Cycling with shrimp for a week and zero ammonia

[Rufnek100]

A little frustrated here - I've been cycling for a week and feel like I'm spinning my wheels:

120G DT
30G sump
79 deg
1.025 SG
110 lbs dry BRS reef saver rock
100 lbs Live Sand - Caribsea Fiji Pink
2 X 75G bottles of Biospira
1 dead shrimp
Skimmer not running
Dual reactor w/GFO & carbon (running)
0.0 ppm ammonia
0.0 ppm nitrites
2 ppm nitrates
Red Sea testing kit

The shrimp is definitely decaying - no discernible smell, but hopefully that's due to the carbon reactor as planned.

But shouldn't I be seeing some ammonia by now? I'm not in a hurry and am not planning on any livestock until my cycle is complete,but I think I should have seen something besides nitrates by now right?

 

[Dkuhlmann]

How big of a shrimp did you use? What I would do is get some pure ammonia which is ammonia that has no additives such as scent. You can buy it at your grocery usually or a local hardware or even Walmart normally in the cleaning product section. Then put it in to dose up to 2 ppm of ammonia and that will start your cycle. Don't do this if you have anything alive in your tank as it will kill it.

IMO and IME it's faster and easier to just dose the ammonia from the start. With shrimp sometimes you need a bunch of them as in your case you have a larger tank so it will take a lot to get you an ammonia spike.

 

[Rufnek100]

Thanks - are there any general guidelines as to how much ammonia would get me there?

Also, it was a pretty good sized shrimp - about a 20 count. It was also peeled.

 

[seamonster124]

Pure ammonia is the way to go. Add till ur test shows 3-4PPM. Then see how long it takes for your tank to bring it down to zero.

 

[laga77]

A piece of shrimp has a couple of square inches of surface area for the bacteria to attack. The same piece of shrimp run through a blender has a couple of hundred square inches of surface area for the bacteria to attack. If using shrimp or fish, chop it up and decomposition will happen faster. BTW, I will be starting a new 120G tank by next week and will be using pure ammonium chloride. Starting at 2ppm. Much better.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Ammonia of 2ppm is a standard suggestion it can be higher without any problems. But what's key is that the ammonia has to drop to 0 in 24 hours and nitrites to 0 then your tank is cycled. If ammonia is 0 but you still have nitrites you don't have to dose anymore ammonia just wait for the nitrites to go to 0

 

[firemountain]

I just completed cycling my QT via fish less cycling using Dr. Tims pure ammonia chloride. His original recommendation of 2 ppm is now bumped up to 3 ppm, which is what I did.

Just make sure you don't go over 5 ppm otherwise it can stall the cycle. Also...I kept my temp close to 80 which apparently helps the bacteria proliferate quicker.

 

[jd371]

Forget the shrimp and just use pure ammonia. Why wait for the shrimp to decay and get an ammonia spike when you can just add some pure ammonia and be done with it. No nasty smell too.

 

[Rufnek100]

Thanks for the advice - can someone tell me what amount of ammonia to start with: a drop, a tablespoon, a cup, a gallon, etc

 

[thegrun]

Use pure ammonia without surfactants (available at most hardware stores, I got mine at Ace Hardware). To be sure the ammonia does not contain surfactants shake the bottle and if it bubbles up like dish soap it has surfactants in it, pure ammonia will not have bubbles. To raise 100 gallons of water from 0 to 2 ppm ammonia you would need to add 0.8 grams (8 ml) of standard 10% pure ammonia.

 

[Spectral_Ranger]

Thanks for the advice - can someone tell me what amount of ammonia to start with: a drop, a tablespoon, a cup, a gallon, etc

There's a handy calculator located here:
http://www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm

Look at the very bottom.

 

[laga77]

One drop per gallon.

 

[Rufnek100]

Thank you