Take Out Cycled Shrimp?

[njphin]

I am cycling my 80 gallon tank with live rock, base rock and 2 pieces of raw shrimp. Now that my ammonia is at .50. Should I now take out the 2 pieces of shrimp? thanks

 

[neilanh]

If it were me I'd leave it in until the nitrite goes all the way back down to 0.

 

[nxb161]

I'm not sure how much it matters IMO. I cycled one tank and I left it in, the other one it totally dissolved to nothing (CUC helped with that of course)

 

[njphin]

When should I throw my cuc in? When my levels get down to 0?

 

[thincat]

Yes, when the levels are at 0. The main reason I would leave the shrimp in until nitrite went to 0 is to get as much bacteria growth as possible. Once you remove the shrimp, that's the max bio-load your tank will have as it will not have anymore ammonia added to the system. You want the max. until you add your animals and let the tank adjust from that point on.

 

[David S]

make sure you add a little food for the cuc as it's a new tank there won't be much in there,once your readings are 0 for amm and trite and trate do a good pwc then slowly add a fish per month