Ammonia troubles cycling

[Yellow17165161]

Hey,

So I’ve gone old school and added a shrimp to my tank 2 days ago. I didn’t have any raw shrimp, so it was one of those frozen plain steamed shrimp. I washed it on rodi water first. It looks the exact same as it did before, no changes at all. The water does smell slightly funky though. 0 reading on all tests so far.

Could the Cooked shrimp be taking longer to decompose? Should I get a fresh shrimp?

Its an all dry tank, dry sand and dry rock. I’ll be adding aquavitro seed once I register some ammonia. I would add pure ammonia but won’t get it anytime soon (weeks wait) in Canada.

Any other ideas besides the cooked shrimp?

Also it’s a 32.5 gallon fluval flex marine. I was thinking of stocking this over the next year:


2 clowns
Yellow Midas Blenny
Watchman goby (or a Mandarin wayyy down the line instead)
Canary Blenny
File fish (maybe?)

does that sound overstocked?

 

[lapin]

The cooked shrimp is pretty void of any natural bacteria. It will take longer to break down. Do you have any pellet food. If so add a pinch . It takes a raw shrimp about a week to start breaking down.

 

[Yellow17165161]

Was just at the grocery store, they had fresh shrimp priced half off with a use tonight label, so I just picked that up. It’s probably a couple days old already. Replaced the cooked shrimp with the raw. The cooked one barely had any smell. I have freshwater tropical fish flakes from a long while ago somewhere in the house

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

I would not put a raw shrimp in my tank to cycle. You don’t know what kind of bacteria or microbes that shrimp may be carrying. I’ve cycled many tanks with the cooked shrimp. It usually takes a couple days for it to start rotting.

Did you add any beneficial bacteria? What is the temperature of the tank? Those two things will drastically change your cycle times.

 

[Yellow17165161]

I haven’t added any bacteria as of yet, I was waiting to get some ammonia in the tank so the bacteria has something to consume, is that correct? It is called aquavitro seed bottled bacteria. My temperature I’m working on still. It’s sitting around 80 with no heater on right now, I can’t figure out why it’s so high. I think it may be the AIO return pump. I’ll turn it off soon and see if the temperature lowers

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

I haven’t added any bacteria as of yet, I was waiting to get some ammonia in the tank so the bacteria has something to consume, is that correct? It is called aquavitro seed bottled bacteria. My temperature I’m working on still. It’s sitting around 80 with no heater on right now, I can’t figure out why it’s so high. I think it may be the AIO return pump. I’ll turn it off soon and see if the temperature lowers

Personally, I like BioSpira. I’ve never tried your brand. I’ve tried F&S, BioSpira and Dr Tim’s (bottled water). BioSpira has always cycled my tanks within 2 weeks.

I’ve always added it as soon as I add the shrimp so the bacteria strains in the bottle can go to work. The bacteria that are not at work will go/stay dormant, from my understanding. Hence, there’s no shrimp in the bottle when it’s sitting on the shelf. Lol. So, I’d get your bacteria in there ASAP.

The higher the temp, the quicker the bacteria will multiply. I’d leave it right there at 80.

 

[ReefKing101]

Don’t overthink it. What I’ve taken Away from cycling my first marine tank. It gets there eventually and nothing you do changes it really

 

[Yellow17165161]

Hey, so I ended up adding dr Tim’s ammonia at around 2ppm. I also added microbacter7 since I wasn’t liking the other bacteria I used. It’s been almost a month since I stared the cycle, and my ammonia is still around 1-2ppm. No nitrites at all. Is this normal? Has the cycle even started? I’m thinking of adding a piece or live rock to my liferock to get some actual bacteria seeded, I was trying to avoid any pests but not sure at this point

 

[Yellow17165161]

Never mind, I just checked again today and there’s a 0.25 ppm reading for nitrites! There’s was nothing yesterday