I like to use a raw shrimp from the supermarket to cycle my sw tanks. Just stick it in a nylon and hang it in the tank. It worked real well for my aquapod and am doing the same right now in a 40b.
ok then.1 you can use that filter but it depends a bit on the media.
i was thinking biomax and filter floss... would that be ok?
2 live rock basically IS your filtration system. Most live rock will have some die off that will jump start your cycle. Buying fully cured rock(locally) can help speed things up. I got all my rock from someone tearing down their reef tank. I never saw any sort of cycle. Just depends on the source. Live rock shipped to you or recently shipped to the LFS will have a good amount of die off that will cycle your tank. Using dry rock will cause that to take longer.
i was planning on 4 lbs of lr, and 8 lbs of base. also, i will have to ship the rock at this point, since i have no lfs's other then petco and petsmart. so i don't need pure ammonia?
3 Yes yes YES. Saltwater fish/inverts/corals are sensitive. Patience in the key. Nothing good happens fast in saltwater.
my comments in red.Nothing happens fast, unless you use Dr. Tim's bacteria, then the initial cycle does happen fast (5 days on average). No idea where gangstafish came up with 6-8 weeks to cycle, that is the life cycle of Ich, not the time to cycle a tank. Then again, that picture posted scares the crap out of me, a shark resting on top of a lion? Asking for death. Is that tank size anywhere close to suitable for a shark? Can't tell from the photo, but one thing I can tell, it is a square/rectangle tank which is highly frowned upon for sharks. Sharks and rays should be kept in round tanks, not square tanks. If the shark is in the same tank as the bottom picture, size wise seems big enough for a baby shark, but what happens when it grows up? It doesn't appear to be a 600G+ tank.
interesting, i never knew that, but now i'm confused... does the cycle take 6 weeks or not?
Still, I challenge anyone to show me a definition of "cycle". There isn't one. The "initial cycle" is when you have no ammonia or nitrites in the tank but that by no means your tank is fully cycled, a fully cycled tank can take many years depending on your definition.
my definition of cycle, is a tank that can take 4 ppm of ammonia, and convert it to nitrate in less then 24 hours.
As for flow/turnover, I would actually say 20x should be the bottom limit for saltwater display tanks (tanks with rock in it). 10x for QT tanks because there are no obstructions like rock to break up/slow down flow.
so... minus problems with filter media, will the filter i have listed above work?
my comments in red.You can but you run the risk of damaging some of the "stuff" on your rock. Without adding ammonia you will still see a spike in ammonia then nitrite then nitrate. Once ammonia and nitrite are 0 with nitrates rising you can start to slowly add things.
so in otherwords, no ammonia source other then rock? what about the shrimp method listed above?
Filter floss tends to clog easily and cause nitrates to get high. If you are willing to rinse it out every few days then it should be fine as a media. You won't need the biomax it just ends up becoming a nitrate factory. Live rock will provide the surface area for your beneficial bacteria. It would not hurt to keep some purigen and chemi pure elite in the HOB. That will help keep phosphates and nitrates low.
i hate to ask this, but what is purigen and chemi pure, and what does it do? so no biomax. what about the sponge pad?
Also I don't know if this has been mentioned yet but you will also need a water source. 99% of the time tap water is no good for a saltwater tank. It just leads to algae problems. RO/DI water is the best but distilled water is fine.
i was planning on using the water you can buy at the grocery store out of the machines for like, 30 cents a gallon until i can afford an RO system.