Cycling

[adampw]

I was at my LFS today and they said that I should keep some damsels in my tank to help with the cycling of my tank. My tank is appox 2 weeks old and all it has in in is 30lbs of LR. I know damsels are a hardy fish, so would this be ok? My ammonia spike has already came and gone. My nitrites are high but the LFS said to do a partial water change, a drip acclimate the damsels. Would this be ok?

 

[bobby]

Yes you can put damsels in there, but I wouldnt do it if I were you. They can be mean when you add more fish, There hard to catch when you want them gone, and lastly your cycle is almost over. If you were to add them then you might start your cycle over due to the added bioload. Just my 0.2 cents though.

 

[adampw]

Thats what I thought. I will probally just wait until my cycle is over. Once the cycle is over, should I do a 25% or a 50% water change?

 

[bobby]

I would just leave it. Theres nothing in the tank to get hurt. Once the cycle is over I would do a large change if the nitrates re high.

 

[SSalty]

Yes you can put damsels in there, but I wouldnt do it if I were you. They can be mean when you add more fish, There hard to catch when you want them gone, and lastly your cycle is almost over. If you were to add them then you might start your cycle over due to the added bioload. Just my 0.2 cents though.

Yeah, I had to take out 50 Lbs of live rock to get my blue devil damsel out:frustrat: :frustrat: Man was I (bleep).

 

[Bifferwine]

Some damsels are okay. I would recommend green chromis or a clown. They aren't as aggressive as the blue, striped or dominos. Which are bad. And eat stuff they shouldn't.

 

[jhnrb]

I would not add anything to the system until the nitrites are down to 0. If you do a water change now you will slow the cycle and maturing of the system down. Your next step would be to watch your nitrates when the nitrites are down and ammonia is still down. Water changes to bring the nitrates down. Initially add animals very slowly and not too many at a time as your bacteria bed is not well established for high bio loads. welcome to the site and keep us posted. good luck and have fun.

 

[JellyMan]

No NO NO Damsels in the house!!! There evil reincarnate they will make the cycle but after that the tank is there teritory and they will terrorise any and every fish in the tank and will out manuver you when you try to remove him.

 

[Nedim]

From my experience in the hobby so far, If you have live rock, you dont even need fish to cycle the tank. At least in my case, my tank cycled as the LR was curing.



Another alternative to fish is biozyme. Its really only bacteria that helps kickstart the cycling process.

 

[yote]

Yep,you can cycle with the live rock. Thats probably THE best way to do it.

 

[JellyMan]

Id do the live rock thing infact Im doing it next saturday :D