Cycling question

[johnny4491]

Quick question guys how long do I leave the shrimp in there for and do I have to do water changes during the process

 

[johnny4491]

Right now your sand is live. However you have nothing to feed it. You will need an ammonia source. Are you testing the ammonia nitrite and nitrate? If so what are they reading. If you don’t feed the bacteria some ammonia it will die off.

I placed a raw cocktail shrimp in a piece of panty hose and hung it on the tank in front of the powerhead.

As for the skimmer, sure you can hook it up. But here’s nothing in there to skim. A skimmer will take up the nasties in the water if you have no fish and your rock is just base and no ammonia source there’s nothing to skim.

Quick question guys how long do I leave the shrimp in there for and do I have to do water changes during the process

 

[Susan Edwards]

When I used shrimp with my first tank, I left it for several days--until it got way too disgusting. Then I tossed the mesh bag out.

 

[User1]

Quick question guys how long do I leave the shrimp in there for and do I have to do water changes during the process

Couple days is all. Hopefully you have a test kit. Sure fire way is after a couple days adding the beastie you can do a quick ammonia test. If it is reading 2.0 then you can remove it.

 

[Ksturg]

I set up a 20 gal using Carib sea live sand and dry rock and never had a cycle. After a month I added live stock and never had any ammonia spike or trate or trite. 3 months in and going strong.

 

[johnny4491]

Couple days is all. Hopefully you have a test kit. Sure fire way is after a couple days adding the beastie you can do a quick ammonia test. If it is reading 2.0 then you can remove it.

It’s the second day in there and it’s treading 1.0 so once I remove it what’s the next step do I need to do water changes or will the the ammonia and nitrate settle it’s self