Saltwater System Questions

[Brenden]

Hey,
Just a question of the cycling of a saltwater system.

1. How long should a system cycle before marine life is added into the tank.

Also for those who have experience with these fish, do Clown Fish perfer pellets, or frozen foods? Aswell as lionfish so they prefer frozen or live food?

For those with experience of these fish, how much $$ do you spend a month on food. And how often do you feed these fish, and what size quantities are we talking.

Thanks, Brenden

[fsn77]

The length of a cycle varies, meaning results from test kits for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate will be what tells you when the cycle is over. After that, critters can be added slowly.

Our pair of clowns will eat anything we put in our tank -- frozen mysis, live brine shrimp, pellets, flakes. They aren't too picky. They were captive bred and raised, which might be why they are so willing to eat just about anything.

A $8 container of pellets and a $7 pack of frozen mysis last us much longer than a month -- at least 5 months on the pellets and 4 on the frozen mysis. Our lfs sells live brine shrimp for $1 per tsp (which is > 100 of the little guys), I enrich them with some Selcon ($10 / bottle, which lasts multiple months) before feeding them to the tank, and $1 worth lasts for 3 -4 feedings. I feed lightly and not every day. Ususally, the they get fed every other day; be it some pellets, 1 cube of frozen mysis, or a portion of the enriched live brine shrimp.

Never had a lion fish, so I'm no help there...