cycling question

[marschgator]

OK, my 75 gallon tank has been up for about 3 1/2 weeks now. I have 35 lbs of live rock and 40 lbs of base rock. Approx.15lbs of the live rock was uncured. I used that to begin my cycle but all I got was a very small spike in amonia then it immediately went down. A week later i put in a piece of raw shrimp and let it sit for 3 days and took it out...no spike in amonia. I then dropped in another raw shrimp and let it sit there until it completely decomposed (about 1 week) and I still haven't seen an amonia spike. Was that small spike in the beginning all that I should have expected? I just thought there would be a large spike. I don't know all the parameters of my water right now as I'm just testing a few things until it cycles but my temp is 78 any my salinity is at 1.023. Also, I have some algae already growing. Thank you for any advise.

 

[BlackOnyx]

do you have any nitrite? Sounds like you should be good to go

 

[PatMayo]

Putting shrimp in a tank with live rock is not a good idea.

Here is what I would do. Don't do anythinig for the next week. Have you tested for nitrates? If not I would do so at the end of the week. If you have nitrates your ready to go. (You proabably are anyway, but it couldn't hurt to wait another week or even 2)

After the 2 weeks if you have some nitrates you are ready to go. i would also bring my SG up to 1.026. This is closer to natural sea water.

See this link for the correct parameters.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

Regards,

Pat

 

[Cavufarm]

Hrmm..i was about to throw in a uncooked shrimp in my 10gal later today.

my ammonia was .5 ppm last night and the tanks been cycling for 5 days with live rock and sand.

will a shrimp induced ammonia spike be too high and kill EVERYthing on the rock?

 

[PatMayo]

Uncured rocks will cause the cycle. Have patience. 5 days is not very long. With rocks curing in the tank it could take 3 to 6 weeks to fully cure. YOu must wait until you have zero ammonia for several days.

Hopefully Jonathan will chime in and give you the bilogical lowdown.

I would not add shrimp.

Wait.

Regards,


Pat