3 gallon Pico cycling correctly?

[reefer81]

So Im on the 3rd day of cycling my 3 gallon Pico. I decided to go with the shrimp method as my ammonia source. When I tested today, ammonia was 1.0 ppm and nitrites 0.50 ppm. I took the shrimp out because I was worried that in such a small tank I would accidentally overdo the ammonia. Should I raise it even higher? Also do Pico tanks cycle faster than bigger tanks?

 

[ylreefer]

Good start. That will look great when it's full of frags. .

There are lots of answered to this question as I'm sure your about to find out. The way I've always done it for about 30 years is to bring the ammonia upto 2ppm with whichever method you choose. As the biological system develops (again whichever method you use) it will drop to zero. How lokg that takes is dependant on a number of things.

I usually then bring it back upto 2ppm (without livestock) and if it drops to zero in 24hrs I consider that fully cycled.

This isn't the quickest method, but I have found it to result in a more stable system long term.

There are of course very nice looking tanks out there that use a much simpler / quicker method. For me it's all about the welfare of the animals and not my viewing pleasure. Plenty of time to get that right later. ,

My recently set up nano. I had the fortune of using my 775ltr to cycle this one .