Time to Remove Shrimp during Cycle?

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tamz273

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Jul 13, 2008
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Hey Guys,

Ive been out of the hobby for a while, and have finally jumped back in. Im currently cycling my tank and I see a pretty big Ammonia spike within 3 days of the cycles start. I tested Ammonia at 2.0 yesterday, and Nitrites starting to creep.

My question here is, should I keep the shrimp in the tank till they deteriorate? Or should I remove them and let the bacteria begin to grow on my live rock and live sand? Its a 29Gal tank, ~50lb LR and 20lb LS. I have 2 jumbo shrimp in there, and they are definitely nowhere near being completely deteriorated.

Any opinions would be awesome! :) Thanks all!
 

greech

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That should be sufficient but feel free to let it climb a bit more (upwards of 4 ppm) if you want.
 

tamz273

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My test kit only measures to 2ppm :( just surprised the spike came so soon..
 

greech

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Nothing to worry about. It may actually be higher for all you know.

the spike may not be from the shrimp. Did you use live rock or dry rock?
 

tamz273

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I used live rock and live sand.. Live rock has been "curing" at the LFS for a while, he wouldnt give me a solid time so I didnt really consider it fully cured. Took the shrimp out last night and came home today to a brown algae bloom on 2 of my live rocks. Probably going to turn the lights off and start the skimmer. Would that be a good idea?

Will wait for my Ammonia to drop before stocking some cleaning crew. So far no algae on the glass or on the sand...

Im still surprised that things progressed this quickly, its only day 5 of the cycle!!
 

greech

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Depending on the state of the LR, it could have simply been the die off on the rock that produced the ammonia which is all that is needed to kickstart things sometimes.

Skimmer yes (IMO). Lights are up to you. Once ammonia and nitrites are zero and nitrates seem to have max'd out, do a large water change, give it a day or two, test again and if everything is old add your CUC.

Have you tested for phosphates?
 

tamz273

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No phosphate tests.. PH is pretty low (7.7), hoping to fix that with a water change ~20gal in a 29gal tank. Might have the lights come back on when the nitrates are back down, but for now it seems too easy for algae to bloom, no need to force it more with the lights..

Skimmer is brand new too, so will need a few days to break in and really start extracting stuff.. Will post some test results tonight
 

tamz273

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Ammonia still looking pretty high.. I would say 1.8 - 2.0.. Will monitor it for a few days till it starts coming back down. Should I run the skimmer now or after the Ammonia zero's out?
 

greech

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I am a fan of skimming while cycling both some don't. Skimmers don't remove ammonia, tries or trates, they remove proteins which are the precursor to those. Once you have ammonia, the cycle is started and a skimmer won't stop it.

As for running lights. Initial algae growth is probably the best way to consume phosphates and nitrates. If you don't allow the algae bloom to occur, you will have to do the work with media and water changes. Again, up to you. I understand your position.
 

tamz273

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Thanks for the feedback! I have laid off the lights the past few days, turned them back on today after Ammonia tested 0. Nitrites are well above 1ppm, so hoping the some more algae will take care of the nitrates as they increase. Nitrates are currently over 40ppm, and will only climb as Nitrites go down.. One thing I did have trouble with was my protein skimmer.

I turned it on, but it bubbled way too much to a point where it was overflowing. I have an Aquamaxx HOB-1, and its brand new so it needs to prime. Im thinking that the reason it bubbled too much is that I used some putty to paste together my rocks when I initially scaped the tank. Hoping that after my first major water change it will slow down on the bubbles and become usable.

Does that sound reasonable?
 
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