Help cycling!

[hackteck]

for just a 29G that shrimp should have raised the ammonia some how long were you cycling before you put the shrimp in?

 

[Fird]

Maybe 2 weeks. I had the rocks in the tank a week before my test kit came in. the following week I added the shrimp.

 

[hackteck]

and your nitrites and nitrates are both 0?

 

[Fird]

Yup

 

[Fird]

You think my tank cycled already and I missed it?

 

[Henry405]

The best way to tell if a tank is cycled is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and some nitrate.

it might be possible for you to miss a cycle AND have 0 nitrate IF you have large amounts of algae to suck up the nitrate.

 

[Fird]

You think I should do a pwc and move forward with a cuc?

 

[Henry405]

I would add another shrimp to see some kind of rise in ammonia first.

 

[Fird]

Suppose I get no ammonia...then what?

 

[Henry405]

I highly doubt that you would see no ammonia, but if you want to be 100% sure, you can always does it with ammonia. If you have 0 ammonia/ nitrite after that, you're for sure cycled

 

[Fird]

What kind of shrimp did you use? I'm going to drop another one in the tank tomorrow and wait the weekend and if I see nothing then dose with ammonia on monday.

 

[hackteck]

i used just a regular raw shrimp from the supermarket

 

[Henry405]

Same here, I got lucky because my mom was planning to cook shrimp the same night I started my tank. When I took one and started walking up stairs, she asked me what I was doing and I said I was going to raise it in my tank. Her expression was priceless

 

[Fird]

Is it possible that my test kit has expired?

 

[Henry405]

Someone on another thread said that the production date is on the test bottles. Last for numbers represent MMYY

 

[Fird]

Thats funny my test kit says 0910

 

[Henry405]

I looked at my uncle's test kit when I was testing and everything was either 0111 or 0311. Yours is kinda old =P. I don't know how old it would have to be for it to give wrong results. I don't trust my LFS since they don't follow the booklet when they test.

 

[Fird]

I couldn't take it anymore, after the second shrimp and the second ammonia test kit I was getting the same results so I went out and got me some pure ammonia. Dosed the tank and now my level of ammonia is where I want it... 8.0

 

[hackteck]

did you test for nitrites

 

[Fird]

No, was I supposed to?