Tank Cycling Questions

[Sartori]

I have a 15 ga hex tank. I added roughly 30 lbs. of live rock from my LFS. I tested the water a week later and showed no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. So I added a raw shrimp to kick start things. Three days after adding the shrimp the shrimp has completely disappeared. There is still no ammonia registering and the nitrites is off the scale.

10 lbs. of the live rock was from a six year old tank(Tonga). The remaining 20 is of an unknown age(Fiji). None of the rock was out water for longer than 10 min.

Could I have missed the ammonia spike in three days?
Also any thoughts on what happened to the raw shrimp. I took apart the rock work to find it and it is definitely gone.

Thanks

 

[Guest]

The rock that you put in, sounds as if it was enough to handle, and have no cycle at all... This is very possible...The fact that the shrimp disappeared is a sign of bacteria and worms/pods eating it...It sounds as if you are good to go..However I would wait at least 1 to 2 weeks and test just to be sure....Patience is key here.

 

[Sartori]

Thank for the advice. I will be leaving for a vacation in Ca. in two days. I will test again when I return. So I won't be adding fish for a least a couple of weeks.

I have access to a proffesional certified laboratory and will be taking a water sample there to verify the water quality.

The shrimp thing still bothers me though. The shrimp had not really deteriorated much and then it just disappeared.

I don't want to be suplling food to a malignent hitchhiker.