Help! Live fish store confused me!

[Bearkat1234]

hey guys, my two fish stores have confused me. Need your opinion.

my tank will be set up for a week tomorrow. live sand, live rock in DT. Only have sand in the refugium no rock yet.

One LFS told me to ghost feed to start the cycle process and turn my skimmer off completely until my first water change after the cycle....is this true, should I do this? Skimmer has only been running a week, and water/bubble line is right where it should be in skimmer, skimmer has only produced about 1 inch of skimmmate in the collection cup all week......

the other LFS told me to keep the skimmer running completely and DO NOT ghost feed but to let my live sand and live rock do the cycle and keep skimmer ON at all times.......



what to do?

[Bearkat1234]

or should I ghost feed and keep it running......or not to ghost feed and keep it running?

[3FordFamily]

Ghost feeding without skimmer will make it cycle faster but may well harm some of your live rock (but then again the cycle in general can and will). Just different tactics. I always leave my skimmers on.

[s_kelley]

Keep your skimmer running I've never ghost fed but have dropped a thawed shrimp in and let it sit u til the cycle was done

[Bearkat1234]

ok i will keep the skimmer on just for precaution.

should i ghost feed?

also, is it ok if my skimmer has only produced 1 inch of skimmate semi unclear water in the collection cup in only a weeks time?

[Bearkat1234]

or just let the live rock to initiate the ammonia spike?

[3FordFamily]

Yeah there's not much to remove with no livestock. You can adjust it to skim wetter if you want

[Bearkat1234]

so should I ghost feed with table spoon of fish food each day but keep everything running or no?

[3FordFamily]

so should I ghost feed with table spoon of fish food each day but keep everything running or no?

Table spoon sounds excessive. Just a little. I Might just put one small frozen shrimp in there and leave it

[Sk8r]

I use one flake fish food per 10 gallons daily, and run ALL equipment to be sure I can set a reasonable working heat budget. A cold tank cycles slower than a properly warm one, just because chemistry runs faster at the proper tank temperature.

[Bearkat1234]

ok great. i will toss a little bit of food in tank to start.
thanks guys

[3FordFamily]

Yup. By the way it's local fish store (lfs) ;)

[JammyBirch]

I used a piece of shrimp, once the ammonia level hit 3-5ppm I pulled it. That's it no ghost feeding. Let the skimmer run, you need it to break in. Since you have live rock you'll have some die off anyway. The most important thing you can do is monitor the nitrogen cycle, skimmer and feeding aren't that important, once you see significant levels of ammonia.

Good luck, once this part is over it gets really fun.

[rfgonzo]

Skimmer or no skimmer doesn't really matter during your cycle but since you have it you might as well run it to let your skimmer break-in. The reason you ghost feed or add an uncooked fresh shrimp is because you're trying to build up your bacteria level. If you ghost feed you will need to add food daily, if you do a raw shrimp you can just drop one in and let it rot.

[Bearkat1234]

great! perfect