Oldsalt01
Well-Known Member
My 5g QT's at day 3 and cycling. Ammonia's at +8ppm. How long should I leave this poor disgusting shrimp in? It's got this nasty slime covering now and my wife's concerned it's gonna start to stink!
Day 3. How long do I leave the shrimp in?
- Nano Build
- Thread starter Oldsalt01
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Paul B
10K Club member
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Reef Of The Month
Article Contributor
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
Leave him in there, he is fermenting correctly. Take your wife out to dinner and order a nice bottle of Merlot. She will forget about it.
when you google
api ammonia test results, how do they look from the masses in accuracy
mentioning that because they show it ranges greatly
post tank pics we can go very well off that, to see how aged this rock base is. some cycling tanks are bone white rock, leave the shrimp in.
some are purple coralline w sponges and worms, never put in the shrimp, so pics are good help
api ammonia test results, how do they look from the masses in accuracy
mentioning that because they show it ranges greatly
post tank pics we can go very well off that, to see how aged this rock base is. some cycling tanks are bone white rock, leave the shrimp in.
some are purple coralline w sponges and worms, never put in the shrimp, so pics are good help
Last edited:
OP
OP
Oldsalt01
Well-Known Member
5gal AIO bare tank, no rock/sand, just a piece of PVC for the fish to hide in. Pulled the foam block out and it's in my 14g DT culturing bacteria. I just don't understand the disparity between the test kit and the ammonia alert disk. Obviously one of them is wrong. My 4 week old DT tests out at zero ppm by the test kit and my 'Pods don't seem distressed.
Hey thats a cycling challenge lol! Unique setup.
The only way I can discern is the old standby: full water change to be zero ammonia. salifert or equivalent level ammonia test, add cleaners ammonia per those threads to the tank to attain 3 ppm. Test in 24 hrs and depending on how close to zero we know about your cycle progress.
Searches show these test kits having excellent consistency and there may be others too, but salifert and Hanna are excellent and $
There is no way to discern the cycle issues without getting a timeframe for 3ppm to zero, you can have 8 ppm in a tank with not enough surface area and it takes days to go away even if whats in there is cycled. You can have 8 ppm in a fully cycled tank is my point, indicating no cycle issue but an overage of ammonia issue, if you simply overload the rot and under load the active surface area. Need a few more details to really pinpoint.
Whats your active surface area in this new tank? PVC doesn't really count much
Adding a cycled sponge w surely help.
It will start to stink soon. These organics are the result of choosing the shrimp option. Cleaning ammonia is better in every way but shrimp w work too.
It takes about 3-4 weeks for basic cycling to be done when in a boosted environment and as fast as two weeks under the exacting conditions of cleaning ammonia and bottle bac or alt seed sources. Three days isn't enough for any of them and if the slime organics are that bad now, imagine the 3rd week lol
The only way I can discern is the old standby: full water change to be zero ammonia. salifert or equivalent level ammonia test, add cleaners ammonia per those threads to the tank to attain 3 ppm. Test in 24 hrs and depending on how close to zero we know about your cycle progress.
Searches show these test kits having excellent consistency and there may be others too, but salifert and Hanna are excellent and $
There is no way to discern the cycle issues without getting a timeframe for 3ppm to zero, you can have 8 ppm in a tank with not enough surface area and it takes days to go away even if whats in there is cycled. You can have 8 ppm in a fully cycled tank is my point, indicating no cycle issue but an overage of ammonia issue, if you simply overload the rot and under load the active surface area. Need a few more details to really pinpoint.
Whats your active surface area in this new tank? PVC doesn't really count much
Adding a cycled sponge w surely help.
It will start to stink soon. These organics are the result of choosing the shrimp option. Cleaning ammonia is better in every way but shrimp w work too.
It takes about 3-4 weeks for basic cycling to be done when in a boosted environment and as fast as two weeks under the exacting conditions of cleaning ammonia and bottle bac or alt seed sources. Three days isn't enough for any of them and if the slime organics are that bad now, imagine the 3rd week lol
Last edited:
OP
OP
Oldsalt01
Well-Known Member
My wife'll divorce me! I'm gonna give ole stinky another couple of days and keep testing the ammonia. When I cycled my 14g DT last month, the test kit was right on compared with my lfs' test, so i gotta believe the AmmoniaAlert is either old (I just bought it, but not from the lfs I usually do business with) or hasn't caught up to the test kit yet. I'm not in a big rush to stock my DT so it's no big deal. I added an airstone to the QT's return sump cuz the water was beginning to get quite grey and other than increased salt creep around the sump area, it seems to have helped a bit. I'm not sure what you mean by active surface area. Are you suggesting I add a hunk of cycled rock? I was hoping just the colonized foam block would get the Nitrite/Nitrate cycle going, although there may not be enough surface area to do that.
Paul B
10K Club member
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Reef Of The Month
Article Contributor
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
When you have a lot of bacteria in there, they will finish off that shrimp and leave nothing, not even a stink. It is still in there because you don't have enough bacteria yet. I can throw a moose in my tank and after he finishes thrashing around, the bacteria will take care of it by 2:00. (but it may stink, nothing worse than stinking moose except stinking clams)
Similar threads
