[Help] Cycling my aquarium with table shrimp. How much ammonia should i build up before removing it?

[Mmbra]

Pretty much the thread title, i am in the middle of cycling my tank, ive had the shrimp in there for about 3 or 4 days. I have 40 pounds of dry marco rock and 10 lbs of live rock purchased from my lfs. I also got a good cup full of sand from one of their established reefs.

I tested today and have between .25 and .5 ppm ammonia levels. Nitrite and Nitrate are 0.

So should i take the shrimp out as its starting to smell or leave it in till i get a certain ppm?

Thanks everyone.

 

[Diesel]

Nope, take it out and flush it.
Test for ammonia and add bacteria.
Test every day at the same time for ammonia, nitrite.......... don't worry to much about Nitrate yet till your tank is low on ammonia.
It should take about 24/48 hours till it will drop.
If you did a Dr Tim one and oly treatment you would be cycled for livestock after 5 days and no smelly shrimp.

 

[malira]

Nope, take it out and flush it.
Test for ammonia and add bacteria.
Test every day at the same time for ammonia, nitrite.......... don't worry to much about Nitrate yet till your tank is low on ammonia.
It should take about 24/48 hours till it will drop.
If you did a Dr Tim one and oly treatment you would be cycled for livestock after 5 days and no smelly shrimp.

Amen.

 

[lou dog420]

I left mine in until it decentigraded

 

[cromag27]

Use 100% pure ammonia and dose to 4ppm.

 

[cromag27]

http://www.wikihow.com/Do-a-Fishless-Cycle

 

[Zoaeasy]

http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/fishless-cycling

 

[Lowstorm]

I ignored the smell and let it disintegrate all the way, even after adding bottled bacteria. But I do things backwards I'm told Lol.

 

[malira]

You do not need shrimp if you use Dr. Tim's or something similar. All you need is an ammonia source until you put fish in.
All this table shrimp, waiting weeks, is not necessary. Go to Dr. Tim's website and he explains it.

 

[glb]

I'd use pure ammonia and dr tim's. It's a lot cleaner and easier to control the amount of ammonia. Good luck!

 

[Mmbra]

Yeah this post is over 16 months old! Itook the shrimp out, dumped a bottle of dr tims, and the cycle finished quickly! Thanks for all the help fellow reefers

 

[malira]

Yeah this post is over 16 months old! Itook the shrimp out, dumped a bottle of dr tims, and the cycle finished quickly! Thanks for all the help fellow reefers

Sometimes old threads are revived because others come looking for just the question you asked.

Also other times we don't bother looking at the date.

 

[Lowstorm]

Lol I didn't look.