Can this be correct??!!!

[BlueDolphin]

I have a 60 gallon cube that has had liverock in it since 4/27, but the ammonia didn't start to go up until I added two dead shrimp in there on 5/4. On 5/6 my ammonia was 0.4 and my ites were 0.2 - on 5/8 my ammonia was 0.1 and my ites were 0.3

So, today I checked the chemistry again and ammonia, ates, and ites all read 0 - the pH was a little low however at 7.8

Can this be correct?? Is the cycle over??? That was an awfully short period of time! And I still see pieces of the dead shrimp in the tank - should I remove them?

 

[Brad]

Can this be right...

If your LR is mature enough, and has enough biologic filtration...then any/all ammonia produced by the rotting shimp is being quickly/immediately converted to nitrite by the LR bacteria. Same goes for the nitrite and even the nitrate.

So..yes it is possible. If the testing is reading zero levels, leave the shimp in there...they won't last for too long. Maybe add a hermit or two now...they'll polish of the remains of the shrimp.

Where did you get the LR? If it arrived to you very fresh and unharmed, it likely became effective very quickly.

Even so....give it a week of reading all zero on the tests...just to be sure.

 

[BlueDolphin]

I got my LR at my LFS and it had already been cured. -- I was just worried because I never saw the ates go up. I didn't test for them until today and they were 0.

 

[jackdp]

If your LR was cured and had good populations of nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria then the denitrifyers will take care of the nitrates. More often this takes place in the DSB...what is your substrate? Either way, I agree with Brad, leave the shrimp, watch the chemistry for a week or so and if all is well then you have one of those rare short/no cycle tanks. HTH

 

[BlueDolphin]

I have 60 lbs of caribbean aragonite for my substrate. Thanks for both of your help. I will keep an eye on the chemistry in the upcoming week.

Thanks again!

 

[Reefaddict]

I had 60 lbs of Live CaribSea aragonite for my substrate, and some cured LR when I started my tank, and it cycled in about a week and a half, and I didn't even use any shrimp! That was a 29gal.

 

[srgetz]

same thing I experienced when I started with well-cured lfs lr....it negates waiting 30 days for a bacterial population to grow, and I would imagine that lr.com lr would speed up the cycle also even though some die off would be expected...