Questions about my cycling progress

[Henry405]

Hello, This may seem a little early since my tank only has been cycling since Wednesday but I already have a high nitrate level

pH: 7.8~8.0
Ammonia: 1.0
Nitrate: .25
Nitrate: 20~40

There has been 2 raw shrimps in there for the past 36 hours, but I've taken them out because they were getting really decomposed.

Could I have caused my tank to have it's ammonia spike, but due to leaving the shrimps in there, it kept releasing a constant level of ammonia and thus ending up with so much nitrate?

Other information:

Wednesday: added 12lbs of LR and 20lbs of live sand + 30 gallons of SW
Thursday: added another 24lbs of LR and 20lbs of live sand + 2 raw shrimps

I have a 2 HOB filters: aqueon quietflow 20 and penguin 200 each pushing 200GPH. the aqueon doesn't have a biowheel, but has a "Bio-Holster"

 

[sdergar]

I think your tank will keep cycling if you keep adding LR less so if it's cured but still a bit of a cycle. As for the shrimp I left the three I had for four weeks 'till you couldn't even tell what it was. Barely anything left.

 

[hackteck]

I think your tank will keep cycling if you keep adding LR less so if it's cured but still a bit of a cycle. As for the shrimp I left the three I had for four weeks 'till you couldn't even tell what it was. Barely anything left.

I do the same when I cycle just leave them in

 

[Henry405]

Ok, I'll do that then, the high level of nitrate concerned me haha

 

[Smitty]

If your ammonia is only at 1 right now I would say you still have some room to move. I would possibly add another new shrimp to the mix. You would want the amm to get around 4-5 ppm to keep the cycle going.

Once you are at zero, add something (like flake food or other) and test the next day. If Amm and nitrate are zero after that then you should be good.

Adding the live rock most likely is really speeding the process up!

 

[sdergar]

I didn't worry about pwc's until all levels were 0 except nitrates. Also keep the lights off during the cycle.

Steve