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Max_in_SD

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 11, 2005
Messages
23
Location
San Diego
when starting a salt water FO aquarium what additive if any besides salt and some shrimp should i add into the tank. I read on this board that ammo-lock, prime and any other stuff should not be used is this correct. I plan to use bioenzyme as bacteria starter
 
Prime is the conditioner to eliminate chlorine and chloramine. It is, IMHO, the best conditioner on the market right now. You should use some form of dechlorinator unless you are using ro/di water.
 
Your refering to the beginning cycling phase I take it since you mentioned shrimp.

I wouldnt spend the money on the bactera starter. If its free then ya I guess you could add it but I woudlnt buy the stuff.

your gonna need powerheads, heaters, thermomoter, hydromoter, sw test kits. What size tank are we talking about.

Are you seeking mostly cycle advice or are you looking more for info on what to get to have an operational tank?
 
I need cycle advice as everytime i put fish they seem to croak. I am trying to do a FO tank. Everytime i tested my last water my nitrates, nitrites were 0 but my Ammonia was high. I waited 8 weeks and nothing seemed to cure it. I tried ammo-lock and i think it made it worse. Last time i checked the ammonia was at 8.0. so i figure let me take a step back. did a 100% water change last night. went and bought some raw shrimpp three 3 small ones in there. Measured the salt with my refractometer set it to 1.022. Used my ph monitor and it was at 8.2. this morning used the pharmecutuical test kit measured the ph it was also 8.2. I added two caps of prime. so i have nothing esle in there besides my ornaments.

I have 2 Fluvals 404's
Seaclone 150 protein skimmer
2 ZooMed Powerheads.
thermoeter set to 82. why because I live in desert valley and my temperature fluxs alot because at night temperature drops and during the day it goes high

I have gotten past the cycle process with once with damsels but then every other fish i added died. so i wanna get past the cycle process this time with the shmrip but be able to sustain fish afterwards
 
Ome thing to keep in mind. If you read the bottle from the Ammo-loc it speciffically tells you that the Ammonia is still in the water. Ammo-loc just converts the toxic ammonia to a non-toxic type....your tests will still show the ammonia in the water.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that is something I SPECIFFICALLY remember about the ammo-loc.
 
your right it just converts it to a non toxic form. the problem was that when i poured the ammo-lock was like 4 weeks ago and i waited another 3 before testing to see if the ammonia would be elminated by the biological filter and nothing happened. checked again the following week and still nothing so figured time to regroup
 
From this situation did you empty the tank fully of water and start anew? If so then dont use ammoloc and dont add anything living to the tank until your raw shrimps have decomposed and your ammonia levels have spiked and have then fallen to zero and your nitrites have spiked and fallen to zero.

Make sure your test kit is for saltwater and if it has a test for total ammonia and free ammnoia that will also help decypher if its indeed toxic ammonia or the binded non toxic form.
 
yeah i emptied it completely and just added new water. Added three decent sized shrimp not to big not to small. Added two cap fulls of prime and about 28 pounds of natural oceanic salt. Now just going to wait and let nature take its course.
 
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