Run in new tank?

Steve_B

Steve_B

New member
I have been keeping S/W fishes for a long while.

I have a 70 gallon tank now that I'm starting from scratch. I run a wet/dry, carbon canister filter and 1 piece of a coral replica. The most simple deal I can make. I'm starting from scratch on this one. Nothing but a damsel and SEACHEM STABILITY to GET THINGS MOVING FASTER AND PRIME TO DETOXIFY THE HIGH AMONIA AND NITRITE. It's been about 2 WEEKS and I'm above 5ppm NITRITE.
I have always started a new tank with a sufficient amount of substrate from the previous tank so the new tank was already stable from day one. This tank had disease so I decided to sterilize it with fresh water and start from square one.
I haven't cycled a tank in so many years I don't remember how long it takes to go through the ammonia nitrite to zero PPM.
I have been reading, but I have no idea how long it will take to fully cycle it with the SEACHEM STABILITYadditive to shorten the cycle time.
I want to stock it with a little friendly guys and not have to deal with my
10" Queen Angel facing off with a similar size aggressive tang and all of the other aggressive stuff anymore after all of these years. I want to go simple.
As little worry with all of the little guys happy and jumping for joy:rollface:
The KISS way, keep it simple stupid, is what I want to do.
Any thoughts on cycle time for this kind of thing?
Of course the damsel monster is gone after the thing is run in.
mY wIFE WANTS SOME FISH BECAUSE THE PROBLEM WITH THE FISH TANK IS THERE ARE NO FISH:p

I WAS RUNNING A 225 GALLON TANK THAT IS FOR SALE NOW. i WAS JUST SICK OF THE ENTIRE THING.
 
you can expect a cycle to last anywhere from 4-8 weeks. if you start with established live rock or filter material, it would be a little shorter. Also nowadays, people dont cycle using live fish, its considered cruel and unneccesary. just use raw shrimp, it works just as well, and you dont have to worry about any diseases that the fish may bring in.
 
Cycling with a fish may be cruel, but its a better cycle for the future fish you are going to eventually add that are less tolerant. Cycling with decaying food or flesh is not the same as cycling with the food/flesh and a living fish creating fish urine which in marine is very concentrated. Different nitrifying bacteria consume different things. Im not advocating a with-fish cycle. Just food for thought
 
I do advocate the use of live rock cured of course, real live sand not the kind in a bag, and products like cycle and prime to detox amm/nitrite throughout the whole process. With a fish like a grouper, eel, damsel is a matter of your ethics/morals individually.

5ppm is very high for any fish. it must burn like fire and create a total internal inbalance in the fish.
 
If one uses a water conditioner/detoxifier thruout the cycle, it will just prolong the cycle as there will be no food for the bacteria you're trying to establish.

You'd be better off adding a bottle of Dr. Tim's or Super-Bac to the tank, esp if you "have" to stock it immediately.
 
Seachem states how using prime simply detoxifies the ammonia and nitrite and does not interrupt the biological cycle and consumption of either substance. It makes the amm/nitrite less toxic towards fish but still food for nitrifying bacteria. So it does not lengthen the time of the cycle and keeps everything safer and right on schedule.
I was told this directly from a Seachem exec when i was employed at one of the best and most diverse LFS in my area when he came to visit his largest buyer in the area.
 
Do they have a study to point to? I'd be interested in seeing it.

Not to be argumentative, but seems that if Prime is the "magic bullet", then everyone would use it while cycling and there would be no need for bottled bacteria or growing them in the tank cycling because Prime will detoxify everything, right?

Additionally, if the OP is using a nitrogenous compound binder, his tests will be skewed unless he uses a non-salicylate type reagent, as the compounds in question are not being removed from the tank, but are bound up.
 
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Call 888-seachem and speek to a tech. I can speak from experience that in emergencies i have used stability and prime, or cycle and prime, and have gotten very big tanks cycled and ready in unbelievable amounts of time. I wont even tell you how fast to avoid arguments and criticisms.
I am not recommending this at all.
Provide food and urine, fish urine that is lol, if you can, and the bacteria, whether natural or from a bottle will grow. In the mean time use heavy heavy doses of prime almost daily, to detox any spikes. Prime still allows the amm/nitrite to be consumed by the cycling bacterias, but makes it much safer for fish.
This is not recommended and as i statex, in emergencies, ive set up tanks and ponds this way.
 
I don't recall Prime as being buffered...what's it do to the pH of the tank? I've seen heavy doses of such products crash the pH of tanks.

We currently have a good dozen setups of various sizes running, but we tend to rely on Super-bac and established LR in emergencies. We're going to try Dr. Tim's the next time we need such a product.
 
I'll just give the damsel back to the store. It shows no sign of stress and I have had multiple emails back and forth with SEACHEM.
PRIME is working because if it wasn't I doubt that fish would be very happy looking right about now. It eats like a pig and looks as if there is nothing wrong with the water.
BTW, SEACHEM gave me the best answer they could. It will very from one tank to another, some take longer than others. Prime will not slow down the cycle time; just detoxify the ammonia and nitrite.
I came here to see if anybody had any real life experience with the way I'm doing this.
 
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what you are doing, in my experience, will speed things up as long as you keep the bacteria fed with food and urine and feces. It recently became immoral to cycle your tank with fish, thats up to you. i have no recommendation of fish or fishless.
Prime and stability are both great, and have worked for me.
My input was for the OP. Hope what i said helped.
 
I"I haven't cycled a tank in so many years I don't remember how long it takes to go through the ammonia nitrite to zero"

That was in the first statement for this topic I started.

If prime works and the fish lives (which I truly believe it will) there is no harm done.

"Prime and stability are both great, and have worked for me."
Hope what i said helped."

Yes your post did help.
What was the outcome of the fish that ran the cycle for you?
If I thought I was going to kill it I wouldn't do it.
Regarding morals that came into this topic;

Has anybody here ever read topics regarding how to euthanize a fish? Talk about morals, some of the people posting were speaking in a very immoral way, in my opinion.

“Hit it in the head with a hammer” “1 good sharp knife and off with its head” on and on.

I went on there and had one statement; if your dog or cat had a terminal illness would you throw him into the woods so some predator could rip his flesh from his bones?

There are some really nasty people in this world as we all know
 
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When i built my big marine pond, i think my three foot grouper and some rudderfish, foot long, and pilotfish/trevally jacks were the entrants. And it was an emergency because the previous pond was leaking fatal toxins from the liner that were killing of everything one by one. So in one 20-22 hour session the 12'x12' pond was constructed better than most homes and the filtration was plumbed, one forty gallon barrel half full of LR almosty fully cured and one barrel of recently rinsed bio material, rinsed with fresh to remove the toxic remnants. Combo of Prime and Stability by the gallon over and over and i lost no fish at all. Within three weeks it was shark/ray ready with no major spike. Continued to add LR to barrel til it was full. Success. The end. Lol jk
 
Sorry if i took it off topic.
When i used stability and prime together i cycled in less than a month and lost no fish.
It speeds things up in my tanks, i dont know about others. And i dont lose hardy fish (groupers, snappers, damsels) while using the two products together
 
capo larzo said:
Sorry if i took it off topic.
When i used stability and prime together i cycled in less than a month and lost no fish.
It speeds things up in my tanks, i dont know about others. And i dont lose hardy fish (groupers, snappers, damsels) while using the two products together
Click to expand...

No capo, I sent it into off topic not you. It's obvious that you were only giving the answer to my question and really nothing more. I was looking for comments regarding people that had actually used my method in real life and how it worked for them. You were ABSOLUY answering my question 100%, not using unfounded opinions based upon theory.
I'm sorry if I gave the impression that you made the topic go in the wrong direction.
 
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namxas said:
I don't recall Prime as being buffered...what's it do to the pH of the tank? I've seen heavy doses of such products crash the pH of tanks.
Click to expand...

I monitor the PH 2x daily. It is stable at 8.3, is that OK? If it needs it I will buffer, no big deal
 
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