Tank Cycling question

G

greatpratty

AC Members
Sep 28, 2005
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Hello, I have been browsing the forums for a few weeks but this is my first post. I am new to the marine aquarium hobby and I am currently setting up a tank. I have read the thread about cycling the aquarium with the shrimp and I am a few weeks into doing this. My question is about time. It has been about two weeks and I do not have any nitrite readings on my test kit. My amonia level is very high but thats all I am seeing at the moment. I just want to make sure this is correct. I have a 30 gallon tank and I put in one shrimp if that helps.
Thank you for your help.
 
What's the temperature of your tank? I'd keep it around 80 to cycle. Also, is there signs of the shrimp decaying? Is the test kit outdated, because they do go bad. Finally, be patient my friend, everything is most likely perfectly fine. Some cycle completely in a shorter time than others.
 
I am assuming you put in a dead shrimp to cycle the tank. As asked above is it decaying at all?If is decaying take it out. that could be the reason for the ammonia level. I always take about a month to cycle my tanks. Even though levels are ok, usually at some point there will be an algea bloom, once thats over then I know I am pretty much cycled through and good to go, after making any adjustments ect.
 
Thank you for the replys. Yep, I did use a dead shrimp to cycle the tank and the test kit I am using is brand new. The shrimp seems to be getting smaller and smaller so I guess that is the decay. Why would I want to remove the shrimp from the tank if it is decaying? I thought that was the whole purpose of putting the shrimp in? As I understood it from the "How to cycle the tank" sticky it seemed like the shrimp should decay away to nothing. Are you saying that maybe my bacteria have already developed and converted the nitrites to nitrates? I haven't tested for the nitrates yet but I will.
Thanks for the help.
 
If your doing the shrimp methode wait until the shrimp completly dissolves (you WANT ammonia in there to start the bacteria growing), then wait for ammonia to reach 0.
 
If you would like to see how Denitrification process works, just click HERE
 
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