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Hubby is setting up a little QT he intends keeping in operation permanently. I cannot convince him to go bare bottom - he wants a light sprinkling of coral sand on the bottom.

We have cycled his reef tank (long ago) and used live rock as the source of ammonia. I've also cycled many FW tanks in the past. This is first time cycling a saltwater fish only tank.

What should be use as the source of ammonia? BTW, pure ammonia is not available in Australia. We only have cloudy, which has detergent added to it.

Should he:-

* use live rock & remove it once cycled
* cycle with hardy freshwater fish, & only change the water over to SW conditions on the removal of the cycling fish.

Look forward to receiving any advice.

cheers, Robyn

Cheers
TW

Why not have a few pieces of LR in the QT tank permanently? It'll give the new fish a place to hide when it feels threatened, and will keep the tank cycled.

You could probably take the LR out after cycling, but I'd personally leave it in...

Btw, you can't cycle it as a freshwater tank and then put salt in it. The beneficial bacteria in a freshwater cycle and a saltwater cycle are of entirely different species, and can't survive in the other's environment. He could cycle it with an inexpensive saltwater fish, or cycle it with a few Mollies (the freshwater fish) that have been acclimated to full SW.

the live rock would die when any copper medication was used.
Use a supermarket prawn.

IMO a qt tank should be barebottom for easy removal of detritus and uneaten food. You should use a couple different diameter pieces of PVC for hiding spots and maybe some fake plants. Cycling with SW mollies is fine, and it's ok to leave them in there to keep the tank cycled when there are no other fish in the tank. Obviously you will need a HOB type filter and heater too.

Good decision on the QT, you definitely won't regret it.

What mez says is true to an extent, most critters will die on your live rock if you use certain meds. It will stay biologically active though (antibiotics will mess with that of course). And if you do go with LR, never transfer it to another tank.

Btw, you can't cycle it as a freshwater tank and then put salt in it. The beneficial bacteria in a freshwater cycle and a saltwater cycle are of entirely different species, and can't survive in the other's environment. He could cycle it with an inexpensive saltwater fish, or cycle it with a few Mollies (the freshwater fish) that have been acclimated to full SW.

If you buy some freshwater mollies, and cycle the tank as FW, you can slowly convert to sw (maybe 5-10 ppt per week, not sure) without causing a lot of water quality problems. I'm pretty sure there is a sizeable overlap of salinity tolerances for the different species of bacteria. I've seen this done before, but I'm not sure how fast the salinity was changed, HTH.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Thanks for all the replies. Agree QT should be bare bottom, but hubby is not to be convinced.

Never seen SW mollies around here, so I think they are out. So would cycling it with live rock be the best way to go, unless there are some hardy SW fish that will be okay during the cycle?

Cheers
TW

SW Mollies are just FW Mollies that have been put into SW.
I got 10 and literally just acclimated them as i would anything for 45 minutes, into saltwater from fresh.
They stayed alive long enough to be eaten all up (a month or so) and fed well on saltwater food.

Sorry robyn, my post did make it sound like two different animals, but they are the same fish. Just acclimated to one environment or the other.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Good idea, Matt. I hadn't thought of cycling it freshwater and then slowly upping salinity. I was thinking TW was saying she was going to cycle it freshwater, then dump the salt in it and think it was cycled. Re-reading the original post, it looks as though that's what was planned. You do have a good idea there, though... start SW, and add some salt (pre-dissolved, of course) every few days to bring the salinity up.

I've never had any mollies in SW before, but I've seen them in SW tanks in sumps and at an LFS. I know they're brackish in the wild, but do fine in any normal salinity. I didn't know that you could just move them from FW to SW and back, though. I'd heard about it, but I didn't think it was true. I figured you'd have to acclimate 'em for at least a few days or something. Methinks I'll have to pick up a pair of mollies next time I'm at the LFS, then

We're going to cycle with live rock, as that's how we did it with the main tank.

Thanks guys

Cheers
TW