Adding shrimp?

jman9331 · Feb 10, 2015

When you add a piece of raw shrimp to the tank to raise ammonia levels or what have you is it suppose to be 1 single shrimp?

cracker · Feb 10, 2015

Unless You have a really big tank I would think one shrimp would work.

jman9331 · Feb 10, 2015

i have a 75 gallon.

tyler1503 · Feb 10, 2015

I use 1 shrimp on my smaller tanks but I used a shrimp and a big piece of squid in my 120. It's all I had on hand at the time but it works just the same

jman9331 · Feb 10, 2015

Awesome! And you don't have to peel it or anything, just drop it in?

Humblefish · Feb 10, 2015

I suggest putting the raw shrimp in a media bag for easy retrieval. Once you good a good "spark" of ammonia (2.0), take it out. You don't want all the organics from rotting shrimp in your tank. You can continue your cycle by adding a tiny pinch of flake food every 2-3 days. Takes a little bit longer to cycle this way, but IMO worth it.

jman9331 · Feb 10, 2015

Alright thanks for the advice!

tyler1503 · Feb 10, 2015

jman9331 said:
Awesome! And you don't have to peel it or anything, just drop it in?

They say the shells can contain quite a lot of phosphate. I don't know how much phosphate can leach from one or two shrimp though and I don't know how long it's supposed to take before leaching could occur. I've always peeled them just to be on the safe side and never had any issues

jman9331 · Feb 11, 2015

Alright cool! Thanks for the help!

Canitolindo · Feb 11, 2015

1 should be good eno ugh but 2 wouldn't hurt

jman9331 · Feb 11, 2015

How long should I leave them in for a couple days or a week?

vic67 · Feb 11, 2015

I use peeled shrimp that I grind up slightly; more surface area for bacteria. I also just leave it in the tank. I figure that as it breaks down it just feeds the bacteria that's growing.