Raw Shrimp to cycle tank?

[nymotts]

Some one told me the other day to put a shrimp in my 12g tank to help first cycle is it raw shrimp or what?

 

[PatMayo]

Do you have live rock? If you do you do not need to put anything in the tank. The live rock will cycle your tank. If the live rock is cured you may not even get a cycle. If it is uncured then you can cure it in your tank.

So in short, need more information.

Regards,

Pat

 

[LarryW]

yes you could add a small piece of raw shrimp to kick start the cycle. I did it with my 72g many years ago when I only had base rock in the tank. Uncured or partially cured LR will also do the trick, and is usually the method of choice.

 

[coast2coast7390]

yes it is raw
the theory behind this is that it will basicly do the same as fish...release ammonia...personally i dont like it cause in the end you have to deal with this slime that smells bad...just toss in some uncured live rock

 

[ionredline0260]

a small pinch of fish food works just as well and doesn't stink.

 

[nymotts]

all i have in the tank is lfs salt water and a cup of sand from a established tank i have at home i have no live rock. Planing on putting cured rock in there as soon as i can but am afraid that leather on live rock will die?

 

[coast2coast7390]

put that piece in last

 

[bertoni]

If you don't have anything in the tank, there's nothing to cycle, so the shrimp is just pollution. Do you have some sort of canister filter or the like that you're trying to set up? If so, a bit of fish food is a far better choice, in my opinion.

 

[JR719]

I cycled my tank with a raw shrimp, it did the trick. There was that usual foul odor and I did not yet have live rock. If you are planning on putting rock in the tank, just go get cured rock and don't worry about it.

Whatever way you go, just don't add livestock for a couple weeks. Give the tank a little time to stablize. Test, test and retest your water params.

 

[mg426]

I would just use LR.