What to check

[rerr001]

Just dropped 2 cocktail shrimp in my 75g tank with new marco rocks and new saltwater to start the cycle process. I know I need to keep a check on ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels, what other levels do I need to keep an eye on? When do I need to start looking for spikes? Running lights from 6pm to 10pm, 4 hrs a day, to start and skimmer off, is this the correct procedure? Thanks.

 

[rerr001]

Any answers

 

[bobbyM]

I prefer to use flake food. I takes a total of 3-4 days to go from solid to ammonia. Cocktail shrimp take weeks if not months to break down and decay.

Kick that skimmer on and run it. Keep your tank as clean as you can for as long as you can. That's the game plan ;-)

Light + Nutrient = Algae so if you can cycle your tank with out a light that would be best.

 

[bobbyM]

Oh, and welcome to R2R

 

[jedimasterben]

I wouldn't bother running your lights or doing any sort of testing for at least a couple of weeks.

 

[rerr001]

BobbyM, would you suggest taking the shrimp out and use fish flake food instead?

 

[bobbyM]

Yea, Shrimp take forever to decay. Even better, get a culture of pods and feed live phytoplankton. If your strapped for cash use flakes.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

You can use the shrimp or the flake food. This is what I do: I put the shrimp in until I get a reading of at least 1.0 for the ammonia and then I remove it. I test daily for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Once there is not ammonia or nitrite, I start ghost feeding what I anticipate I will be feeding the tank. From there, I wait until I do not get an ammonia or nitrite reading from adding the food. Then, I add my first additions. I typically run my tank without a skimmer for the first 6 months.

 

[rerr001]

Also I have a 12g nano cube that I purchase already setup (test tank) with 1 lg (about 10lbs) and 2 sm (about 2-3lbs) rocks in it with some purple coraline algae on it. The tank has 2-chomis, 3-pepperment shrimp, 1-fire red shrimp, and a couple of hermit crab and snails. The two small rocks has pink palys on it, was wondering if i put one of the rocks in my 75g tank would it help the cycling, not trying to rush it just want to do the first one right. Would it kill the palys in the 75g? Thanks for all the info.

 

[bobbyM]

Any fully cured live rock will help. In tanks I have set up with all fully cured rock, the cycle has been very quick. (two weeks) Marco rock is usually pretty clean. A starter culture of fully cured live rock will be needed. You can even put it in your sump and it will help. I wouldn't add the palys just yet. Wait for the cycle before running the lights full time. <---- hard to do I know.

 

[MaxCanada]

i just used bio spira and put in a coupe clown fish ive have zero ppm of ammonia for almost 2 weeks and 4 ppm of nitrates i run my light for 6 hours just for the fish, and i put about 3lbs of live rock pieces in my refugium area of my sum