Cycling question

[JurisHP]

I upgraded from a 180 to a rimless 180 last week. I saved as much old water as I could (about 50%) and 50% NSW. The tank has been running with live (and dead) rock, and CaribSea Aragonite (dry). My heaters are on. No other equipment is on, including lights.

Unfortunately, my tank is going through a full cycle (I thought using my rock/water would speed things up OR result in a mini-cycle).

My question is: Yesterday was exactly 1 week with new tank up and running. On Monday, I started dosing MicroBacter7. Is it a bad idea to drop a raw shrimp in the tank at this point? Or adding another "œcycle in a bottle" like Dr. Tim's?

 

[Oldreeferman]

You have a few choices to speed it up, use ammonia dosing & monitor it every few days till it starts reading nitrites or muck up the tank with a rotting shrimp or add flake fish food etc.
You should also raise the heaters to around 82-84 degrees that will help speed up things more then anything probably at this point. Just remember to lower them to 78 when ready to introduce fish & a CUC.

I personally prefer the ammonia way, its clean & does not smell at all.

I wouldn't waste adding anymore bacteria in a bottle, let ammonia do the job now.

The old water won't speed things up much most of the bacteria are on everything in the tank not the water column but certainly does not hurt.

At this point patience & testing is required & there is nothing else (That ive heard of) that will speed cycling up faster, simply has to go thru the cycles all the way to nitrates, then comes diatoms & algae next.
May as well start running the lights soon as nitrates are reading & then add some fish ( carefully monitor ammonia lvls since bacteria load will still be low)& a "small algae CUC" later once algae is established, can always add more CUC if needed..... better then too many at once with starvation & death causing issues with the water.

 

[mcgyvr]

Learning patience is all you should be doing..
Rushing a system isn't a smart idea ever.