of tought (which I was brought up on) always involved cycling marine tanks with fish, but its really not necessary and causes undue stress upon thos more hardy fish that are used commonly for cycling.

 

[jb clown]

Thanks salty mist...i was also wondering what kind of chemicals to put in the water or a QT? I am going to get my 10 tank down and put some of my water from my tank in there and make new water for my tank. I looked up some of the ick and ich curings and the one said that you should not use it for small fish and I am going to get pritty small fish (cheaper). Do all ick curing things have that or just some and is there a difference for an ick curing chemical and should you just put in the ick curing think even if the fish don't have ick when they arive?
Thanks :notsure: :happy: