I didn't mean any offense to you New Reefer. That was why I said I appreciated your advice.
That's OK, I was not really offended, just a bit grumpy, I suppose
I just didn't agree with the assertion that one way was more natural than the other.
Well, look at it this way... decomposing is natural, adding inorganic chemicals is not...
In my opinion(I am no marine biologist or chemist of course) I would rather put in the ammonia source directly instead of waiting for it from a rotting shrimp. Not to say that won't work, just I would rather use the direct source.
Adding the ammonium chloride adds just ammonium (which will act as food for the filtration bacteria), and chloride (which will unbalance your sodium:chloride ratio, leaving you with an elevated chloride-ion level - not a good thing to start your tank with ion-balancing issues).
Adding the shrimp will provide food directly for whatever microscopic life you might have in the tank (live rock...), and indirectly as ammonium for your filtration bacteria. In addition, being natural, it will have (been host to...) various microscopic organisms and bacteria which at some stage lived in the ocean. Many of these microscopic critters survive being frozen, and can "inoculate" your tank, thus boosting the cycle.
My main concern about using the shrimp was that there would be a smell. Have you had any issues with smell from the shrimp?
Yes, decomposing shrimps do smell rather bad, but not nearly as bad as uncured live rock, or two day old skimmate... it's one of those things that one just accept "for the long-term good" if you're serious about making a success with reef keeping.
In your ten years of fishkeeping have you had difficulty using ammonium chloride to cycle tanks, or have you not used it before?
Actually, I've been keeping fish for more than 40 years, I've only kept marines for 10 years. I have only personally used Ammonium Hydroxide to cycle fresh-water tanks in the past. I have, however, observed, communicated and/or mentored many novice marine aquarists, and enough of them have used this method for me to see that cycling a tank with a shrimp, of with uncured live rock, is *much* better than going the sterile chemical way
... after all, it's so much less painful to learn from someone else's mistakes.
The tank seems to be cycling now since I have added a heat source.
Good - even though I don't like the method, it should still cycle.
Your name is a bit misleading though, after a decade of personal experiance you're still a new reefer.
Well, ten years ago I WAS a "New Reefer", and hey, I'm still learning every day. For what it's worth, check the "Join Date" below the user's name - although it does not always say much, it does give an indication of how long someone has been a member (in my case, the July 2003 is misleading, as AC apparently reset the join dates of really old members after a system crash back in 2003.
Anyway, good luck with your tank :grinyes:
