Cycle done in 1 week?

[RocketSeason]

One week ago today I placed 40 lbs of Live Rock in my tank and I put a raw shrimp in with it.

today the PH is 8.2,
amonia is 0
Nitrates are 0
Nitrites are 0

the SG is around 1.022
and the water is a perfect 80 degrees.

Is my Cycle really done in only one week? I still have about half of the shrimp in there. should I keep it in or take it out?

thanks!
-Matt

 

[RocketSeason]

I did have a brief and small amonia spike. The Highest it got was about 2.

 

[indy]

If it came from a lfs and was fully cured, then theres a good chance you won't see another spike. It would be a good idea to give it a little more time just to make sure tho'.

 

[RocketSeason]

It came from Liverocks.com.

And I was running carbon in my canister to help prevent to much dieoff on the rock.

 

[quarryshark]

I didn't get a spike from my rock from them either. I believe with the fast shipping, there is limited die off.
I would still give it another week and leave the shrimp.

 

[RocketSeason]

will do!

Now I just gotta decide what cleanup crew to order!

 

[steve-s]

amonia is 0
Nitrates are 0
Nitrites are 0

After only one week I would be leery. It is more than possible to cycle quickly and have the NH3 and NO2 read zero depending on the quality of the seeding material but no nitrates doesn't make much sense. If you had a NH3 spike, that would indicacte some die off which should result in some sort of organics leading to nitrate. NNR takes quite awhile to occur. I'm not saying it's impossible but I would proceed with caution.

Is my Cycle really done in only one week? I still have about half of the shrimp in there. should I keep it in or take it out?

How much has the shrimp decomposed? If a major portion of it is still there, I'd personally leave things be another week and see if the levels maintain themselves.

Cheers
Steve

 

[RocketSeason]

Yeah, I am going to leave things alone for another week at least. I checked all my tests twice and they all said the same thing.

weird.

I am still trying to decide what cleanup crew to get anyway. :|

 

[blorkiemom]

Can I add on here to ask if it's necessary to help the cycle with a shrimp, as RocketSeason did, when usuing rock from LR.com? Or will the tank cycle with just the rock (which is what I was hoping for)? (I'll be putting 120 lbs in a 75 gallon tank.)

 

[revhtree]

It will cycle with the LR, but will progress faster with the shrimp.

PS. You'll def. be good with jus the lr you have, that is a good amount.
I did 105pds in a 75g and cycled very quickly.

 

[RocketSeason]

I decided to go with the shrimp because I knew there would not be much dieoff on 40 lbs of LR from Liverocks.com

I think my "mistake" if you can call it that, was to use carbon during the cycling process. That probibly speeded things up quite a bit. I just hope i have enough benifical bacteria in there.

 

[blorkiemom]

That makes sense. I just cycled a QT with a minimum amount of live rock and even though I saw a complete cycle, it wasn't "strong" enough, I guess, because now with two percs in it (20 gallon) I'm seeing low (.25) ammonia levels. I sure don't want to put them through that again when I move them to the big tank, so I guess I'll go with the shrimp. Yuck. (I am doing daily changes in the QT, btw! Don't want anyone to think I'm torturing my little fishes.)

 

[RocketSeason]

I checked on it at lunch and it looks like I have the beginnings of an algea bloom. So I will wait till that is done and over with, and maybe then it will be ready.