tdubrow
Aquarium Advice Regular
Been doing a fishless cycle on my 75 gallon for about 4 weeks now. Using pure ammonia for the cycle. I am using a wet/dry filter (not running my skimmer yet) and the tank is filled with base rock. I am going through the nitrite spike right now. I stopped dosing the ammonia 2 days ago and added 15lbs of live rock. LFS said it was fully cured but I beg to differ. I figure there will be some die off as Im adding it to a nitrite spike but my questions is this:
Should I be putting a raw shrimp in the tank for an ammonia source to feed the existing bacteria or will I be fine with just the minor die off from the live rock? Maybe add some food to the tank? Just dont want to cause a problem with my cycle with the lack of ammonia source.
I may be over thinking this but I'm used to fishless cycling freshwater tanks where you keep dosing the ammonia daily or every other day until nitrite is gone. The a big water change to drop the nitrates and you add fish. Any help will be appreciated.
Also, should I fire the skimmer up now or should I wait until the cycle is complete?
Should I be putting a raw shrimp in the tank for an ammonia source to feed the existing bacteria or will I be fine with just the minor die off from the live rock? Maybe add some food to the tank? Just dont want to cause a problem with my cycle with the lack of ammonia source.
I may be over thinking this but I'm used to fishless cycling freshwater tanks where you keep dosing the ammonia daily or every other day until nitrite is gone. The a big water change to drop the nitrates and you add fish. Any help will be appreciated.
Also, should I fire the skimmer up now or should I wait until the cycle is complete?