Cycling Tank with Shrimp

[cemyth]

Getting ready to cycle my 100 gallon with the shrimp method and just had a few questions that I am not sure on.

- What kind of shrimp? Frozen bagged raw uncooked shrimp or deli shrimp?
I have heard that the bag shrimp may not be a good idea because of preservatives. Is this true?

- How many? 1,2,3 or more?
- In the DT or sump?

Just for information purposes there is no live rock in this tank just dry rock and aragonite sand. I will be placing a little live rock in the refugium this weekend for seeding.

[gsiegel]

Some use a cocktail shrimp (without the sauce).

I was advised to use about 6-8 bait shrimp, which I did. All seems to have worked well and they are now serving as help to clean the tank - that is until the Harlequin and Puffer come along....

[wooden_reefer]

Originally Posted by cemyth

Getting ready to cycle my 100 gallon with the shrimp method and just had a few questions that I am not sure on.

- What kind of shrimp? Frozen bagged raw uncooked shrimp or deli shrimp?
I have heard that the bag shrimp may not be a good idea because of preservatives. Is this true?

- How many? 1,2,3 or more?
- In the DT or sump?

Just for information purposes there is no live rock in this tank just dry rock and aragonite sand. I will be placing a little live rock in the refugium this weekend for seeding.

You can use most any animal protein as a source of ammonia.

Raw shrimp is very good because it is sold by counts per pound so you do not have to estimate the weight. For raw headless shrimps, you divide by 5 to get the dry protein weight, and you again divide by 6 to get the weight of the nitrogen in the ammonia that will be generated.

From the weight of the fresh moist shrimp, you divide by 30. The N in the ammonia will be known.

You can also use the white of hard boiled eggs (I'd dump the yolk.) The whites of one hard boil egg gives about 0.7 gram of nitrogen. So when you put the white of one large boilded egg into 100 liters of water, you will get about 7 ppm N- ammonia. This is assuming that the whites are finely chopped or broken up so ammonification will happen all at once.

Raw shrimp will carry some pathogens but if you plan to feed your livestock with it in the future routinely, cooking it first is pointless.

[SoLiD]

1 or 2 Large Raw Shrimp. It's probably best to put it inside of a media sock or pantyhose to keep all he pieces together when it starts to disintegrate. All you are looking to do is provide some waste to produce ammonia, thus giving something for bacteria to feed on and multiply. It's all about a balance. More waste, will make more ammonia, and will be fuel to increase the systems bacteria level. The process usually takes about 3-8 weeks, before a balance is reached. When you have enough bacteria in your aquarium to support life, there should be Zero ammonia.

[cemyth]

Originally Posted by SoLiD

1 or 2 Large Raw Shrimp. It's probably best to put it inside of a media sock or pantyhose to keep all he pieces together when it starts to disintegrate. All you are looking to do is provide some waste to produce ammonia, thus giving something for bacteria to feed on and multiply. It's all about a balance. More waste, will make more ammonia, and will be fuel to increase the systems bacteria level. The process usually takes about 3-8 weeks, before a balance is reached. When you have enough bacteria in your aquarium to support life, there should be Zero ammonia.

I am planning on having the shrimp in a media bag. I guess I am more concerned with what type of shrimp? I already had a packaged bag of raw shrimp purchased from the commissary. I am not sure if it would be okay to use or if I should use fresh shrimp from the deli?

[SoLiD]

Any protein that is dead and decaying will oxidize and produce ammonia and fuel bacteria growth. Raw Table or Raw Deli shrimp should both be fine. Even cooked shrimp will work because it will eventually start breaking down and produce ammonia.

[SoLiD]

Waste is Waste. Dying, Dead, and Living organisms all produce waste. That's why some old schoolers still cycle with damsels. You could even try the ghost feeding method. That is where you put food in your tank as if fish were in there, but there are of course no fish in the tank.

[wooden_reefer]

Bear in mind that the so-called ppm ammonia is based on the weight of the nitrogen only. It is best written as ppm N-ammonia.

This is convenient as then 1 ppm N-ammonia will give 1 ppm N-nitrite and 1 ppm N-nitrate. The rest of the molecules of NH3, NO2- and No3- are not considered; otherwise the math gets complicated.

[Northside Reef]

Or you could just take a leak in your tank and be done with it.. Yes I am serious, just try not to think about it next time you put your hands in there.

[Laddy]

Buy a big piece of LR and consider it good.....if you want to go the shrimp route, I've cycled tanks with shrimp, LS, and yes a few green chromis.