Help cycling!

[Fird]

Why won't my tank start cycling? I bought live rock of a friend, well.... Maybe it was live. It had been out of water approximately 3 weeks. So I put it in my tank along with live sand and waited a week to see if I got an ammonia spike but it never came.so then I added a raw shrimp and I'm a week into it decaying and the levels are still the same. I just added a piece of live rock from my lfs today, is there something else I have to do to start the cycle?

 

[melosu58]

Cycle your salt tank

Here is our article on it. If it was out of the water for three weeks then it was not live. You can take care of curing the LR and cycling the tank. How long has it been since you added the shrimp?

 

[Fird]

The shrimp has been in the tank since monday, its already decaying.

 

[melosu58]

It`s still just barely enough time. You`ll start to see something soon.

 

[Fird]

Hopefully, I'm anxious to start.

 

[Fird]

thanks for the advice

 

[Fird]

Another question.... Throughout it cycling how am I supposed to run my tank? I just have the water pump circulating the water. Oh, also running a heater. What am I supposed to do in regards of light, I keep the light off at all times. As far as filtration, there is none. I have a media basket but haven't put anything in yet because I figured I would just wait for the cycle to end.

 

[hackteck]

yea leaving the lights off is a good idea and you can run filtration now if you want

 

[Fird]

How long did it take for your levels to rise when you used the shrimp to cycle hack?

 

[Henry405]

I started with a 36g tank with 36g of LR and cycled in about 2 weeks. Each tank is different, just check your levels to make sure your tank is actually cycled before trying to add anything.

 

[Fird]

I've had a jumbo shrimp decaying in my tank for 9 days already and have yet to see any ammonia. I had rock in it for about to weeks already but just added 4lbs of live on saturday.do you think I did something wrong?

 

[Henry405]

that doesn't sound right, I had ammonia by the 2nd day. What test kit are you using?

 

[Fird]

Im using the api master kit

 

[austinsdad]

What size tank we talking and describe the rock. If the rcok is established and cured, it may very well absorb the ammonia as it'll never show up.

Test for nitrite and nitrate and tell us what you get.

 

[Fird]

I'll test as soon as I get home. As for the rock... I first bought some rock that a friend had in his tank but the rocks had been out of water for 3 weeks so I'm sure there was nothing live about them. I just recently added 4lbs of live on saturday to see if it would help my tank out. I have a 29g.

 

[hackteck]

you should be seeing ammonia by now if the rock was uncured

 

[Fird]

I'm probably going to buy another test kit today to see if thats the problem

 

[Fird]

Here are my rocks, the shrimp thats been decaying for 10 days and the results that I'm getting. Does anyone have any input or suggestions as to what I should do next?

 

[Henry405]

hmm, that is really weird. You could try adding another shrimp.

 

[Fird]

Thats an idea, hack?