Need Help... Worried

[Nybillygoat]

Its me again... its been about 4-days With 4 Large Un-cooked Shrimp, my tank is stinking up the house with rotten fish smell, is that normal? also My Ammonia level has only climb to 1.0 the first day and has not going up in the last three days, just checked my nitrites and their up around .50, are they suppose to go up at the same time? and isn't the ammonia level suppose to hit 8.0?

pevoiusly my tank had been sitting 2 days with live rock in it and all the levels were 0... with a slight incline of the Nitrates which i later found out was my tap water.... am i screwing up something here? do i need to rip the tank down and start over?

thanks

 

[Hara]

If you have a good bit of live rock in there, the ammonia level may not go sky high as the bacteria on the rock is taking care of it. The nitrites are going up so it sounds to me as if your cycle is progressing. Leave the shrimp in for a total of a week and then take it out if you want.

 

[roka64]

That seems like a lot of shrimp. I never cyclled my tank w/shrimp, only LS/LR so I am not sure about the smell.
Do you have any decorations in your tank?

 

[Nybillygoat]

no decorations.... so i may have to many shrimp in with my live rock huh? would that also cause the water to be cloudy???

 

[MACATUA]

The smell is normal to have that much shrimp in. How big is the tank? Either way, if your nitrites have started to go up that is a good sign, they subdue pretty quickly. After that you should see a decline to zero. Give it a couple of days to make sure you don't start again and you will be a-ok!

New tanks are so much fun.

 

[Nybillygoat]

Tank is 75 gallon, will i see any alegea growth in the tank? but shouldn't the ammonia level go down before the nitrites go up? thats what i'm worried about... both seem to be going up at same time....

thanks

 

[MACATUA]

calm down, your ok.....breathe deep.

We all get worried and think our tank is freaking out. Just be patient and let it do its thing. When everything is at 0, you are cool. You may wanna cut back some shrimp though.

Be there before you know it .

 

[roka64]

Are you running carbon in your filter? The cloudyness could be the PHs moving sand or if you just put in the sand, or simply particles in the water. Like MACATUA said, calm down and everything will be ok.
Keep us posted!

 

[Nybillygoat]

no carbon.... using a refugium, live rubble rock in place of bio balls, and live sand with sand from a friends fish tank, and marco's....

thanks

 

[roka64]

sand from a friends fish tank

Did your friend ever medicate that tank with copper? If so, you will have problems with inverts. Just a little FYI.

 

[MACATUA]

good catch

 

[Nybillygoat]

no he has a seperate tank that he keeps live rock in with sand...... in 210 gallon tank... he gets it cheap and then sells to friends and co-workers... not alot of pet stores were i live.....

thanks

 

[xkenneth]

I've heard that if you COMPLETELY replace the substrate the tank is fine for inverts. The copper only resides in the substrate and not on the glass/acrylic itself.

 

[seaham358]

NYbilly take things slow and it will all be good. cloudy water can be from ammonia. it is normal to see amm and nitrite so your doing well. It can take weeks to cycle the tank so just sit back and have a cold one and do some reading about keeping SW tanks.

where in NY??

 

[2revup]

I've heard that if you COMPLETELY replace the substrate the tank is fine for inverts. The copper only resides in the substrate and not on the glass/acrylic itself.

not completly true it can get stuck in the silicon (where all the joins are in the tank)

 

[FishFrik]

4 large shimps for a 75G! No wonder the smell lol. 1 shrimp is enuf to cycle that tank.

Anyway, it's all normal for a cylcing tank. No biggy

 

[Nybillygoat]

Well since from yesterday to today, my Nitrites went from a .50 to a 5.0 .... is it normal to jump that quick? but my Ammonia level is still 1.0.... should i remove some of the shrimp? or leave it be until the cycle is done? i guess 4 was to many lol....

thanks everyone....

 

[roka64]

I'd leave about two shrimp in there. One is probably good for a 55, depending on the size of the shrimp (which you say are large).

 

[FishFrik]

Yea leave 1 or 2. I'd say leave 1 since the others have decomposed alil already. It is normal for ur nitrite to go up that quick cuz u have 4! lol

 

[Nybillygoat]

well i took 2 shrimp out, also i noticed these star fish like things on my glass.... like a white dot with 5-6 arms coming off it... there real tiny... you have to put your face on the glass too see them... i have like 6 of them on the glass....


thanks