Whats Next>?????

[jlevan]

for all you seasoned vets out there, im mid cycle on my new 75 gal tank, and have about 70-80 lbs of fiji premimum live rock. a few blue damsels, a few emerald crabs, about 50 blue and red hermits and 30 turbo snails....i was browsing all the tanks and noticed awesome things growing all over the rock...can i expect my live rock to blossom such stuff...and if so, what...and when...also, am i going down the right path getting these hermits and snails and damsels goin in there now to help the tank cycle/...thanks all in advance...

 

[ericholcek]

a lot of the stuff growing on people's tank's are probablly coral.

 

[bobbyzat]

To answer your question, yes and no. Yes your tank is probably cycling well, and on its way, and yes you can get lots of cool stuff growing in the future once you do a lot of reading. But there is absolutely no reason to have any livestock whatseover in your tank until the cycle is completed. All you need to get your tank to cycle is an ammonia source. This can be a dead coctail shrimp, some fish food decomposing, or like rock. All of these things can and will start a cycle. Using fish is cruel and unnecesary, and the inverts dont really add to the bioload, and as a clean up crew, they could be eating ammonia-creating products, and actually making the cycle take longer.