[pmnovak1]

So I'm working with my new 75g setup. I've purchased about 50lbs of LR which had been shipped from Fuji (it was still wet in the box when I got it). And I got another 35lbs of LR directly from a friends large tank so I'm assuming this was fully cured. I can see purple coraline over a large amount of the LR.

I also purchased about 80lbs of Agra-alive live sand in a bag which gives me about 1"-2" of sand bed and a DSB in my refugium.

I've had the tank running for about a 1.5 weeks and was getting very little signs of Ammonia from any type of LR die-off. I was reading about .5 PPM which some people told me could be inaccurate readings from my Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Master Test kit.

So I decided to jump start the process and added 3 uncooked raw shrimp. That was 3 days ago. The tank sure smells bad, but I'm still getting neglible Ammonia reading (.5 - 1 PPM) and 0 Nitrites and Nitrates.

I'm wondering how long does dead shrimp typically take to releast Ammonia. Going from the smell, I would have thought 2 days ago when they started to smell really bad.

Do you think my tank already has the bacteria from the LR and LS that I have in place? As I said, I wasn't sure if the initial 50lbs was fully cured or not.

What do you think? I don't want to rush, but I also don't want to have any Ammonia to continue to feed the bacertia thats already there.

Thanks in advance.

Paul

Paul

 

[HD Fatboy®]

1 1/2 weeks in my opinion would be a fast cycle...What shrimp did u put in?...like the kind from the grocery U eat???....Never heard of that....anyways....Your live rock should take longer than a week and a half to cook....like I said just my opinion...

 

[three90s&125sump]

Take the shrimp out and let the system cycle normally. You will have an abbreviated cycle time due to the use of mature LR from and established tank but your still gonna have a cycle with all that uncured LR in it. You must get a reading of ZERO PPM ammonia before it is cycled. You also need to have a measurment of ZERO PPM nitrite. You should have some reading of nitrates after the cycle is completed. Do a 10 to 20 percent water change every week. Measure ammonia, nitrite and nitrate evey 3 days or so. It should take a 6 weeks or so.

 

[Mr.Peanut]

Its possible you are only going to have a small cycle due to the LR from your friends tank. But, you still have 0 nitrates which means your added ammonia hasn't been converted fully. I would keep an eye on it for awhile longer.

If you really want to check, add some pure unscented ammonia to the tank. Then do an ammonia test record the reading and do a test the next day. See where its at.

 

[Jnicho]

I've setup tanks that had no visible cycle since the rock was all "fully cured"...that said if you have rock that was shipped damp you will have a fair amount of die off...I suspect the cured rock you have is processing the ammonia and keeping your test results low...I think I would pull the table shrimp and just let things run their course...keep testing regularly...once ammonia shows zero you should see a spike in nitrite...that should quickly go away and then you'll see a spike in nitrate...once that goes away you're ready to start adding livestock slowly...every tank is different so it's hard to give a timeline...just keep watching the test results.

 

[three90s&125sump]

He also used uncure LR that was in a box for 3 days. There's going to be a cycle, might be a little shorter than normal but not much. Even then there is still going to be a lot of stuff on the uncured LR that will still be poisonint the water. Best to wait the 6 weeks or more.

 

[lagrew]

answer. no you are not fully cycled yet, but getting there, i know it seems like it takes forever.

 

[pmnovak1]

There was a chance that the LR I got from Fiji was still Live when I got it. The LFS got it that morning so it had only been out of the ocean for a day. And it was stored in some water. That would mean 85lbs of true LR.

I'm using raw uncooked shrimp from the grocery store. This is a way to manually add more ammonia if you're not sure how much die-off you'll get from the LR. I'm just surprised I don't have higher readings after 3 days of being in there.

If all the LR and sand is fully live, wouldn't I be getting 0 PPM readings for all 3? Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates?

 

[three90s&125sump]

You don't need the shrimp. Keep it if you like but it is totally unnessessary. The rock will have die off on it even if it was out of water for 1 hour and put back into the same water. The salinity ussually goes up quite a bit in and on the rock during shipping then there is little to no acclimation for it when it is submerged again in water that is not much like the water it came out of to begin with. Give it some time don't rush it and be patient. It will all pay off in the long run.

 

[pmnovak1]

I must not have been clear in my post. The rock I got from Fiji was LR out of the ocean. It had been removed and shipped the day before so it had only been out for 1 day. It was still wet when I got it.

I would assume that there would be some die-off in it still though. Not sure how much bacteria would still be alive after 1-2 days.

 

[Mr.Peanut]

If all the LR and sand is fully live, wouldn't I be getting 0 PPM readings for all 3? Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates?

No. If you are cycled, you will have NITRATES. Any ammonia will get converted to nitrites then that will be converted to nitrates. Nitrates need to removed manually.

 

[pmnovak1]

Thats kinda what I figured but was just confused with my current readings. I think I'm going to keep the shrimp in cuz I just don't see a high enough ammonia reading to build up a good bacteria base.

Thanks for yorr replies.

 

[pmnovak1]

Is that true? I thought that there was some bacteria that took care of nitrates as well. I thought it was excess Nitrates that needed to be removed via water changes

 

[mscottring]

If you're done with that shrimp I'm making up a batch of ceviche.

 

[pmnovak1]

LOL. The way my basement smells, I dont think you'd go near them with a 12ft pole.

 

[three90s&125sump]

There are some that process nitrates to nitrogen gas. They use it instead of O2 to fix sugers for food. They only exsist in very low O2 zones. They grow very slow compared to aerobic bacteria and do not process as much nitrates as aerobic bacteria can create.

The higher your ammonia concentraions are the more die off you will have on your LR. You don't want more ammonia you really just want to process what you have to. The point of cycling your tank is to get it to equalibrium with nutrients and bacteria so that when you do add fish or corals there is nothing else in the system that needs to be processed so the bacteria can grow to equalibrium again to match the new higher bioload with minimal impact on you animals.

 

[pmnovak1]

Sounds like good advice. Always good to strive for balance. Since I already have a bunch of LR, I dont want to kill whats already in there.

 

[harlequin29]

sounds like your getting ahead of yourself. Live rock out even 30 minutes will have some die off. be patient and you will be fine. keep asking questions and you will learn a lot from TRT. =]

 

[IxLr8]

This hobby is a testament to patience. Given time, for what ever long it takes to stabilize will only yield a better running tank. In my opinon, don't force your cycle, when you do that, you introduce negative variables into the equation like unwanted cyano etc. The live rock that you placed in the tank will catch up in its own time. Mother nature doesn't like to be rushed.