Ammonia

TORMENTOR · Feb 28, 2009

Well I got home from work tonight and tested my water out of curiosity and I finally have a reading on my ammonia,
It read .25. Its better than nothing as far as I'm concerned.
Before I left for work this afternoon I put 6 more Deli shrimp in my sump hoping that it would cause a spike, not thinking it would, but hoping it would.
Well lo and behold I am finally reading something.

Woo hoo, I am getting closer. Now its time to sit back and let it do it's thing.

aquarius77 · Feb 28, 2009

What size tank are you trying to cycle? Adding dead shrimp to kick start a cycle never made much sense to me. Most times any rocks you get will be either fully cured from someone close and transported in water OR they will have die off, how much depending on how long they were out of water or maybe how freshly snatched from the ocean. In either case the shrimp only add rot and funk to your tank and if the rock was cured then yea a few dozen shrimp roting in there are bound to show some ammo.
Your ammo trites and trates do not have to skyrocket and then subside to have a tank that is ready to slowly stock. As long as you wait it out a few (2-3) weeks and your readings are stable id say its not ever going to cycle hard. Alot depends the rock and the amount of die off on it.

reefpeeper · Feb 28, 2009

aquarius77 said:
What size tank are you trying to cycle? Adding dead shrimp to kick start a cycle never made much sense to me. Most times any rocks you get will be either fully cured from someone close and transported in water OR they will have die off, how much depending on how long they were out of water or maybe how freshly snatched from the ocean. In either case the shrimp only add rot and funk to your tank and if the rock was cured then yea a few dozen shrimp roting in there are bound to show some ammo.
Your ammo trites and trates do not have to skyrocket and then subside to have a tank that is ready to slowly stock. As long as you wait it out a few (2-3) weeks and your readings are stable id say its not ever going to cycle hard. Alot depends the rock and the amount of die off on it.

very well stated

gparr · Feb 28, 2009

The key phrase in the Aquarius post was "ready to slowly stock." If your tank cycles and is stable for 3-4 weeks and you start adding livestock at a rapid rate, you'll create a train wreck. Slow, meaning very slow, is the key to success. Add things quickly and the bacteria won't be able to grow fast enough to keep up with the bioload.
Gary

slipondajimmy · Feb 28, 2009

TORMENTOR said:
Woo hoo, I am getting closer. Now its time to sit back and let it do it's thing.

I think It was time to sit back and let it do its thing before you added a bunch of rotting shrimp...lol

The key is to let it work and not try to rush it. You mess with nature in the wild and it causes disaster. Same will apply here

Good luck

TORMENTOR · Feb 28, 2009

The tank is a 75 gallon with a 30 gallon sump.
I am going to be going very very very slow when adding anything else to the tank. I have already seen what happens when adding to much too fast in a friends tank that was set up around Thanksgiving. He went through hell and finally has it coming together.:neutral:

TORMENTOR · Mar 1, 2009

Tested the water again this morning and my readings are...

Temp---78
Sg------1.023
PH-------7.8, still need to bring it up
Ammonia----zero
Nitrite-------.50
Nitrate------10
DKH----------7, need to bring it up also

Should I be testing for Calcium since my alkalinity is low along with my PH? Would I get a true reading if I tested? Does it matter at this point in my cycle?

Thanks, Rich

aquarius77 · Mar 1, 2009

If the alk is low the cal is most likely high, no it really does not matter right now. Your pH should fall into place once the alk is brought up.

TORMENTOR · Mar 2, 2009

Today March 2nd, I tested the water this morning and Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are all reading zero and my PH is 8.2. Could my tank have completed it's cycle or should I expect to see another spike?
Everything is fine in the tank and I have hair algae forming on my rock and sand and the water is crystal clear.

Can I look into adding a clean up crew by next weekend?

subielover · Mar 2, 2009

Sounds like that should be fine. I would only add maybe 5-10 snails for a clean-up crew, that's it. Don't run out and get 150 snails and crabs. What you can do in the mean time, is start pulling out as much of the algae with your hands as you can. Remember, that you do not need lights during your cycle.

TORMENTOR · Mar 2, 2009

This algae is probably only a quarter of an inch long if that.
I have been running just my actinics during the cycle.
Is my tank cycled thou? I cant believe it could go through one that fast.
I set it up on the 16th of February, added 3 Chromis's and 10lbs of live rock from Blue Planet Corals on the 18th, added 1 shrimp to my sump on the 21st of Feb. let it sit for a week that way, then added 6 more shrimp on the 27th because I wasn't reading anything. Over the weekend I tested the water and had Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate readings and this morning I'm not reading anything. Come on now, What gives!!!

roshi719 · Mar 2, 2009

You will only see ammonia and nitrate as long as there is something creating it in the tank. Since you took out the shrimp, and the chromis don't excrete that much, your tank is cycled for the bioload that is there. You did seed the bacteria population by adding the cycled live rock. I would say you could start stocking slowly. Make sure you monitor your levels as you start stocking. Add maybe one fish a week as long as the levels stay good.

I'm guessing you saw a big spike and then a big drop because you added 6 shrimp at once, they gave a large ammonia spike. Then you took them out, no more ammonia going in. The bacteria that you seeded reproduced and detoxified the ammonia and the nitrite. Had you not seeded with some cured live rock, the cycle would have been much longer. This is part of the beauty of mother nature, she never does things the same way twice. Just because someone elses tank took six weeks to cycle doesn't mean yours will. As long as the water is testing fine, I would say you can start increasing the bioload. Just do it slowly.

TORMENTOR · Mar 2, 2009

Thanks Morgan, I will be in next weekend to start getting some snails and hermits from you. Got to get this algae under control.
How many of each type do you suggest for my tank?

Do you have Red Scarlet hermits along with Blue legged hermits? What kind of snails do you have?

Thanks, Rich

roshi719 · Mar 2, 2009

As of right now I just have the blue legs in stock. I have nassarius and astrea snails in right now. Come on in next sunday and I will get you all hooked up.

TORMENTOR · Mar 5, 2009

Well here it is Thursday morning and I tested the Parameters again, readings are as follows

Sg---1.023
PH.--8.3
Amm.--0
Nitrite--0
Nitrate--0
DKH--8

The tank is really starting to look ugly, My wife is really complaining about it now. She cant bare to look at a tank with all the short hair algae and ugly very light tan slime looking algae on the glass. I wipe the glass down daily with my mag float but it just comes right back.

I really need to get a clean up crew in there this weekend.

TORMENTOR · Apr 25, 2009

Wow, another of my post's I haven't looked at in a while.
Well the tank has done its thing and I have fish in it now, It took I believe 2 weeks for it to go through its cycle. I had to add shrimp to the sump to get it to spike.

Everything is doing well (knock on wood)...