Cycling Question

[butchik]

Set up the 40 breeder tank last Sunday, placed a raw shrimp in to start cycle. Here are my params so far:

Sunday:
PH - 8
SG - 1.025
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 79

Tuesday:
PH - 8
SG - 1.025
Ammonia - 0.5 ppm
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 79

Thursday
PH - 8
SG - 1.025
Ammonia - 1.0 ppm
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 79

Question: should I take the shrimp out now? Is 1.0 ppm of Ammonia enough for the cycle? Or should I wait until it goes down to take it out? Thanks.

[cdbias2]

Can't tell if you have any sand or rock or how much of either.
Not enough info to answer.

[Michael]

depends on what you intend to keep and if you stock all at once, id suggest leaving it in, 1 isnt very high, theres a long way to go yet, possibly weeks

[butchik]

Cd,

I have about 1.5 inches of sand and about 45 lbs of live rock.

Michael,

Thanks, I thought 1 ppm was already high. I'll leave the shrimp in for now.

[cdbias2]

If you bought the rock from a LFS and had little die off. There could be a very small cycle.

[Chiefsurfer]

If you have a lot of life hiding in the rock, like tube worms, feather-dusters, corals of any kind, any good crabs, shrimp, or the like, you want to keep it around 1. That is not to say to take the shrimp out now, I agree, leave it in, but you can do some water changes to keep it low, just for a longer period of time.

[thegrun]

Originally Posted by Chiefsurfer

If you have a lot of life hiding in the rock, like tube worms, feather-dusters, corals of any kind, any good crabs, shrimp, or the like, you want to keep it around 1. That is not to say to take the shrimp out now, I agree, leave it in, but you can do some water changes to keep it low, just for a longer period of time.

+1, if there are organisms on the rock you want to survive, water changes during the cycle to limit the size of the ammonia spike is a good idea. If there isn't much on the rock of interest, don't bother with the water changes.

[sowellj]

I would take it out if I were you. If you got the rock locally, you really didn't need to add a shrimp to begin with. It would have likely been ok to wait a week or so, then add livestock SLOWLY. If you had die off from the rock, that alone would have been sufficient to establish your bacteria.

[Chiefsurfer]

^with this I have to disagree. Hoping that you bought at least 40 lbs of rock(probably on the lower side for that size tank) and it HAD bacteria colonies on it, 1 shrimp wouldn't spike ammonia that high in 6 days. If there were a lot of bacteria, I don't think the spike would be this steady, or last this long.

PS, if you bought this from a LFS that doesn't sell a LOT of LR, and they had it in their tanks for a few months WITHOUT FISH/ammonia source, the bacteria will likely have died off.

[butchik]

Thanks again guys.

[wooden_reefer]

Originally Posted by butchik

Set up the 40 breeder tank last Sunday, placed a raw shrimp in to start cycle. Here are my params so far:

Sunday:
PH - 8
SG - 1.025
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 79

Tuesday:
PH - 8
SG - 1.025
Ammonia - 0.5 ppm
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 79

Thursday
PH - 8
SG - 1.025
Ammonia - 1.0 ppm
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 79

Question: should I take the shrimp out now? Is 1.0 ppm of Ammonia enough for the cycle? Or should I wait until it goes down to take it out? Thanks.

Just one pulse of 1 ppm is not enough for a robust cycle. Sometimes for a reef tank with only a few tiny fish it may be enough.

At the end of a robust cycle, the nitrification activity will remain high for weeks even if you do nothing more.

I never take any protein I put in as an ammonia source out. I never can, since it is emusified. I put in the correct amount of emusified (with a blender) shrimp and complete decay will occur within 48 hours.

15 grams (half ounce) of shrimp will decay in 100 gals of water to yield 1 ppm ammonia, easy to remember.

[Michael]

agree with wooden (for once haha), 1 imho isnt high,numbers are difficult, so i cant just say 3 or 4, but id leave the shrimp in until its no longer seen, and completely gone, the cycle in your case could take 4-6 weeks, but will be worth the wait, please please dont add any live stock yet, the very best of luck.

mike