???Ever Heard this Before????

[fishy122092]

ok i thought this was a little wierd. I was at my trusted LFS, being a newbie to the hobby. my dealer asked me a few questions about my tank as i was buying supplies. specifically she asked whether or not my tank had been cycled yet. i told her i had bought live rock and used some of my neighbor's gravel and rocks but i had not started to cycle yet. then she gave me a suggestion. she said that a quick and easy (and cheap) way to cycle the tank was to throw a piece of cocktail shimp in the tank to feed the nitrifying bacteria. Cocktail shrimp? has anyone ever heard this before or even tried it? does this really work? im a little confused.

[jenajet]

Originally Posted by greenbean36191

Yes, it's a common way to do it and it does work, but it's unneeded. If you've already added rock then the shrimp just becomes redundant. If the bacteria is already established on the rock and gravel and you don't have any big die off you shouldn't ever see the typical cycle.

agree, if you start with good cured live rock and sand you make not see much if any cycle. When I set up my 90 everything came from existing systems that were already running. The tank never cycled at all. To be on the safe side tho I waited a month to add critters.