Trying to cycle my 130.

[Michael Gray]

I'm going slow with this tank so planning on 6 weeks cycle before live stock. Using raw shrimp so Monday night I put one raw shrimp in. Tested ammonia nothing 2 days later I added a second. Shrimp in filter sock. Tank water had a stinch to it. I tested the water Thursday morning. No ammonia no nitrites but had 5 to 10 nitrates on salifert test kit. Slight pink color. But no ammonia. So I'm gonna clean filter sock and put like 3 raw shrimp in sock at same time so they rot at same time. See if I can get ammonia to jump up.


Skimmer is still off. Should i be running it or leave it be for the cycle. And after the 3 shrimp nitrate will probably be alot more. But why isnt ammonia and nitrite going up.

 

[Michael Gray]

I just pulled the filter sock to clean the 2 shrimp to put new ones.

I figured I was gonna see a slurry of nasty shrimp. Believe it or not it looks like normal cooked shrimp not even gross. After 4 to 5 days in my filter sock?

I'm baffled.

I had a bag of frozen large shrimp. I thawed peeled and used it.

 

[W1ngz]

What rock did you use? The presence of nitrate without detectable ammonia or nitrite would indicate the nitrogen cycle has already gotten underway, meaning you had a viable bacteria colony already in place.

Giving it a 'fresh' shrimp isn't going to change anything. One single shrimp in the filter sock is all you need. If the water smells, it's probably not oxygenated enough. You can run the skimmer to pull some goo out of the water to control the smell and some carbon to clear up the water.

Other than that I would just leave it alone.

 

[Hemmdog]

I just pulled the filter sock to clean the 2 shrimp to put new ones.

I figured I was gonna see a slurry of nasty shrimp. Believe it or not it looks like normal cooked shrimp not even gross. After 4 to 5 days in my filter sock?

I'm baffled.

I had a bag of frozen large shrimp. I thawed peeled and used it.

Did you use cooked shrimp ? Or a raw shrimp? Lol

 

[Michael Gray]

I used raw shrimp. I just bought ace 10% ammonia. Gonna put it at 3ppm and just let it go. I use reef flakes sand and Marco rock dry. No live anything.

 

[Michael Gray]

Is there anything bad to putting at 5ppm for extra and letting it just do its thing? Will that just help with more bacteria? I know I have to keep it fed for 6 weeks. Constant feed

 

[W1ngz]

My personal preference is to use household ammonia. That way I know what I have and how far I've come. I usually target 2ppm so that the nitrate levels don't skyrocket which can slow bacteria development at really high levels.

If you're going to switch to ammonia, remove the filter sock to be sure the bacteria grows in the rocks. If the bacteria have made the sock a home, then you'll crash the tank when you change or clean the sock.

 

[Michael Gray]

Oh so remove both socks. Ok. And tun skimmer or not?

And if I go for 6 weeks. I keep adding ammonia every so often to keep it going?

 

[W1ngz]

Skimmer won't affect the cycle, but if you run it it will give it a good break-in period where it develops the film on the inside which keeps it from overflowing with bubbles and foam.

Test and dose the ammonia to around 2ppm every 2-3 days until the nitrates get to 40+ then do a water change. That's when I usually cut back my ammonia to about .5 until I decide to start adding critters.

 

[Michael Gray]

removed socks and turned on magus 7 elite on max. Socks out now I got bubbles in display but just dosed ammonia. So I'll check what it is at 1230.

 

[FishyDP]

I like to cycle with pure ammonia and raw shrimp. This way you are feeding a diversity of bacteria. Like a previous poster stated, 1 shrimp should be enough. Just let it decompose and let your tank get nice and nasty/soupy. You will get "spikes" of ammonia, levels will rise and fall during the cycle as bacteria is growing. So dont drive yourself crazy testing every day, which is easy to do when cycling. Let it run and let the bacteria grow.

I agree regarding removing filter socks for the previously mentioned reasons.

The only reason I run a skimmer during a cycle is to break it in, without the collection cup. Imo, there is no need to polish your water during a cycle, it is only taking away from your tank becoming established, which is the goal. Once the tank is cycled, you can do a water change and run your filtration equipment, and then add your livestock, slowly.

You could also consider adding in a marinepure block or some seachem matrix now, lots of surface area for bacteria to grow.

 

[Michael Gray]

I thought about leaving a shrimp in there for entire 6 weeks to add a steady feed. But I just removed my filter socks. So nothing to put it in. I hate the micro bubbles getting to display. My OCD is making want to put the sock back in. Ahha

 

[W1ngz]

There's no advantage to leaving the skimmer on max, it'll just cover everything in salt spray.

 

[W1ngz]

A side note, what looks like your topoff line shouldn't be below the sump waterline. When the topoff container gets lower than the sump level it will create a siphon and start moving salt water backwards into the topoff.

Unless that's integrated freshwater storage?

 

[Michael Gray]

There's no advantage to leaving the skimmer on max, it'll just cover everything in salt spray.

Thanks. I out skimmer on setting 3 instead of max just now.

That tube u circled is the clean rodi tank. If u look in the back. The white line goes from the pump to a tube holder where my ca,mg,alk lines are in and its above the water line. So when it pumps Yup off it drips into return

 

[Michael Gray]

Man I out ammonia in tank by the ammonia calculator. It didnt get to 2ppm. I added more. Didnt get to 2. We added more. And today I had to add more. Got it finally to a solid 1.5. And we just added more and for sure we should finally hit 2.0ppm ammonia. So let the game begin?

Also I had salt mist from skimmer running without cup. It was everywhere. You were right. I cleaned it up. I out the cup back on and just left the cup drain tube open so it just drains back in tank since even on lowest setting it is just bubbling and filling cup up. Hopefully it slows down and breaks in within the 4 week cycling process. But I have the mist under control now

 

[Michael Gray]

Since then I read salifert no matter what doesnt get passed 1.5. So me chasing the 2ppm for cycle I put to much. Bought api to compare and bam I was above 2ppm but salifert wouldnt show me. So now I'm 8ppm plus. And still 8ppm plus. For about 8 days now. Ahaha. This is gonna be a extra long cycle it looks like since I have ammonia so high

 

[Michael Gray]

Update and need opinions. Ita been 1 month. Nitrite was still off charts. I did 5 35g water changes. Finally got the nitrite to about 2ppm. I havent dosed ammonia since my overdose like a month ago. Bow that I got nitrite to 2ppm. Do I dose ammonia to like 1ppm or just dont touch it and hope nitrite can drop the rest of the way on its own.

Jesus 5 35g waterchanges. To get it finally this low. It must have been like 20!. Definitely staffed my cycle.

 

[brandon429]

Your tank is cycked due to being wet 30 days with both ammonia and bac in place. Due to varying amounts of ammonia input during this last mo you have lots of wastewater to clear and that takes time, but if you just changed out all your water and refilled, that's zero waste water on top of cycled rocks and sand.

You have cycle bac in place but loads of varying wastewater is circulating above them and we can only guess levels using titration kits. Your cycle is done, your wastewater might not be. You can wait weeks for it to clear or just change out water and start. You could also get an ammonia specific poly filter and run it to zero ammonia, then begin. Nitrite doesn't factor only ammonia

 

[Michael Gray]

Your tank is cycked due to being wet 30 days with both ammonia and bac in place. Due to varying amounts of ammonia input during this last mo you have lots of wastewater to clear and that takes time, but if you just changed out all your water and refilled, that's zero waste water on top of cycled rocks and sand.

You have cycle bac in place but loads of varying wastewater is circulating above them and we can only guess levels using titration kits. Your cycle is done, your wastewater might not be. You can wait weeks for it to clear or just change out water and start. You could also get an ammonia specific poly filter and run it to zero ammonia, then begin. Nitrite doesn't factor only ammonia

I thought nitrite was suppose to drop to 0? Different bacteria? And it never did since nitrite was so dam high. But I got it down with 5 35g wc so it's at 2ppm now. Ammonia is 0ppm it dropped over night. I'm just waiting on nitrite to go from 2ppm to 0.

I'm gonna let it go another week. My fish are still in qt until Monday the 9th. So I got time. Hoping nitrite drops to 0 since I did 5 water changes to lower it to about 2ppm.