Remove dead prawns

[ddalva]

In the FAQ it says to put a couple of dead prawns to start the ammonia/nitrite cycle. At what point in the cycle do you actually remove the dead critters?

Dave

[Radioheed]

I have never used this technique...But it is intended to kick-start the cycle, and seed sand beds (am I right here?)

what are your params? I would think you could/should take them out once the ammonia spikes

also, WELCOME! I would add that fish swimming welcome, but I'm still a noob too...

[BurntOutReefer]

remove after a couple of days...BUT....its not going to make your cycle any shorter...so ,instead, I would throw them on the BBQ instead , and just put in a pinch of flake food and wait it out...(assuming you dont have any LR yet)....

[bertoni]

If the tank has live rock, I wouldn't put them in at all. If you've already added them, I'd take them out now. If the tank doesn't have live rock, as soon as a test kit shows ammonia, it's safe to remove them, in my opinion.

[ohbubbles!]

I started my 29 gallon tank with 7lbs of live rock and 1 dead prawn and personally I just left it in there and it dissapeared in a couple of weeks on its own.

[Shagsbeard]

Some people pee in their tank to get it started.

It's true.

But there are lots of different ways of introducing ammonia. The natural die off in live rock is quite sufficient to get things going. So if you have live rock in your tank, you really don't need anything else. The shrimp thing is for people who want to get the bacteria going in an otherwise completely sterile tank.

If you want, you can feed your live rock. Chop up a little piece of coctail shrimp and scatter it over your rock. You'll see all sorts of life come out to grab some lunch. Brittlestars and bristleworms are common, as well as all sorts of other stuff. There's enough biology happening in live rock for your tank to stabalize without adding anything else.

When you add fish to that, add them slowly and your tank will naturally adjust to handle the increased bioload.