Shrimp cycling

[matthewscars]

quick question, im cycling my new tank 90g and the Ammonia is only at 0.5 (i put a cured 5lb LR in the tank). Been cycling for a week now and I thought I'd kick up the ammonia a bit to aid in the bactrial growth.

I got 4 'jumbo' cooked shrimp and put them in a nylon stocking. How long should I keep them in for?

[Captinshinyside]

I thought the key was to use un cooked shrimp, since it still has all the bactria and such?

[matthewscars]

Shouldn't matter too much. Once the shrimp breaks down its still going to spew ammonia.

[shuguley]

I tried both when I got impatient with the cycling of my 55. The cooked shrimp did absolutely nothing, the raw shrimp created a nice ammonia spike.

[matthewscars]

:( I guess I lose. ill have to hit up a pathmark or something later.

But the question remains, how many did you put in and for how long?

[shuguley]

For my 55, I did one cocktail-sized raw shrimp for 3 days. By the time the 3 days was up, the thing actually looked cooked. I saw an ammonia spike on day 2.

[greggnyce]

If you live in NY all the shrimp has been frozen. It is most likely from southeast asia, they just thaw it out before it is placed out for display. Same in restaraunts. Would'nt Freezing the shrimp kill all of the bacteria anyway?

[shuguley]

To clarify, I did use previously frozen raw shrimp, and it worked for me. The shrimp was not frozen when i dropped it in.

[DGlove904]

raw thats how I did my 110 saw spike in about 2 days

[greenbean36191]

There is absolutely no need to add a shrimp. You already have ammonia. Adding more ammonia does not speed up your cycle or allow you to keep a larger bioload in the future.

[matthewscars]

I do it for kicks man.

The Am actually spiked up even with it being cooked. Decomposing flesh is still decomposing flesh even if it was previously cooked.

greenbean - that is an interesting statement. Can you provide supporting evidence?

[gpd124]

I am thinking by causing it spike prematurely that it would speed up the natural cycle slightly. But I could be wrong.

[greenbean36191]

It's just freshman ecology/ population growth.

Think about what is actually happening with the bacteria. When you have measurable ammonia, that means it's in excess for the current bacterial population. It's not limiting growth. Increasing it more doesn't affect the growth rate since it's not the rate-limiting resource anyway (until you get close to the carrying capacity).

What the ammonia level does do is affect the carrying capacity. Keep in mind that ammonia is essentially the food for these bacteria. The tank can't support more than it can feed. You can increase the ammonia and it will increase the carrying capacity, but once you remove that ammonia source the carrying capacity drops back to what the tank can constantly produce on its own (aka the bioload). When you remove the additional ammonia source the bacteria don't just hang around waiting for you to add fish. They die. Once you remove the shrimp or other ammonia source, the tank can't support any more bacteria than it could before you added it. Spiking the ammonia during the cycle actually ends up setting up fluctuations around the eventual carrying capacity so that it takes longer for the population to settle down or has hobbyists talk about it- longer for the tank to "mature."

[Agu]

Besides the valid ecology issue raised by Greenbean what about the damage done to the life we paid good money for when buying quality live rock ? An ammonia spike by defination a toxic event that can kill livestock. Maybe you won't see it but an ammonia spike kills the micro life on the rock and reduces diversity in our tanks.

The same results can be obtained by feeding small amounts of food daily without creating an ammonia spike. When I cycle a tank I do water changes and avoid an ammonia spike like the plague...............

[bigtex52]

If you want to use raw shrimp, run the shrimp and a cup of tank water together for a few seconds in a blender and pour it in. Quicker bang for the buck.

[tmz]

The live rock is really all you need to cycle your tank.Even cured live rock will have plenty of ammonia production to start the cycle.

[the_rider]

Sorry to hijack your thread but this thread made me think about my situation.

I recently started a 20G QT using a raw shrimp. No LV, No LS, only small skimmer, hang-filter and heater. After 2 days it spikes at 2 of ammonia using RedSea test. When down to 1 in about 1-2 days. Now it's being stock at around .5 for a week without going down .... Is it possible that I had a spike to big for my small 20G and now it's not possible to have enough bacteria in this small quantities of water ? I know i need to be patient, but what's is concerning me is the fact that ammonia is not going down.

Thank You

[tmz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13474028#post13474028 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by the_rider
Sorry to hijack your thread but this thread made me think about my situation.

I recently started a 20G QT using a raw shrimp. No LV, No LS, only small skimmer, hang-filter and heater. After 2 days it spikes at 2 of ammonia using RedSea test. When down to 1 in about 1-2 days. Now it's being stock at around .5 for a week without going down .... Is it possible that I had a spike to big for my small 20G and now it's not possible to have enough bacteria in this small quantities of water ? I know i need to be patient, but what's is concerning me is the fact that ammonia is not going down.

Thank You :) You don't have anywhere in that setup for bacteria to grow. The denitrification cycle bacteria colonize on /in the substate and rock. Only you filter material ,if any is providing a surface for them. They don't colonize the water.

[the_rider]

So they don't colonize the filter, skimmer and surface of the glass ? What can I do to provide more surface ? Adding more PVC piping ?

Thanks

[FranktheTankTx]

Some sand or LR would be a great start!

[the_rider]

I always read that a QT was suppose to be sandless and rockless ... Now, I'm confuse lol

[tmz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13474689#post13474689 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by the_rider
So they don't colonize the filter, skimmer and surface of the glass ? What can I do to provide more surface ? Adding more PVC piping ?

Thanks :) Ok I'll back up a bit. I missed the QT part. Yes they will colonize the fiter and probably some parts of the skimmer.Maybe even the galss. It may take a little time. The shrimp may have been too much for the limited filtration. I run a 29 gallon with an hob and put a piece of seeded filter sponge from the sump in the filter box and I'm good to go for a small amount of waste.I also run some carbon.