Raw Shrimp Cycle, No Ammonia

[Aquageek450]

I am in the process of cycling my new reefer 250. I filled the tank with fresh saltwater and added 2 bags of caribsea live sand. I then places one medium size raw shrimp in the tank to get the cycle going. The shrimp has been in the tank for about 5 days now and I have been testing a couple times a day and have never seen any ammonia. My Nitrites are also 0, but I do show between 10-25 Nitrates (Salifert Kit).

Why am I not seeing any ammonia from the rotting shrimp? Usually people say after about 3 days the see the ammonia spike.

If the live-sand did counterbalance the ammonia and my tank truly is near the end of the cycle, how can I be sure of this?

 

[Waters]

If you are seeing nitrates then it is due to the ammonia being converted (unless it was already present in the water you used to start your tank). Are you using live rock? I guess it is possible the live sand has enough bacteria but I have never heard of it being that efficient. You could always pick up some pure ammonia.....add until it is detectable, and watch your numbers.

 

[timrocks311]

I'd keep watching it. I don't think you're done your cycle and I don't think some live sand necessarily has enough bacteria in it support your tank that quickly. You might want to add another shrimp. I cycled my 40 gallon with three shrimp and a bottle of Bio-Spira. I have dry rock and dry sand. It still took over a week and a half before it was all clear, and I waited until week three to add anything.

 

[Aquageek450]

I dont have any rock in the tank yet, I plan to add some fully cured rock from my established tank once the cycle is done. Should I remove this shrimp that is getting nasty and add another or just add another one in with this one? Is it possible one shrimp rotting isnt enough to spike the ammonia?

Also, when I first filled the tank I tested for nitrates and they were at 0 before adding the shrimp

 

[timrocks311]

The shrimp does turn to mush. You can remove it before it gets too messy, and I would add another or two and try it. If you can, I'd add your live rock now. That will help everything. Test and make sure you don't get a small cycle when you add the rock and you might be good.

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

What ammonia kit are you using ?
Nitrites being 0 still tell me cycle has not even started yet.

 

[Aquageek450]

I have both API and Salifert.

And I agree I dont think the cycle has started yet either. Will it start eventually with this single piece of shrimp just given more time?

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

Is Salifert nh3 or nh4 or nh3/nh4
Also look at the bottle and box of Salifert and see the labels match

 

[Aquageek450]

nh4, but im not home to see what the bottle says

Both the API and Salifert are reading 0

 

[Aquageek450]

actually the salifert ammonia box says NH4 and the bottle inside says NH3

 

[brandon429]

Your cured live rock when moved over won't need to cycle, it just transfers. It seems you are cycling only the sand? Since it was wet packed, that's already cycled too. This seems to be a skip cycle setup, each portion already brought it's bac. Cycling is for dry substrates

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

That kit will only show nh3 levels. Which at pH 8.2-8.4 at 2ppm ammonia (nh3/nh4) will only be 0.2 nh3
Like Brandon said if you brought cured live rock into the system then you probably had enough bacteria to overcome any ammonia produced by the shrimp.

 

[Aquageek450]

there is no live rock in the system, only live sand

 

[brandon429]

Yep, when the live rock is moved over it skip cycles, like when I take my old reef apart to clean it, the rocks sit on the counter till I'm done then they go back in, skip cycle. Since the sand was wet it had bacteria, so far there's no use for shrimp cycling here.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

 

[Aquageek450]

this is just "live" sand from a bag, not from my other system

 

[brandon429]

Agreed I use that sand, it was packed wet/it's got all bac. In a separate large thread we prep that sand by rinsing it in tap water for an hour so it's cloudless in the new tank, this doesn't kill bac they're that strong. So moving them place to place is easy for them

 

[Aquageek450]

okay, so If i remove the shrimp from the tank. is there any simple tests I can do to determine if the tank has indeed cycled? Couldn't I add ammonia and if the tank is cycled it will dissapear in 24hrs or so?

 

[brandon429]

Yes that's ok to run as a verifier but in the end the sands bacteria don't matter, only the rocks. This is why people that go bare bottom don't have to cycle when they remove sand, those bac were incidental, above what's needed. The rock provides all required bac and those are already cured right




If you want to use liquid ammonium chloride for oxidation testing that's fine, but to not test is also avail based on known submersion history for all substrates.