whats the difference between one rotting shrimp or the collective rotting poop of a lot of fish? Not much, its all just decaying organic matter. I cycled my tank with a massive ammount of flakes, works as well as ammonia adding and probably promotes detritus decomposing bacteria you might not get with direct ammonia addition a la fishless cycling.
cycling with decomposing meat
- Thread starter cdawson
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You know, you might be on to something... There is, after all, many more than just two or three types of bacteria in any environment, and they all have jobs to do, one of them being the decomposition of organic matter. I wonder if that's a big enough difference to matter between a fishless/fishy/meat cycling method, though?
I try to do a little cleaning before I have a prawns worth of fish poo in the tank. All reports I've seen on the shrimp-cycling method include mentions of the stench, suggesting to me that conditions are a bit different from what you'd find in a normal well-run tank. If there are a additional varieties of beneficial bacteria working the breakdown they'll be along soon enough. I haven't seen anything to suggest that the fish suffer while waiting for them after an ammonia-cycle.
I realize the you would not want to have a shrimps worth of decaying matter in a normal tank full of fish, but this is an empty tank in which we are trying to establish bacteria. This is why we dont do water changes in a fishless cycling tank. Cleaning it would be defeating the purpose of adding ammonia. The stench is due to the ammonia and will disappear when the nitrogen comsuming bacteria have established themselves and the cycle is complete.
I think we should demand wetmanNY explain his ladder remark... although anyone who has closely ready his site will understand. It's all part of his amazing ability to control certain things...
Jim
Jim
Man did this thread ever stray from the path. The shrimp method does in fact stink, I've tried it, but it's not thaaaat bad, particularely if you have no one else in the house to offend. I'd just stick with the shrimp and do a water change when it's cycled. Works nicely, you get alot of bacteria build up in there.
A bunch more, then you cook the rest. Setting up tanks while have a seafood dinner. What's better?
I'd go with straight ammonia over the shrimp for two reasons.
1. Ammonia's a lot easier to measure making it easier to add the proper amount to bring your tank up to 5ppm.
2. If I've got some raw shrimp available, I'd much rather make some yummy scampi than toss them in a tank to decay.
1. Ammonia's a lot easier to measure making it easier to add the proper amount to bring your tank up to 5ppm.
2. If I've got some raw shrimp available, I'd much rather make some yummy scampi than toss them in a tank to decay.
There's a whole lot of stuff getting broken down besides nitrogen compounds with the shrimp method. The ammonia-style cycle doesn't smell bad at all, just a whiff of it when dosing, no stench to speak or even a vaguely bad odor.
The nitrogen, I think, is coming from processed proteins only. You'll get some ammonia, but a lot of other stuff you don't necessarily want or need as well. In an inhabited tank, the ammonia is coming primarily from the fish, not from decomposing organics (some, just not a lot). The fish are also quite involved in breaking down the fats and sugars and complex proteins they'll come across, so many of these other bacteria won't necessarily have a food source later on.
It may work, it just seems very messy and inefficient. I'd go with an ammonia style cycle. If you don't want to do that, I'd go with a high protein fish food. I wouldn't want to spend a month or more smelling rotting seafood and I don't see any advantage to be gained over the cleaner methods.
Certainly your call to make, just my 2¢.
The nitrogen, I think, is coming from processed proteins only. You'll get some ammonia, but a lot of other stuff you don't necessarily want or need as well. In an inhabited tank, the ammonia is coming primarily from the fish, not from decomposing organics (some, just not a lot). The fish are also quite involved in breaking down the fats and sugars and complex proteins they'll come across, so many of these other bacteria won't necessarily have a food source later on.
It may work, it just seems very messy and inefficient. I'd go with an ammonia style cycle. If you don't want to do that, I'd go with a high protein fish food. I wouldn't want to spend a month or more smelling rotting seafood and I don't see any advantage to be gained over the cleaner methods.
Certainly your call to make, just my 2¢.
