Shrimp for my cycle....

[StevieD]

I have a couple shrimp floating in my tank for my cycle...At what point are these things supposed to start fallin apart and doin their thing. Im not tryin to rush, was just curious. They are as whole as when I put them in 3 days ago lol...Anything else I shouldve done at this point in time? Something I missed?

[coralsnaked]

What is your water temp at? If it is between 81 and 85 that is an optimal temp for your intial bacterial growth. Three days is relitively short, but that doesn't mean it hasn't started yet. If you want to stay on top of it you can monitor by testing for ammonia which is andication the cycle process has begun. watch for the increase and spike levels. Anything over 1ppm is OK but I would look for a 3 -5 ppm spike for best results then remove shrimp. Then begin monitoring for Nitrites. Eventually you will see Nitrites begin to fall and then you can monitor for a Nitrate spike. Then when this begins to drop and falls to 5ppm and below. Test again for Ammonia and Nitrites if they are at 0.0 then cycle is complete and you can do a 20% water change, lower temp in tank to 76 -79 degrees and add a CUC. The length of time this takes to hasppen depends on the rock and substrate added at the begining. Dry rock takes longer and live rock takes less time. Could take up to several weeks.

Merry Skerry

[StevieD]

I have the temp holding steady at 80...I figured 3 days was short, but I figured I would ask anyway in case I misread something. I was going to start testing for ammonia when I saw the shrimp start breaking down but those darn things are pretty resilient lol. Ill give it another couple days and see where Im at then...Thanks for the quick reply

[wooden_reefer]

Originally Posted by StevieD

I have a couple shrimp floating in my tank for my cycle...At what point are these things supposed to start fallin apart and doin their thing. Im not tryin to rush, was just curious. They are as whole as when I put them in 3 days ago lol...Anything else I shouldve done at this point in time? Something I missed?

There is no reason to avoid the "rush" in blending the shrimp to milk to allow quick ammonification.

There is no need to release ammonia gradually, unless you for some reason want some unfortunate lives to be preserved by high but not too high ammonia.

[brandon429]

We didnt ask if this was LR that was already cycled frm the lfs

Was it dry rock you used?

Post pics if you can

[StevieD]

Yes, it was all dry rock and "live" sand...basically starting from scratch here...I know its supposed to take a while, and im ready to wait it out...just curious as to when this "process" begins...As odd as it sounds, im actually quite interested in seeing the process from beginning to end of the cycle

[brandon429]

That sounds like a good start. I've read it could take a couple months, the seeded sand helps. Some like to use liquid ammonium chloride after a while with the shrimp having degraded in the tank, to see if the raw ammonia is oxidized at a fast enough rate to approximate fish bioloading when you think the tank might be ready.

[brandon429]

Even if you don't use ac to speed it up, common shrimp cycling threads typically take 8-12 weeks


Ac boosted tanks and bottle bac can get it done n three weeks!

[StevieD]

I appreciate the tips to help things along...I may give the AC a try, but Ill probably just let it run its course...I do have a spot open for a pretty sizeable piece of live rock, maybe ill swing by the LFS and see what I can find