View Full Version : Cycling, help me learn patience...
raoul
02-28-2004, 11:38 AM
I am now in my fifth week of cycling, with two headless shrimp in a 30 gallon. I learned, after the fact, that this may be overkill. Anyway, the shrimp are now almost totally gone, but my ammonia level is still off the chart. ph has been pretty steady at 8.4-8.5. Should I expect to wait until the shrimp are totally dissolved before the ammonia comes down?
frosty
02-28-2004, 12:05 PM
I would take the shrimp out, and as soon as ammonia and nitirite are zero you should be good. Once they are zero, do a 10% water change and add fish slowly. Shouldnt take more than a week or two after you remove the shrimp.
frosty
02-28-2004, 12:08 PM
Oh, and by the way... congratulations. If everyone was as patient as you there would be a lot less fish killed.
Cearbhaill
02-28-2004, 12:22 PM
Me?
I'd change a lot more than 10%. If things are as bad as you say then 10% is a drop in the bucket. I'd change at least 25% then test- then I'd probably repeat that amount of change at least once.
frosty
02-28-2004, 6:25 PM
Once everything is zeroed all the water change is doing is replenishing nutrients.
Great, thanks for the advice. That makes me feel a lot better about waiting so long. I have fished out the shrimp pieces, and I'll be testing again tomorrow. I'm looking forward to moving on...and my wife is eager to see something in there besides rotten hors d'oeuvres.
I'm in my 3rd week of the cycle now. My ammonia and nitrites are off the charts. Should I leave the decaying shrimp carcasses in or take them out? I'm concerned that if i take the shrimps out that I will have to cycle again.
I do not have the live rock in the tank yet. (didn't want to kill any cool stuff that might hitchhike in) Was this a mistake? I do have about 20 lbs of lace rock in there. My assumption was that the lace rock would be a place for the bacteria to colonize while the ammonia and nitrites were so high that it would kill any cool stuff on the LR.
frosty
03-02-2004, 7:31 PM
Take the shrimp out, I would say all it takes to cycle is a hard spike that lasts about two weeks. With your deep sand bed, and the little rock you have you should be fine. Add as much live rock as you can before you add any livestock, because there will be a small spike unless the rock is well aged at the LFS. Fifty more pounds would be great if you have the budget.
I was budgeting for about 75 more lbs of LR. I had planned on getting the Lr as the ammonia and nitrites hit 0. I was going to pick up a fish at the same time and put it into the qt tank. I figure 7-10 days to see if there is a spike in ammonia and to see if the fish is ok should be enough.
frosty
03-03-2004, 8:16 AM
Sounds like you have it under control.