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?

 

[MaxxuM]

1 is more than enough and I wouldn't worry much about nitrites. Did you use a bacteria product? If not, this will probably be a long wait. Bio-Spira IME is pretty good at speeding things up, but there are others.

 

[reefer81]

yes I used Fritz Aquatics FritzZyme 9 Nitrifying Bacteria!

 

[reefer81]

So I don’t need to keep adding an ammonia source?

 

[MaxxuM]

You're golden then. Probably don't want to have the lights on though... Disregard if it's just for the photo.

 

[MaxxuM]

Just follow the directions on the bottle. Each one has a slightly different method.

 

[reefer81]

Yeah just for the photo!

 

[reefer81]

It didn’t say to keep adding, after initially putting the bacteria in, but don’t I need to keep adding a food source?

 

[Tired]

Pico tanks don't cycle at any different speed, no. Tanks started with dry rock do. See if you can get a person with an established tank to give you a bit of sand and/or some empty shells and frag plugs, to get some bacteria, algae, and general microfauna going. Otherwise, all your beneficial critters will have to find their way in on frag plugs alone, which takes awhile. Especially if you dip corals like you really should.

Yes, you need to maintain ammonia levels. You want them somewhere around 1-2ppm. You'll know the tank is cycled when you can add 2ppm ammonia to the tank and see 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and some nitrates within 24 hours. The best way to maintain a steady ammonia level is by dosing pure ammonia. A dead shrimp can work, but is imprecise, can slow down the cycle by adding way too much ammonia, and is way too much to put in a pico tank anyway.

Any plans on what you want to keep?

 

[reefer81]

Thanks for the info! I’ll defiantly be dosing with pure ammonia now. I’m planning on making this a dwarf seahorse tank. I’ll have macro algae/sea fan they can hitch onto and probably just a snail for clean up crew since the tank is so small.