Help me understand my cycle.

[SirKevinD]

Ok, I'm trying to do this right but I need some help from everyone to let me know if things are going ok. When I first filled my tank with RODI, got salinity to 1.025 and heated my water to 80 I put in a bottle of BioSpira and some bottled bacteria from my LFS. I saw 0.25 ammonia for 4 days.
Today I added a table shrimp wrapped in hosiery. I just tested and my ammonia was 0.25, nitrites looked a little off from 0 and nitrates were 5.0. Is my cycle starting?
Should I remove the shrimp?

 

[mike007]

If you just added shrimp today that is not enough time for it to produce any ammonia. You will get a ammonia spike soon. It takes 3-4 weeks sometimes for a tank to cycle. Go slow and keep testing.

 

[SirKevinD]

Thanks Mike.
I'm guessing the question in my head is I know I'm seeing nitrates from the shrimp, but I thought you see nitrates last, so could that mean the ammonia is starting to break down?

 

[glb]

Sometimes there will be an overlap of ammonia, nitrites or nitrates during the cycle. You'll find a gradual increase then decline in all the numbers. I would just keep an eye on it.

 

[homefry319]

Cycling can take a while, be patient honestly should be anywhere from 4-6 weeks, the key in doing it correctly is being patient which can be difficult. Really testing everyday just causes confusion, try testing every 4-7 days as you'll see some weird results testing everyday ( multiple spikes, mix of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) also note that some tests can give false positive when other things are present.

 

[Reefing Madness]

You leave the shrimp in there, it will get nasty and fall apart, but thats your ammonia source. The more you have, the higher your bacteria count for Nitrite and Nitrates. Your system when finished will bring down those numbers easily, once the bacteria has grown in abundance.

 

[SirKevinD]

Thanks reefing, that makes sense.

 

[duke4130]

I just cycled my new system in two weeks using the raw shrimp method. I have a total of 60 gallons of water (DT and Sump) and added 3 medium sized shrimp..... I left them in a net hanging from the top of the tank. I added MicroBacter7 every day for the two weeks and still add every other day. When the shrimp is completely deteriorated and there is nothing left keep adding the bacteria for a couple more days and you should be good to slowly start adding livestock.... Testing is key but every system is different