Cycle

[Jintz]

I put a raw shrimp in both my DT and QT and the cycle has started in my qt but not my DT. When I pulled out hte rotten shrimp in both tanks it smelled like a dead rat. In my DT I am running carbon so I dont know if that means anything. I also have 120 lbs of live rock in my 120 g DT along with live sand which is about 100 lbs. My live rock was almost half cured when i bought it from my lfs. So whats the deal? Do I have high amounts of bacteria which is why my ammo spike has not yet occurred? My nitrite has not gone up yet either. The rock has been in my tank about a week before I tried the raw shrimp method. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

[nsinger]

It may be that you have enough bacteria in the LR and LS that you won't see any spike of ammonia and nitrites, especially from only one shrimp in a tank that size. You should be seeing nitrates if the cycle is working, but they, also, may not be too high because of the LR and LS.

[Aquarist007]

Quarantine tanks are usually setup a few days prior to expecting fish
I would suggest three days prior to that time that you set up an hob filter on your display tank
After three days it will have bacteria on it to filter the qt
Fill the qt with water from your display tank and then add the hob filter
Some reefers will add an airstone but it is not necessary in all cases
Monitor the ammonia levels in the qt daily and be prepared to do a water change if they start to rise

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by Jintz
I put a raw shrimp in both my DT and QT and the cycle has started in my qt but not my DT. When I pulled out hte rotten shrimp in both tanks it smelled like a dead rat. In my DT I am running carbon so I dont know if that means anything. I also have 120 lbs of live rock in my 120 g DT along with live sand which is about 100 lbs. My live rock was almost half cured when i bought it from my lfs. So whats the deal? Do I have high amounts of bacteria which is why my ammo spike has not yet occurred? My nitrite has not gone up yet either. The rock has been in my tank about a week before I tried the raw shrimp method. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

depending on how the cured state of the live rock you may never see an ammonia spike or even a nitrate spike.
But we know bacteria takes a given time to cycle enough to handle a bioload and that times seems to be 3-5 weeks.

adding the shrimp is not a good idea---if your rock was only partly cured then you might benefit from some neat hitch hikers. An ammonia spike will kill those off and or you have to do a water change--so just give nature time to multilply the bacteria to a sufficent load

ditto for the qt--I outlined a better method for setting it up above rather then cycling with a dead shrimp

[Jintz]

The hitchers are still alive in my DT. I see little critters running around. They look like a hybrid between a shrimp and a rolllie pollie (sp?) they are very small. There are also a few snails. I forgot the name of the snails but I had them ID'd and they are harmless. I will wait another 2 weeks for the bio load to build up more as you suggested. My qt ammnia level is .25. You really think I should break it down then?
Also do you think I should add a sponge filter to the qt in addition to the hob filter with biowheel for added bacteria? And can I add that sponge filter in the sump with the biowheel from my hob filter?

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by Jintz
The hitchers are still alive in my DT. I see little critters running around. They look like a hybrid between a shrimp and a rolllie pollie (sp?) they are very small. There are also a few snails. I forgot the name of the snails but I had them ID'd and they are harmless. I will wait another 2 weeks for the bio load to build up more as you suggested. My qt ammnia level is .25. You really think I should break it down then?
Also do you think I should add a sponge filter to the qt in addition to the hob filter with biowheel for added bacteria? And can I add that sponge filter in the sump with the biowheel from my hob filter?

those little critters are copopods

yes break down the qt tank---I only set it up when purchasing fish run it for 4-6 weeks and then strip it down and clean it out. Otherwise you have two tanks you have to look after.

The hob only needs to be run on the dt for 3 days prior to running in on the qt so you don't need it running now either.

Do you have a protein skimmer, 1.5 lbs of live rock per gal in your tank, and a sand substrate--if so that is all the filtration you need.
Forget about sponge filters ect in the sump--they can become "nitrate tea bags" **

**(borrowed the term from sk8r--kind of like it)