Cycling DRY live rock progress thread (with photos)

[TPetty84]

The shrimp went from dead gray to "cooked" pink overnight. It's hard to see in the picture through the murky water

 

[clownfitch]

Are you "cycling" the rock to put it into an existing tank or are you building a new tank?

 

[TPetty84]

New tank. Only doing it in that container in basement because I don't want my house to smell

 

[TPetty84]

If anyone is following this thread and has ANY advise for me please feel free to post. Also, if nobody cares let me know haha. At what point should I do a water change? It's just starting to get a minor smell, I haven't done any ammonia/nitrite/nitrate tests yet.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I don't change water while cycling. You want the bacteria to turn the ammonia into nitrites and then into nitrates

 

[SloppyJ]

Yeah id let it go for a while. No harm in not changing it.

 

[TPetty84]

Thanks guys. As I stated at the beginning, I'm no expert. Just going off what I've read and the one time I bought "live" rock online it went through a full cycle in tank making my apartment smell like a marsh at low tide for 2 weeks haha. ANY info is greatly appreciated. Glad to have good people watching over me!

 

[prsnlty]

looks good!

 

[TPetty84]

Day three with shrimp in the mix. Ammonia is just starting to be produced. Got a reading of just under .25ppm. Let the games begin!

 

[fishroomlady]

woo hoo!!

 

[787will]

What did you use to seed the bacteria for the cycle?

 

[TPetty84]

A raw sbrimp

 

[TPetty84]

*shrimp

 

[787will]

I mean what bacteria are you using to process the ammonia from the raw shrimp? could be a single piece of established live rock, bio-spira, dr tims....

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I mean what bacteria are you using to process the ammonia from the raw shrimp? could be a single piece of established live rock, bio-spira, dr tims....

You can seed this way, but you don't have to. Could just use the shrimp and let the bacteria grow on their own as nature seeds them.

 

[TPetty84]

After doing a lot of reading, I came to believe the slower and more naturally these tanks mature, the better they seem to fare over the long term. So I decided to add the shrimp as an ammonia producer and let the bacteria naturally propagate over time in response. We shall see....

 

[vlangel]

After doing a lot of reading, I came to believe the slower and more naturally these tanks mature, the better they seem to fare over the long term. So I decided to add the shrimp as an ammonia producer and let the bacteria naturally propagate over time in response. We shall see....

Wow, I didn't realize that. Good to know.

 

[TPetty84]

Water is clearing up a bit. Ammonia hasn't risen though. The table shrimp seems to have crumbled and I can't find it. No nitrites or nitrates showing yet.

 

[TPetty84]

Ok so when I started this cycle, I could barely see the tops of the rocks because the water was so cloudy. The water is now clear enough that I can see right to the bottom no problem. My issue is: I've had a shrimp in 10 gallons of water for about ten days and it is completely dissolved (I looked under rocks and all). But my ammonia is holding steady at <.25. I can't see how a decomposed shrimp in 10 gals gave this little ammonia. Also, still no ITES or ATES

 

[TPetty84]

Anybody know what's going on? Or am I just being impatien