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Good question, and it's praiseworthy that you don't want to kill anything on the LR - unfortunately it's also not really achievable... No matter what you do, many microscopic (and not so small...) organisms WILL be killed during the cycling process, not only by elevated ammonium, but also...

That's OK, I was not really offended, just a bit grumpy, I suppose Well, look at it this way... decomposing is natural, adding inorganic chemicals is not... Adding the ammonium chloride adds just ammonium (which will act as food for the filtration bacteria), and chloride (which will unbalance...

Well, you're the one with a month old tank which has not cycled, and the advice I've given you is based on 10 years personal experience in setting up my own tanks AND many other newbie's tanks - so you make the choice, it's no skin off my nose in any case...

YES !!! The gut of the frozen shrimp contain bacteria which will "kick-start" the cycle process. The decomposing shrimp will also provide the "food" to grow a large enough bacterial population to bio-filter your tank in the shortest time. Hennie

In my experience this is not true - I've kept aquariums for nearly 40 years, and have never experienced problems with Styrofoam not being strong enough... It will compact, though, as it's supposed to - this is what distributes the load uniformly. To check for levelness, just fill the tank say...

I have never used this method because I don't like doing things "unnaturally" - e.g. you are now adding extra chloride, which is not needed. More importantly, with DIY rock your only source of bacteria is the LS. Are you sure that the sand was really "live sand" when you bought it? Did/does it...

The alkalinity is quite high, but that's not bad. I do know that there is a problem with some Salifert alk kits being contaminated, and testing much higher than actual - check with another brand, just to be sure... Your high nitrate level (if accurate) indicates that either your tank has not...

Have you ever removed a piece of LR from the water and noticed the water draining out of the interior of the rock? Good quality live rock is VERY porous, and if a small piece of LR rubble is placed in strong flowing water (such as in most sumps) the interior just won't become anoxic enough for...

Just a word of advice: don't chase numbers :nono: If your tank is healthy and your ORP reading is only 250, DONT give it a massive ozone boost to increase the ORP to 450. The ORP fluctuate quite dramatically, and it's not necessarily caused by "bad" water - ORP meters measure small voltage...

If you don't know anyone with a mature tank to keep it for you untill your tank has cycled properly (2-3 months...) I would suggest that you eather ask the people presenting the course to keep it for you, or just pass it up. Makes one wonder about the integrity of the "trainers" if they offer...

I think you're missing the point... Both the rock and the bio balls are merely substrates on which the bacteria live - you could just as well use plastic hair curlers (as I did years ago...) or even pieces of bricks - in a high flow oxygen rich environment (trickle filter) they will all be...

OK, we seem to disagree on the smallest size rubble to use :) what's important is that we both agree that there is a minimum size limit... Although even small pieces of rock would have *some* anoxic areas, it stands to reason that larger rocks (of the same density/porosity) would have larger...

No, you can leave the uncleaned rock in the tank - it will take a bit longer to fully cure (depending on the amount of dead sponges, algae, etc. on the rock...) but in the end everything dead will decompose just the same. As they decompose the dead organisms will be consumed by microscopic...

Umm, not really, and not if used in a trickle filter... Small LR "fragments" sold as "rubble" are normally too small to contain meaningful denitrifying anoxic regions, and in a high-aerobic environment such as a wet/dry trickle filter they would work the same as bio balls or other aerobic...

I would be wary - they discuss canister filters and UGF's in depth, but no mention of live rock or live sand... also have a long & detailed discussion on fluorescent lighting (not T5...) and only one paragraph on "HQI discharge lamps" - there's much better information right here on Aquaria Central

All the Aquarium Systems skimmers are rather unloved by most marine aquarists, and for good reasons - they really don't skim very well. Your Seaclone won't work with a direct-feed from the tank, and the best place to keep it would be in the middle compartment of the sump. This won't work - the...

Although one could keep them on rock, open brain corals should preferably be kept on the sand, as that is their natural habitat. PLEASE get into the habit of supplying actual figures when referring to any water parameter, especially when people are trying to help you to solve a problem. To...

Do you test for alkalinity (also called hardness...)? This test is probably the most important test (after pH and temperature...) to do regularly once the tank has matured. A high alkalinity would help in maintaining a stable pH. Alkalinity depletion is also an indication of calcium depletion...

Yes. The best would be to add a "T" to the return line, and have a valve on the side of the "T" returning excess water directly back to the sump. You can use this to perhaps feed a carbon filter, fluidised bed phosphate filter, etc. or you could just re-circulate the excess water back to the...

Well, give us some more info on your tank setup, and we will gladly try to assist. Without knowing all the details of your system there is no we can really even try to give you some advice... What is the bio-load (how many of what species of fish, corals, other inverts?) What are your water...