Parameters

[kirkleigh84]

I put rock, sand and saltwater in the tank on 8/30. Put 13 lbs of live rock in on 9/1. I have a total of 113 lbs of rock and 90 lbs of sand. How long does it take to see ammonia. The test shows 0 ppm on amm, nitrate and nitrite. Temp is 77 and salinity is 1.025. Ive been running my skimmer while cycling and also put a couple shrimp in the same day i put the rock in.

 

[xmjxflipx]

if your shrimp hasnt died....i think your tank is cycled........shrimps are sensitive to ammonia and nitrite........so if they are alive.....thats a good thing.......other members will put their input but thats my opinion

 

[Eggs]

Did you put in raw shrimp to start the cycle?
Was the rock "live" to begin with?

 

[kirkleigh84]

100 lbs of rock was dry and 13 lbs was live. I put the 2 raw whrimp in and still havnt seen any ammonia.

 

[bluebeltreefer]

when you put the raw shrimp in, did you leave it or if not, how long did you put the shrimp in for?

i would think that you would have atleast some kind of cycle.

 

[Eggs]

I would also think there should be some cycle with that much dry rock. It should help speed things up by using some live rock with it.

 

[JR's Reef]

Today is week 2 of my cycle the ammonia is back down to 0 but my nitrates are way up so check everything not just ammonia.

 

[ZoaFan08]

Someone suggested I pee in my tank to get the cycles going once..... I didn't use his advice.

 

[stunreefer Verified Sponsor]

The Ammonia will spike, just wait... once it does continue to test and you will see Nitrite rise, then Ammonia and Nitrite will start to fall. Once you see Nitrate present, and Nitrite and Ammonia are 0, you're ready. All tanks are different, some will be a week, some will be months. I'd recommend pulling the shrimp out if you put it live rock - the shrimp method will produce Ammonia, but it's not necessary and will start you out one step back IMHO. If you want to seed the tank use a bottled bacteria such as Prodibio.

FWIW, peeing in tanks isn't that far fetched. Back in the day prior to having different forms of bottled Ammonia redaily available Tridacna clam farmers would pee in tanks and it excelled growth like no other ;) Not kidding...