Cycling questions

[elisa h]

My tank has been cycling for a week with two dead shrimp and a bottle of bacto spira. I've been testing ammonia and nitrates every day, but I couldn't find a nitrite test kit at my lfs or petco. I'd rather not order online as my mailman has a habit of delivering my mail to my neighbor.

For the last three days, my ammonia has been sitting at zero:

And my nitrates somewhere above 160:

I'm pretty sure my nitrites must be zero since ammonia has stayed zero and my nitrates are so so high. Do you guys think I'm in the safe?

Also, should I take the dead shrimp out now (they are pretty disgusting looking after rotting for a week) or will the bacteria starve? (I'm thinking of getting a clean up crew in the next few days)

Is it normal for my nitrates to be so high? (I know I need to do a water change and significantly lower them before adding cuc)

And lastly, I haven't gotten any type of algae bloom which I've read is normal to get around the end of the cycle. But, I haven't put lights on the tank yet.

Thanks

 

[Crabs McJones]

Have you done any water changes to bring down the nitrates?

 

[elisa h]

Have you done any water changes to bring down the nitrates?

Not yet because I'm scared of interrupting the cycle just in case there are some nitrites in the tank. But if you think they're most likely at zero since my ammonia has stayed at zero and nitrates are so high, I'll most likely start doing water changes tomorrow and I'll need to remove the shrimp. I was just worried about the bacteria starving if there is a gap between removing shrimp and adding clean up crew and eventually fish.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Not yet because I'm scared of interrupting the cycle just in case there are some nitrites in the tank. But if you think they're most likely at zero since my ammonia has stayed at zero and nitrates are so high, I'll most likely start doing water changes tomorrow and I'll need to remove the shrimp. I was just worried about the bacteria starving if there is a gap between removing shrimp and adding clean up crew and eventually fish.

What does your nitrite test look like?

 

[elisa h]

What does your nitrite test look like?

I couldn't find a nitrite test kit at my lfs or petco

 

[Crabs McJones]

Well if you have no ammonia and nitrates, I'd say your cycle is done, but a week doesn't sound right, it usually takes longer. Do small water changes over a couple days to slowly bring the nitrates down and retest.

 

[elisa h]

Well if you have no ammonia and nitrates, I'd say your cycle is done, but a week doesn't sound right, it usually takes longer. Do small water changes over a couple days to slowly bring the nitrates down and retest.

Ok. Do you think I should leave the shrimp in?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Ok. Do you think I should leave the shrimp in?

You can

 

[JoshH]

No lights on your set up had probably been your saving grace for algae blooms thus far. They will come in time, mine started a week or two after I started turning my lights on. I'd say the same as above, do some water changes and try to get it below the 160 mark at least if not much further, test a few days later and if your nitrates are higher again I'd say you're good to go. Then do a large enough water change to drop nitrate's lower than 10 and that's that.

 

[foxt]

Can you add a few more details? What size tank? What did you get for the first few days of testing for ammonia and nitrate? What else is in the tank (rock, sand?). Where did it come from (was it "live", or dead?). Did the ammonia spike at some point? What were your initial nitrate levels? I agree that a week is pretty quick for a cycle, but if you didn't start from scratch (i.e. you started with live rock or sand), and you seeded the tank with bacteria as you did, you could see an accelerated cycle, or none at all (in the cases where you started the tank off with an active biofilter by adding seeded rock, sand, etc).

If you no not have a light on the tank, you are not likely to have any algae at this point. When your tank is this young, you are likely to see diatoms (brown looking stuff) before you see algae - were you referring to a lack of diatoms in your post?

 

[JoshH]

And I would say that locating and aquiring a better test kit (Salifert, Elos, Red Sea) is worth the risk of your postman delivering it to the wrong place. If you find a retailer that delivers with FedEx you will probably have better luck with it showing up at your door.

 

[elisa h]

@foxt My tank is 90 gallons. The first few days after putting in shrimp and bacteria, ammonia rose to around 2.0 then I started getting nitrate readings and the nitrates got higher as ammonia got lower. Three days ago nitrates were 80 and they have since doubled while ammonia has stayed 0. I started with live sand but dry rock and adding bacto spira and two dead shirmp.

 

[elisa h]

And I would say that locating and aquiring a better test kit (Salifert, Elos, Red Sea) is worth the risk of your postman delivering it to the wrong place. If you find a retailer that delivers with FedEx you will probably have better luck with it showing up at your door.

My lfs told me they'll be getting in some Red Sea test kits and I'll be buying those once they're in.

 

[elisa h]

@foxt and yes, I was referring to diatoms in my first post

 

[JoshH]

@foxt My tank is 90 gallons. The first few days after putting in shrimp and bacteria, ammonia rose to around 2.0 then I started getting nitrate readings and the nitrates got higher as ammonia got lower. Three days ago nitrates were 80 and they have since doubled while ammonia has stayed 0. I started with live sand but dry rock and adding bacto spira and two dead shirmp.

Id say you're all set then but it doesn't hurt to leave or replace the shrimp and do a large water change to confirm. And awesome, hopefully they get the pro kits, I just purchased mine and love them. Aside from the nitrate kit that only reads under 4ppm the rest are awesome.

 

[Piranhapat]

I would do a water change. Remove the shrimp. Nitrates come down start adding fish. Bacteria won't starve you have some time. You either add fish or do a little feeding to tank. That was a fast cycle was they LR or something from other tank that seeded your cycle?

 

[elisa h]

I would do a water change. Remove the shrimp. Nitrates come down start adding fish. Bacteria won't starve you have some time. You either add fish or do a little feeding to tank. That was a fast cycle was they LR or something from other tank that seeded your cycle?

The only things seeding the tank was live sand and bacto spira. I did add an excessive amount of bacto spira, if that makes any difference. The rock I used came with my tank, it was live but I dried it out and bleached it.

 

[foxt]

Ok, I agree that you have probably established an effective bacteria population. Your ammonia spiked, nitrate rose, ammonia is at zero, and nitrate kept rising. That's the way it is supposed to go.

You should take out the shrimp, it has served it's purpose.

When you say that your rocks were live, but you dried them out, and then bleached them, what does that mean? Was this rock encrusted with life, in all the nooks and crannies? After you bleached it, was there still dead stuff hanging on (or tucked away in crevices, etc)? That could be a cause for problems later on. If there was organic matter attached to the rocks, that will continue to decay in your tank, and be a source of phosphates. If so, you will wistfully look back upon these algae-free days, because that phosphate will be a source of nutrients for all sorts of algae.

If on the other hand the rock was pretty clean, you may be ok. The advice you have gotten about getting your hands on a complete set of test kits is right on. One of those kits will test for phosphate. When you get your first reading, you will have a better idea of the problem (if any) you may have, but you have to keep testing to see if the phosphate levels rise (it takes a while for any trapped phosphates to make their way out of the stuff on your rock, in to the water).

I don't think you mentioned where your water is coming from. If it is tap water, that will be another source of problems down the line. The best practice is to process your tap water with a reverse osmosis system so that there is nothing but almost pure h20 + salt mix going in to your tank.

 

[elisa h]

Ok, I agree that you have probably established an effective bacteria population. Your ammonia spiked, nitrate rose, ammonia is at zero, and nitrate kept rising. That's the way it is supposed to go.

You should take out the shrimp, it has served it's purpose.

When you say that your rocks were live, but you dried them out, and then bleached them, what does that mean? Was this rock encrusted with life, in all the nooks and crannies? After you bleached it, was there still dead stuff hanging on (or tucked away in crevices, etc)? That could be a cause for problems later on. If there was organic matter attached to the rocks, that will continue to decay in your tank, and be a source of phosphates. If so, you will wistfully look back upon these algae-free days, because that phosphate will be a source of nutrients for all sorts of algae.

If on the other hand the rock was pretty clean, you may be ok. The advice you have gotten about getting your hands on a complete set of test kits is right on. One of those kits will test for phosphate. When you get your first reading, you will have a better idea of the problem (if any) you may have, but you have to keep testing to see if the phosphate levels rise (it takes a while for any trapped phosphates to make their way out of the stuff on your rock, in to the water).

I don't think you mentioned where your water is coming from. If it is tap water, that will be another source of problems down the line. The best practice is to process your tap water with a reverse osmosis system so that there is nothing but almost pure h20 + salt mix going in to your tank.

My rocks sat in bleach for around 2 weeks. They went from looking like live rock (purplish) to almost completely white and I pressure washed them after they came out of bleach. I then let them soak in RO water and when that water got kinda funky, I moved them to fresh water and they sat in there for a while and then dried in the sun. Hopefully this was enough to get most of the dead stuff off of them.
And yes, I am using RO water in my tank. I'm using the BRS 4 stage unit.

 

[foxt]

Sounds like the rocks should be mostly clean. Only way to tell at this point will be to start monitoring phosphate levels. If they are rising at this point, there are steps you can take before you add livestock to the tank, but it will depend on what you are dealing with.

Have water changes been bringing the nitrates down?