Dead Blue crab for cycle?

[jshev]

I have some frozen blue crab I direct from the sea. I was wondering if i put one of the claws in my 10g tank if it would help with the cycle. I have live sand and dry rock. I have herd of putting a cocktail shrimp in, but how about a bit of crab?

Thanks

[clink51]

honestly, i dont see the harm, essentially its the same exact thing. try it out and let us know!

[CronicReefer]

It will pollute your water with a lot of organics that you would want to avoid having in the tank as it can cause algae problems (cocktail shrimp cause the same issues). Use a pure 10% ammonia solution instead and avoid all those problems. Plus you can more accurately track the ammonia spike and how quickly your tank can process X amount of ammonia. You want to be able to do about 0.5-1.0 ppm in 12-24 hours for a tank your size before adding any livestock.

 

This is a good link to follow for cycling with ammonia http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/fishless-cycling

 

You will need to do a little math to figure out how much ammonia solution to add to your tank to raise it to 2ppm if you are not using Dr. Tim's solution.

[Tamberav]

+1 ChronicReefer, pure ammonia is probably the best way.

 

I'm lazy though and just put fish food in mine which rots and turns into ammonia, it's probably not ideal but I personally don't worry about a pinch of food.

 

I probably wouldn't use shrimp/crab, I'm sure that has a lot more waste than a small amount of pellets I use and it would get stinnnnnnnnky.

 

 

Be sure to check the dates when you are reading sources on how to do things, this hobby changes and moves very quickly and many methods are outdated. They can still be used in most cases, but often better ways have been discovered.

[Clown79]

I can't work with ammonia or bleach so I have never used this method but I do know there is a specific method with it.

 

I do the tried and true method- liverock. I used 80% dry 20% liverock and livesand. Fed the tank with food lightly and cycled in 2 weeks.

 

If you go with the crab or deli shrimp, put it in a media bag so the waste stays in the bag.

[clink51]

If you go with the crab or deli shrimp, put it in a media bag so the waste stays in the bag.

 

Agreed, i put it in a net and just had it sitting on the edge of the water (balanced between overflow and edge of tank)

[squamptonbc]

I would have preferred to have used live rock but the fake live rock they sell now just isnt really live rock, and after a week of looking for pure ammonia with no luck, all the stores had ammonia but it was scented or had other crap added to it, I just went the cocktail shrimp route.

 

It worked but was a bit wonky ammonia levels wise, didn't as of yet seem to have caused any issues and the tank is doing well.

 

Took about 6 weeks start to finish. Dry rock with 1 pound of so called live rock but eh it's not really live and it's painted or dyed purple.

 

Never would have thought pure plain ammonia would have been so hard to find.

[PorscheCaymanGT4]

It will pollute your water with a lot of organics that you would want to avoid having in the tank as it can cause algae problems (cocktail shrimp cause the same issues). Use a pure 10% ammonia solution instead and avoid all those problems. Plus you can more accurately track the ammonia spike and how quickly your tank can process X amount of ammonia. You want to be able to do about 0.5-1.0 ppm in 12-24 hours for a tank your size before adding any livestock.

 

This is a good link to follow for cycling with ammonia http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/fishless-cycling

 

You will need to do a little math to figure out how much ammonia solution to add to your tank to raise it to 2ppm if you are not using Dr. Tim's solution.

Only time you use pure ammonia is to do a 24 test to see if your bacteria colony is established to break the ammonia down into nitrites and nitrates. The bacteria still need a food source. I've used shrimp so far with no issue. You can also use fish food if you want to avoid shrimp . And honestly you don't even need to do this at all if you have live rock that already has a food source for bacteria. This method is for those who have only dry rock with 0 life on it.

[CronicReefer]

Only time you use pure ammonia is to do a 24 test to see if your bacteria colony is established to break the ammonia down into nitrites and nitrates. The bacteria still need a food source. I've used shrimp so far with no issue. You can also use fish food if you want to avoid shrimp . And honestly you don't even need to do this at all if you have live rock that already has a food source for bacteria. This method is for those who have only dry rock with 0 life on it.

OP said he has dry rock but it does not matter if you start with live, dry, or even no rock...and using any type of food adds ORGANICS to the water which causes algae. If you think algae is only caused by phosphates and nitrates then you are mistaken. Ammonia IS the food source for the bacteria we are trying to colonize and the ONLY food source required so I don't understand where you think the bacteria needs some alternate food source like fish food or shrimp.

[patback]

Only time you use pure ammonia is to do a 24 test to see if your bacteria colony is established to break the ammonia down into nitrites and nitrates. The bacteria still need a food source. I've used shrimp so far with no issue. You can also use fish food if you want to avoid shrimp . And honestly you don't even need to do this at all if you have live rock that already has a food source for bacteria. This method is for those who have only dry rock with 0 life on it.

heterotrophic bacteria. You can use it, and chances are you would be absolutely fine, however there is a chance of bacterial blooms (not the good kind) and organics causing a much bigger algae issue than necessary during a tank start up.

 

OP, I personally would add a small piece of live rock and take it slow for the first couple of months adding a cuc. By that point, the dry would be alive with bacteria.

[lakshwadeep]

Yes, it is a lot less complicated to use live rock and slow stocking with the CUC (minimal increases in waste) so the bacteria population can increase naturally. You could feed some of the CUC scavengers to also help the cycle. Putting a piece of shrimp would create a huge quantity of waste not representing what is adequate for filtration.

[seabass]

In addition to the organics already discussed, feeding a tank anything will increase phosphate in the water. Ammonia + organics + phosphate + light = algae problems (and often cyano). I'm not saying that you'll necessarily have an algae bloom, but it is a recipe for one.

The thing is, given any ammonia source (a live fish, a dead shrimp, live rock, a cleanup crew, or ammonium chloride), your tank will eventually establish a nitrogen cycle with enough denitrifying bacteria to process the ammonia (the current bio-load). However, a dramatic increase in ammonia will still cause an ammonia spike.

Most people agree that subjecting live animals to ammonia is unnecessary and cruel (as it is toxic to them). For dry rock, you can get a clean source of ammonia online: https://www.amazon.com/DrTims-Aquatics-Ammonium-chloride-bottle/dp/B006MP4QG6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469006486&sr=8-1&keywords=Dr+tims+ammonium; however, never add any ammonia to a tank with livestock or even live rock.

It used to be thought that adding bacteria cultures made for an unstable bacteria population. However, today, we often use bacteria cultures when establishing any type of new tank, or even to deal with bacterial imbalances which can cause things like cyanobacteria.