just looking for a little advice

[jaggbruh]

hey guys, new here, i was just looking for some advice, i have my first ever salt water tank set up and has been running for about 10-12 weeks now, after it was all set up i chucked a shirmp in there to start the cycling like i had been told mant times online. ever since i have been monitoring the ammonia nitrite and nitrate, but so far the only noticable change throughout the 10-12 weeks has been the ammonia, and im just wondering if this is normal and im just not patient enough haha. thanks for all your future help fellas.

 

[Quietman]

You should see nitrate increase no more than a few weeks after adding your shrimp. It takes time for the shrimp to break down to ammonia, then a week for nitrite to show up and then another week/two for nitrate. This assumes you didn't add bacteria additive (which isn't needed if your patient).

Once you see nitrite take the shrimp out no need to have it rotting away.

Once you see nitrate you're likely cycled (if you keep shrimp in there for a while you may have ammonia but that will go away in a day if you take out and cycled).

Lastly, nitrite isn't toxic so if you see nitrite and no ammonia - you're still good.