Cycling question and Critter ID.

[izzyish]

Okay guys, I need input. I've been working on cycling my 120 for 2 1/2 weeks and so far no Ammonia spike. The tank has 100 lbs. of dry rock along with 2 baseball size pieces of rock from my wife's established tank. The tank also contains 120 lbs. of Ocean Direct Original Grade Live sand. My wife gave me a cup of her substrate and I placed it in a see through plastic container along with a frozen shrimp. The shrimp looks like it's about to be decomposed fully. The rocks that my wife let me have are growing critters which I'm assuming are pineapple sponges....

I check the Ammonia every day and of course 0. What do you guys suggest I do? Do I keep watching for a few more weeks?

Also, could someone help ID this critter in my wife's tank? The picture's not that great, I'll try taking a better one if I see it again.

Thanks for the help!

 

[shesacharmer]

It's going to take awhile to cycle 100 lbs of dry material so try to be patient. The top pictures look like sponges for sure, an interesting development. The bottom pictures are too blurry and grainy to be sure what I'm looking at. Nice looking rock.

 

[izzyish]

Thanks shesacharmer! Do you think I should throw in another shrimp since the one that's there is almost gone?

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

The last pic is a fleshy limpet.

 

[izzyish]

Thanks sugar magnolia, glad it's not dangerous. It's actually pretty cool to look at.

The shrimp I started the cycle with is fully decomposed. I came home today and noticed it was gone, looked all over my tank and nothing. Should I add another shrimp to keep the cycle going. I'm still reading 0 ammonia. Please help!!!

 

[oakengineer]

How confident are you you are doing your ammonia test right?

Secondly, if your tank was somehow able to handle the ammonia from an entire rotting shrimp, you should have nitrite or nitrate.

 

[izzyish]

I use the API test kit and it's fairly easy to use. I show 0 Nitrite, but I do have Nitrate showing between 5 and 10 ppm. I did read somewhere that no ammonia spike in your cycle could throw off your Nitrate readings. I should have tested this morning before I left the house, I'll retest tonight.

There's a Blue Damsel in my wife's QT and I'm thinking about placing it in the tank. I don't want to be cruel though and kill the fish.

 

[Zer0.]

can always get some ammonia from the store with no dyes, fragrance or surfactants (soap) in it and dose to 2 or 3 ppm and see if its back to zero after 24 hours.

I use ACE Janitorial Strength Ammonia from Ace Hardware. 10% ammonia nothing else

 

[izzyish]

Zer0, I'll try that tonight. I've read on here before to dose ammonia but when I mentioned it to my wife she looked at me crazy. I'll have to do it when she's not looking.