so i basically leave the shrimp in there tell i have no ammonia or nitrite reading, is this correct?
cycling with raw shrimp
- Thread starter wannabefishguru
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Corax said:No, you've done fine. Shrimp cycling is fine for fresh as well as salt. Leave the shrimp in the tank to fully dissolve. It'll turn into a floating mass of translucent goo that looks like a shrimp till you poke it. Very weird looking to see another liquid ripple underwater. Monitor your ammonia and watch for it to go down. Then do the same for the nitrite. A shrimp provides a MASSIVE blast of ammonia to the tank and will generate a large bacteria colony. After the ammonia and nitrite both peak and vanish completely, do a nearly complete water change and you'll be ready to stock whatever you want. btw, if this isn't a large volume tank, like a 55g or bigger, expect a serious stink from that shrimp. I did a 29g with shrimp once and my wife almost killed me lol
Oh and........
z71silverado98
"Male well it might be the SW practice, but rotting shrimp seems a little dangerous.
Id rather cycle w/ a few snails or a guppy or 2 "
Perhaps you aren't familiar with fishless cycling? Perhaps you should educate yourself on this more humane, more efficient method of cycling before you go around giving bad advice? Let me give you the basics of why his tank is better than your tank... . . . .
Long story short, a strong cycle is a good cycle. So don't go hatin on methods you don't understand without first looking a little deeper..People a lot smarter than you or I figured this stuff out, and it works beautifully.
Corax, I really need to commend you on such an informative, exemplary way of explaining to someone why their methods might be wrong for others and/or themselves. So often people just flame others without thinking about where they're coming from. Empathy....seems to be a rapidly dying quality; I have more trouble finding others with it. Bravo. ~renee
Wow, never heard of this method. You learn something new every day around here. It gives me a case of the yucks though!
rosita said:
Its seems to me that Corax did more flaming than silverado. He has never heard of the shrimp method and actually asked about it, he then sounded skeptical. Personally I would be too. On the surface of things, it dosn't sound like a good idea to me either. I would want more than one person (quite a few actually) telling me its ok to let some dead creature rot in my tank.
If I had no access to pure ammonia, I would do fishy cycle. If it is done correctly with the correct fish, ammonia levels should stay low enough that it doesn't cause any undue stress to the fish at all. Once the cycle is complete, adding the fish slowly will not produce enough ammonia that the bacteria can't handle it, they are pretty hungry bacteria, and don't take to long to grow to needed sizes once they are established.
the point with fishless cycle is to pretty much explode your tank with bacteria so you can fully stock in one shot. and yes i didn't look to hard for ammonia and went with what i knew, either fishless or fishy cycle, and fishy cycle is to much work.
so back to the question, do i just leave the shrimp in until ammonia and nitrite is zero'ed out or when my ammonia levels are at the right level?
so back to the question, do i just leave the shrimp in until ammonia and nitrite is zero'ed out or when my ammonia levels are at the right level?
There was no flaming intended, but if that came across, so be it. I'm not one to sugar coat the facts I'm talking about.
joe, what you are describing is exactly why I find using a few fish to cycle with to be completely wasted time. Why build just a foundation when you can build the entire house in the same amount of time?
webcricket, it is pretty nasty to look at and smell, but it does wonders for your tank. As I said, in a 29g, using 1 shrimp almost got me killed by my wife. But in a 55g, using 2 shrimp, there was no odor. Oh, FYI, you should use 1 jumbo cocktail shrimp (fresh not frozen if at all possible) per 30 gallons of water volume.
Given a choice, I'd rather go with the pure ammonia. But the shrimp way works well too. When I rebuild my 55g sometime around Christmas, you can bet I'll be doing one of the 2 methods instead of using tiny little sacrifical fish.. Not only is it more humane, but it is also much more effective and controllable. I never thought I'd see people preaching against fishless cycling. Dissapointing =(
Rosita, flaming is easy, so is telling someone they're wrong. The hard part is to explain WHY someone is wrong and to make them understand it without getting offended. I'm a very blunt person, and if someone is being an idiot I'll be happy to let them know it. But I also try to educate if possible. I thought it was possible here, so I tried to explain it. I hope the guy learned something, even if it did offend him...
wannabe, yes, you let the shrimp completely vanish. It'll sit and sit and sit, then suddenly one day it'll just vanish and you'll wonder where it went. After that, watch your ammonia, then your nitrite. I say watch the nitrite afterwards for the simple fact that as long as you have ANY ammonia, the nitrite isn't important. Yer just wasting test kit until the ammonia is at a safe level (the only safe level for ammonia is 0ppm) It goes in stages. Also, you notice I've not said anything about testing for nitrate? That's because when you do the massive water change at the end, all the nitrate that is building up (and it is building up, we just don't care right now) is going to be thrown out with the water. FYI, the water you'll be throwing out is great for watering plants. It's essentially liquid fertilizer at that point. Plants love nitrate.
joe, what you are describing is exactly why I find using a few fish to cycle with to be completely wasted time. Why build just a foundation when you can build the entire house in the same amount of time?
webcricket, it is pretty nasty to look at and smell, but it does wonders for your tank. As I said, in a 29g, using 1 shrimp almost got me killed by my wife. But in a 55g, using 2 shrimp, there was no odor. Oh, FYI, you should use 1 jumbo cocktail shrimp (fresh not frozen if at all possible) per 30 gallons of water volume.
Given a choice, I'd rather go with the pure ammonia. But the shrimp way works well too. When I rebuild my 55g sometime around Christmas, you can bet I'll be doing one of the 2 methods instead of using tiny little sacrifical fish.. Not only is it more humane, but it is also much more effective and controllable. I never thought I'd see people preaching against fishless cycling. Dissapointing =(
Rosita, flaming is easy, so is telling someone they're wrong. The hard part is to explain WHY someone is wrong and to make them understand it without getting offended. I'm a very blunt person, and if someone is being an idiot I'll be happy to let them know it. But I also try to educate if possible. I thought it was possible here, so I tried to explain it. I hope the guy learned something, even if it did offend him...
wannabe, yes, you let the shrimp completely vanish. It'll sit and sit and sit, then suddenly one day it'll just vanish and you'll wonder where it went. After that, watch your ammonia, then your nitrite. I say watch the nitrite afterwards for the simple fact that as long as you have ANY ammonia, the nitrite isn't important. Yer just wasting test kit until the ammonia is at a safe level (the only safe level for ammonia is 0ppm) It goes in stages. Also, you notice I've not said anything about testing for nitrate? That's because when you do the massive water change at the end, all the nitrate that is building up (and it is building up, we just don't care right now) is going to be thrown out with the water. FYI, the water you'll be throwing out is great for watering plants. It's essentially liquid fertilizer at that point. Plants love nitrate.
Corax said:z71silverado98
Perhaps you aren't familiar with fishless cycling? Perhaps you should educate yourself on this more humane, more efficient method of cycling before you go around giving bad advice? Let me give you the basics of why his tank is better than your tank..[]...
"Blah blah blah blah, so be it"
you dont know anything about my tank!
I know im not preaching against fishless cycling
Perhaps you should consider a little etiquite and more careful reading of post before you go bashing someone?
Im familiar w/ fishless cycling, and i never said there was anything wrong w/ the method, id just choose a different medium than rotting shrimp. especially inside of a house!
and how is cycling w/ a few snails bad advice, works quite well and lets newbies add fish a few at a time instead of dumping 20 something fish in a tank and having to care for all of them right off the bat. dump 20 fish at a cost of $30+ into a tank and have them all die cause youve just started the hobby or buy 2 fish and find out you cant keep these fish alive then move onto something a little hardier. which is more humane?
attacking someone to make yourself look smarter, well done! oh and dropping words like idiot, moron or what ever else when refering to this person, CLASSY!
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Corax, it takes maybe a week longer, not that much time, and cycling a tank is never wasted time. No one ever argued against fishless cycling. All that was said was that fishy cycling is an option.
I am sure you aren't perfect in every way since on one is. If someone where to speak like that to you, I am sure that you would be offended and not care about what they had to say. People don't listen to the advice of people who talk down to them.
I am sure you aren't perfect in every way since on one is. If someone where to speak like that to you, I am sure that you would be offended and not care about what they had to say. People don't listen to the advice of people who talk down to them.
corax, about roughly how long did it take for your shrimp in your 29 gallon to vanish?
i have these 2 jumbo shrimp in my 29 and they don't smell and they are raw just to let you know.
figuratively speaking what if my ammonia is right off the charts and they have not dissappeared yet, can i just remove them? and continue a good cycle or what?
i have these 2 jumbo shrimp in my 29 and they don't smell and they are raw just to let you know.
figuratively speaking what if my ammonia is right off the charts and they have not dissappeared yet, can i just remove them? and continue a good cycle or what?
