Cycling water with raw shrimp and seachem stability.

ajgab · Apr 11, 2024

After reading a lot of thoughts and reviews, i decided to put it half a tail of raw shrimp and dose it with Seachem stability on the day 2 of my 20g cube tank. My current ammonia reading is around 1.5ppm, I just realized how can i spike my ammonia to 3-4ppm with the raw shrimp tail if i already dose it with Stability which prevents ammonia spike.

Should i just continue to follow the 7days recommended dose for Seachem Stability while my shrimp tail also sits on my fishless aquarium for 7days?

lapin · Apr 11, 2024

Seachem stability is bacteria. We want them to grow. It will break down the dead shrimp. That’s its food source. (ammonia).
Keep dosing. Things will be fine.

Fish Fan · Apr 11, 2024

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

The problems with using a piece of raw shrimp as your ammonia source for your cycle is that it may literally stink up your house, and it's not easy to control that amount of ammonia it's adding to your tank. Arguably a better source of ammonia is bottled ammonium chloride that can be dosed so you can bring your ammonia level to a more exact range. But, you've got your shrimp, and I'd suggest you just keep rolling with it, you'll be absolutely fine

Add your Stability according to its directions and watch your ammonia level. I am thinking that 3-4 ppm is getting too high and the danger there is it can start to negatively impact the bacteria you are trying to grow. I would try to get your initial ammonia level to about 2-2.5ppm and if it goes much higher you may want to take the piece of shrimp out, at least temporarily.

Cycling a tank is a little like making Italian Sunday Tomato Sauce, everyone has there own tweaks to the recipe, and everyone tends to think their own way is the best. Truth is, your tank will cycle in time, just be patient, watch for your ammonia to go down and your nitrates to start to accumulate, and you'll know you're on the right track.

Good luck with your new tank!