question on cycling tank

[redseven]

so, i am cycling my tank using the "raw shrimp" method. for the first week, the tank is cycling without raw shrimp in it. ammonia is .25 nitrite 0 nitrate 0. then i put in the raw shrimp, 3 days later ammonia is .25 nitrite 0 nitrate 0, 4 days after that, ammonia is .50 nitrite 0 and nitrate .10. i am confused with the 0 reading on the nitrite. can anyone explain this to me?

[100%hydrophylic]

that is a little strange to me.... did you do your nitrate test correctly? usually there is atleast some nitrite to cause nitrate during cycling.

[redseven]

ill do it again this afternoon. i have been doing the test a couple of times, and the nitrite seems to stay at 0 for the last 2 weeks. i just hope my test kit is not busted

[RegalAngel]

It will likely take several weeks for the bacteria to grow sufficiently that convert the ammonia to nitrite. And then for the nitrite converting bacteria to grow after that another few weeks.
Patience grasshopper!

Did you add any supplemental bacteria, ie Biozyme, etc.?

[onevia_01]

yes chill out. Dont worry about that stuff at this early stage.
A tank cycles over and over again.Until it reaches an equilibrium.

[MrHarvard]

Give it another week or so......you wont start seeing any nitrites until the ammonia starts to turn....And then your nitrates will begin to climb. Next about the time you start to see these numbers climb you will probably have a diatom bloom and that will drop your nitrates back down because it will feed on the nitrates. Just be patient and let your tank develope sufficent bateria. How much sand and rock do you have and how "cured was it when you started the tank?

[redseven]

well, im having diatom bloom right now, will test water tomorrow morning. i do have a question about my tank though. since im using the "shrimp " method, should i remove the remaining of the decaying shrimp since theres a good amount of ammonia in the water? im also seeing a great deal of algae growing, how long should i keep the light on? about the live rocks, i believe they are half cured, i got them from local reefers. they placed the rocks in containers with pump running for about a week top. i have 4 inches of sand bed.

[broke1]

I just got done cycling a tank, to be honest I wasn't really sure about it being done until about the 3 month mark. I used a dead clam, but it's the same principal. I will assume at this point, you Nitrite test is no good, but Nitrites were something I only tested right at the beginning, once the Ammonia spiked hard. After that I kept track of the Nitrates and watched for the blooms. Once everything looked good, I had a massive bloom of hair algae that I let take over which I think attributed greatly to the end result of the tank. Once I let all my fish go in the tank, the Tangs had a field day with the algae and wiped it out in just over 24 hours.

If you are in no rush, leave the shrimp in, the more ammonia you get right now, the worse your spikes will be, but in the end the tank will be "stronger".

I ran a normal light cycle. As far as the rocks go, it really doesn't matter if they were cured or not when the tank is cycling this way.

[redseven]

what about skimmer? i turn it on for a day now, should i turn it off? it has collected a bit of "brown" water. by the way, i check the water, ammonia is 0 nitrite 0 and nitrate 10. i actually have another nitrite test kit and it also read 0.. so. either i miss the spike or theres something missing about the nitrite. im wondering if the 0 reading on the ammonia has something to do with the fact that i turned on my skimmer? i actually put in 5 snail and 3 little cleaner crab. seems like they are doing a good job and staying alive. the only thing i have left is that dead shrimp. should i wait till it all goes away before adding a fish?

[redseven]

bump
pls help

[Michael]

id remove the shrimp and test ammonia, nitrite and nitrate daily for the next 2 weeks at least writting down all readings to establish a pattern, if you dont see anything at all then your cycled and no worries, as for the skimmer, if its on then leave it on, if you want to switch it off then do so, either way the monitoring of test results is the factor at this stage

[jason2459]

My cycle went pretty much exactly how broke described and experienced. I wouldn't worry so much about it redseven. I don't know anything about the shrimp method but if your ammonia keeps showing up and your nitrites are 0 and your nitrates keep showing up as well then I'd pull the shrimp. Keep testing every day and wait for the ammonia to hit 0 consistently for at least a week or two before adding any fish. Optimally nitrates as well.

That live rock you got from fellow reefers was probably all you needed. Also, like RegalAngel asked did you add any supplemental bacteria? Nitrite conversion can happen pretty quickly and if you're testing every 3-4 days or so it seems in these posts then you could have missed it.

I'm pretty close to being final with my initial cycle. I wont call it done until the algae bloom is done which is dieing off now. I started with a base of deadrock and added in 20lbs of live rock mostly cured like you. I did do really small water changes every day. Like 3g a day on a 55 g tank. I ran a skimmer the entire time. I also tested every day. I did get about 30-40g of water from another tank doing a water change so I didn't have to make so much water which would have taken two days for me. I probably should have done that as my nitrates started out really high.

First day:
Temp: 84f
pH: 8.4
Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 160

Second day:
9pm water test
Temp 84
pH 7.8
Salinity 35
Ammonia 1.0
Nitrite 1.0
Nitrate 80

Third day:
8:30pm Test
Temp 82 v
Salinity 35 -
pH 7.8 -
Ammonia 1 -
Nitrite 5 ^
Nitrate 80 -



Ammonia staid at 1 until the 8th day. That would have been like the first week you didn't use the shrimp and let the tank sit.

8th day
8pm Tests
Temp: 80.5 ^
SG: 34 -
pH: 7.88 v
ORP: 132 ^
Ammonia: 0 -
Nitrite: 5 -
Nitrate: 20 -


By the 10th day:
9pm Tests
Temp: 80.4
SG: 34
pH: 7.81
ORP: 134
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 1 or the lightest looking 5 I've had yet.
Nitrate: 40

11th Day :
Small water change in the morning.

6:45pm Tests
Temp: 80.2
SG: 34
pH: 7.86
ORP: 133
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: .5
Nitrate: 40h

Didn't get a test in on the 12th day as my wife had our baby, lol. And nitrites could have been at 0 here, who knows.

13th day:
Temp: 79.5
SG: 34
pH: 7.98
ORP 126
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate 20


Took only 4 days at most for the nitrites to go from their peak from the first week to 0 in the second week and have been 0 ever since. So, if you didn't test until 3-4 days after you added the shrimp you could have easily missed the nitrite spike. All tanks probably cycle a little differently but that was my experience.

[redseven]

thanks for the responses. im going to pull the shrimp and go from there. i guess ill hold off on adding fishes. i am going to add more snails, they are doing a great job cleaning all the "brown" from my rock. i am a little concern about my hermit crabs. only 1 actually move about my tank, the red crab, the other 2 (blue and white) find a good spot on the rock and basically sit there. is that normal. (question mark on my keyboard is broken... lol)

[wooden_reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15610984#post15610984 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by redseven
so, i am cycling my tank using the "raw shrimp" method. for the first week, the tank is cycling without raw shrimp in it. ammonia is .25 nitrite 0 nitrate 0. then i put in the raw shrimp, 3 days later ammonia is .25 nitrite 0 nitrate 0, 4 days after that, ammonia is .50 nitrite 0 and nitrate .10. i am confused with the 0 reading on the nitrite. can anyone explain this to me?

What is the physical state of aggregate of the shrimp? Has it been blended into a milk or at least been finely chopped? Two to three minutes in a blender at max speed will do.

If your shrimp has been turned into milk before you add it, ammonia surge should take place within 48 hours at 85F.

Solid aggregate does not promote fast areobic decay, which is what you want.

Just remember: each medium shrimp gives 1 ppm N ammonia for 100 gals of water. This is accurate to +- 25%.

What is this removing the shrimp? You do not remove it. It disappears.

[wooden_reefer]

Just add waste and bacteria seed. There is no need to test the water often. Just wait and test once by day 15 for nitrite and then another time for nitrite again at day 30 . No need to test for ammonia. It will be generated.

Nitrification bacteria are not panda's. They are not moody when it comes to reproduction.

Just make sure there is no great difference in salinity in the water of the bacterial seed and the water you cycle with. Enough circulation. Good temp.

Cycling is very very very easy.

[wooden_reefer]

In cycling, all you want to be certain is that once there was significant nitrite and now there isn't. This is all you care.

Simple:

You know that there has been plenty of ammonia. When there is a waste source there will be decay and there will be ammonia, as long as the earth spins.

Your know that there is nitrobacter

Your know that there is nitrosonomus.

The relative number will be good enough.

As far as the areobic side of the nitrogen cycle, namely cycling, this is good enough.

I test at all for nitrite twice because i still want to be sure that the bacteria seed was good. No osmotic stress that killed them, for example.