[ThatTwirp]

I have seen references in a few places stating that one way to get a reef tank's biological cycle going is to put a dead shrimp in the tank.

I can understand the (perverse) logic of this, but it sounds like a bad idea.

Does anyone have any experience with this? And if so, would you recommend this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ThatTwirp]

Ok, I'll give it a shot. But, what about substituting some brine shrimp instead? Letting them go through their life cycle and then die off.

@deputyo, I think you are jumping to conclusions. "Perverse" in the sense of allowing decaying material to sit in the tank. Usually, you want to remove decaying material from the tank as soon as you find it, at least that's what I do in my freshwater tanks.

 

[ThatTwirp]

I understand the concept, it's the amount of decaying material represented by an entire shrimp that was my concern. That's why I asked.

At this point, I have live rock in a small tank under low light. I'm about to turn on brighter lighting and I'm just planning what to do next.

Also, no one is talking about cycling the tank with fish. That's what some other person wrote. I can't understand how people can continue to put words in my mouth and start jumping to conclusions about me and fish torture.

I never put fish into any tank until it has cycled for at least 6 weeks and for this saltwater tank, I don't plan on adding ANY fish for 8-12 months.

 

[ThatTwirp]

I like to use a single 51-60 size shrimp, or half of a 26-30 size...

Perfect! Exactly what I needed. Image saved to hard drive.

Also, I'm on the TX Gulf Coast, so the "Texas Prawn" is what I imagine when I think "Shrimp", which is way too big for the tank of rock I have. I will adjust accordingly.